Stephanie Land's career as a writer had to take a back seat to motherhood. With a baby, no partner, and no money, Stephanie turned to cleaning houses for her income. She learned a lot... not just about the work of cleaning, but about the attitudes of the people who pay for the service. It turned her thoughts about people in the upper-middle class around. We hear how in her book, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive . Barbara Ehrenreich, of Nickel and Dimed fame, wrote a

Housing is in tight supply over much of Oregon, including east of the Cascades. Case in point: Klamath Falls , which reports a continued housing crunch as people move into the Basin. City Planning Manager Joe Wall is keeping an eye on the situation along with other city leaders, as is Julie Matthews at KCEDA, Klamath County Economic Development Association .

"I've had it with this job, I'm out of here." Whether you ever actually said that phrase or not, you probably thought it. So do the main characters in the movie "Phoenix, Oregon," by Rogue Valley filmmakers Anne and Gary Lundgren. The Lundgrens have already made several feature films in the region, and this one--about reinvention in midlife (with bowling)--is set to screen at the upcoming Ashland Independent Film Festival.

It started out looking like a simple case of food poisoning. But it turned out to be an infection from a dangerous antibiotic resistant bacteria. Fortunately, the patient's husband is an epidemiologist, Steffanie Strathdee. Her efforts to cure Thomas Patterson turned to a virus that could kill the bacteria, the title character in the book The Perfect Predator: A Scientist's Race to Save Her Husband from a Deadly Superbug . Phage treatment was a more common approach before antibiotics.

You can quibble about the terms: nationalism, white nationalism, or racism. But its proponents favor an America where white people remain front and center, in positions of power and influence. And there is, not surprisingly, a response. It includes a speaker and film series about confronting white nationalism, presented in the Eugene area by Community Alliance of Lane County and Showing Up For Racial Justice (SURJ) of Springfield-Eugene.

Was that rattle there before? A common question for a vehicle owner, one that may lead to a repair job. Our vehicles are nicer to us than ever; they tell repair technicians, through computer codes, what's wrong with them. But they don't quite fix themselves, and that's where Zach Edwards and mechanics like him come in. Zach owns Ashland Automotive and visits once a month for a car-care segment we call The Squeaky Wheel. We invite you to call and email with stories of car mishaps and fixups.

The budget leaders in the Oregon legislature made it clear that the plan they released a few weeks ago is only a framework, with lots of opportunity for adjustment. Which provides some relief to state university students, but not much. Because if the budget is passed as written, the students face potential double-digit tuition increases again. Southern Oregon University President Linda Schott and members of the student Tuition Advisory Council want to avoid the steep hike. At this point in the

Nothing like a guy dead for 400 years to stir up a little controversy. But then, William Shakespeare is no ordinary dead guy. And he may not be William Shakespeare. The aptly named Controversy Films recently released "Nothing is Truer Than Truth," which runs with the claim that "Shakespeare" was really Edward de Vere, who hid his true identity because of his bisexuality.

It hasn't even been a real word for long: "financialization." But it explains a lot about the workings of our economy for a while now, the way in which real assets are turned into paper to be traded (think collateralized debt obligations). And the extreme focus on the bottom line often hurts workers, contributing to a widening gap between rich and poor. Rana Foroohar explained all this in her book Makers and Takers: The Rise of Finance and the Fall of American Business . Foroohar, now at CNN and

Spring ahead, fall back; lose an hour, gain an hour. Complaints about our bi-annual changing of clocks to accomodate Daylight Saving Time are on the increase. And a measure to lock Oregon into one time scheme is on the table in the state legislature. Senator Kim Thatcher of Keizer proposed a public vote on staying with Daylight Saving Time. The public vote portion came off in a committee amendment, but the bill is on the way to the full Senate.