People may sit atop the food chain on Earth, but they can certainly learn things from the other animals. The Kerulos Center in Southern Oregon is all about respecting animals and their rights. Center director Gay Bradshaw has some ideas about how animals think; she presents her thoughts in a talk at Southern Oregon University.

Josephine County voters have a chance to make the public libraries truly public once again in the May 16th election. Hard budget times for the county forced it to close the libraries as public entities years ago... they've operated since then with a non-profit organization doing the work. The May ballot includes measure 17-79, to form a library district as Jackson County did several years ago, with a property tax rate to support it. Voters will also decide on candidates for the library district

You have to be a VERY good poet for your work to still be revered hundreds of years after you die. Even Shakespeare's work has not been esteemed as long as the work of the Persian poet generally known as Rumi. He died in the 13th century, but his work is still held in high regard today. In fact, several days of Rumi events are planned for this week in the Ashland area. Andrew Harvey will participate, reading and exploring the poet's work.

Think of TEK as a combination of the very old and the very new. It's an acronym for Traditional Ecological Knowledge, like the knowledge of land management gained by indigenous people over thousands of years. TEK practices are still very much valid today, including in fire management. Margo Robbins is a member of the Cultural Fire Management Council of the Yurok Tribe, and she joins other fire managers at this week's Klamath Fire Ecology Symposium .

Norma Paulus was a key figure in Oregon politics in the 70s and 80s, and ran for governor in 1986. She missed there, but she was Oregon's first female secretary of state and later served as state school superintendent. Her years in the limelight are told in her book The Only Woman in the Room: The Norma Paulus Story .

It's a story you've probably heard a few times: the immigrant to the United States who earned a doctoral degree back home but works as a cab driver here. It is not just anecdotal. Immigrants can struggle to find jobs commensurate with their knowledge and skills. Deepak Singh had an MBA, fluency in English, and experience working with the BBC. His first American job: clerk at an electronics store in a mall. He tells the story and the larger context in his book: How May I Help You? - An Immigrant

It's possible that half of the people in California who need mental health treatment do not get it. And money is not the only issue; social stigma also keeps people from getting mental health care. Those are just some of the findings of a white paper from the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists . And the younger you are, the more acute the situation: the same paper figures two-thirds of adolescents who need treatment don't get it.

The term "streamside buffers" sounds innocuous enough, but it's a subject of some tension in Oregon. The Oregon Department of Forestry proposes new rules for the buffers in part of the state... meaning logging on private lands by certain streams will have to leave more land untouched to preserve water quality. Wider buffers means fewer trees cut, so there's some resistance from the Oregon Small Woodlands Association and other timber groups.

It was no quick path to statehood for Oregon, and the years leading up to the territory becoming a state in 1859 were frequently turbulent. A group of young men allied with the Democratic Party were behind some of the turbulence, and they were accused of everything from supporting slavery to seeking to establish a Mormon republic. These men get a modern-day examination in Barbara Mahoney's book The Salem Clique: Oregon's Founding Brothers .

Maybe the recent hot spell snuck up on you. Did you turn on the car air conditioner, only to find it blowing warm air on you? 'Tis the season to find out if your vehicle is ready to keep you cool on longer drives. We focus on air conditioning maintenance in "The Squeaky Wheel," our monthly visit with Zach Edwards of Ashland Automotive .