FEMA is the federal agency we hear about in disasters, but it has a role in preventing disasters, too. FEMA sets out rules for development in and near flood-prone areas. And its identification of areas off-limits to development is drawing resistance in Oregon. The City of Coos Bay filed suit against FEMA.

The Chicago Cubs won the baseball World Series just a year ago, and delighted fans who'd waited all their lives for a championship. Fast-forward a year, and fans are back to disappointment: the Cubs didn't make it to the Series. None of this should surprise Ashland's Mark Scarpaci, who has learned to ride the ups and downs of Cub fandom. Scarpaci is the author of two books, including the novel Wrigley Sanders , about a boy born in the bleachers at the Cubs' home park. It's not a typical sports

The fires in the Northern California wine country are just the latest example of the dangers of houses set close in to areas with a lot of vegetation, like forests. It's a concern of any residential area at the edge of the forest, and that includes the entire city of Ashland. The city fire department long ago adopted the Firewise campaign to help people take steps to defend against the possibility of wildfire.

When you think about all the times our parents told us to stop reading comic books, it's amazing comics survived. But survive they did, and now they are central to American culture... at least in the movies and TV. Have you SEEN how many movies and TV shows feature characters who first appeared in the comics? Mike Madrid is a comic lover and documenter, with several books on costumed heroines, including The Supergirls. He comes to Ashland for the Lit Fest on Saturday at the SOU library, and

The list of dams now removed from the Rogue River and its tributaries is getting longer: Gold Ray, Savage Rapids, Bear Creek, Wimer... and that's just a start. It didn't happen overnight, and it didn't happen without resistance. The major point: giving fish a chance to get upstream to spawn once again. The Rogue River Watershed Council plays a part in recent and planned dam removals.

Andre Dubus III worked a lot of jobs, from office cleaner to teacher to private investigator. He seems most at home writing, and a large audience appreciates his work. Dubus's House of Sand and Fog was an Oprah Book Club selection and was made into a movie. And there's been plenty of writing since that work. Chautauqua Poets & Writers brings the author to town for a session in Ashland (Monday, October 23rd).

There's never a dull moment in the media world these days, especially since anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can get a message to the entire (wired) world. How DOES someone break through the clutter and reach an audience? That is one of the questions always in the background as we discuss events in media with Andrew Gay and Chris Lucas of the Communications faculty at Southern Oregon University. It's a segment we call "Signals & Noise."

Everything from classical poetry to comic books will be discussed and celebrated at the Ashland Literary Arts Festival . It takes over the Hannon Library at Southern Oregon University on Saturday (October 28) from 10 to 4. Did we mention film? The renamed festival, now in its 6th year, celebrates independent story and thought in all of its forms.

American children born the year the Rolling Stones first recorded music got their invitations to join AARP this year. Somehow, the band keeps going, after more than half a century. But its composition has certainly changed over time, and in one case, tragically. Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Brian Jones died young in 1969, but he left a distinctive stamp on the early group. Paul Trynka wrote a book about him, Brian Jones: The Making of the Rolling Stones , and joined us in 2014.

A "home rule" charter group in Douglas County proposes a shakeup in the county's structure. If voters approve the change, the three-person board of paid commissioners would be replaced by a five-person board of volunteer county commissioners elected from specific electoral districts. It would potentially save the county money (in salaries), and bring the commissioners closer (physically, anyway) to the voters. Former commissioner Doug Robertson is opposed to the plan.