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San Francisco's health care a model
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
11/20/2009
San Francisco did not wait for Washington's health care overhaul. Most uninsured adults here are already reaping the benefits of a government-run health care program -- seeing doctors, filling prescriptions, and getting surgeries they could not otherwise afford.
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Oregon tree farmers invest in the majestic redwood
Ashland Daily Tidings
11/19/2009
Oregon tree farmers are planting at least 20,000 coastal redwood trees a year in Lane and Douglas counties. They're driven less the awe the big trees inspire in many people, than by the best return on their investment in 30 or 40 years, when the trees are harvested.
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Biologists rush to save fish after landslide
Seattle Times
11/20/2009
A gigantic landslide that buried a highway, uprooted homes and rerouted a river in Washington state's Cascade Range left hundreds of smaller victims: fish. Fisheries biologists from 10 government agencies and private groups are working shifts to try to save the salmon and trout.
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'Under-insured' growing as fast as uninsured
KPLU
11/19/2009
The trend of people no longer being able to afford health insurance has been getting worse, Washington officials say. A new state study predicts the number of people here without insurance will hit 1 million by the end of 2011.
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US companies making carbon cuts
San Francisco Chronicle
11/19/2009
A survey of 90 big US companies found that most were addressing climate change, either by cutting energy use, measuring greenhouse gas emissions, adopting policies to cut emissions, or pushing for federal legislation to do the same.
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Forests fight climate change on two fronts
Oregon Public Broadcasting
11/19/2009
And at a hearing on Capitol Hill, forest officials and lawmakers discussed ways that federal forestland could help combat climate change on at least two fronts.
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Views: US health-reform foes on wrong side of history
Seattle Times
11/19/2009
Why is it broadly accepted that elderly Americans should have universal health care, while it's immensely controversial to seek universal coverage for children? What's the difference, asks Nicholas Kristof, except that health care for children is far cheaper?
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Wage confusion delays weatherization program
Olympian
11/19/2009
Washington's home-weatherization efforts have fallen at least two months behind goals set under the federal stimulus aid, the result of a mix-up over conflicting wage requirements under federal and state laws.
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Oregon wolves again star in video -- with pups
Oregonian
11/20/2009
They walk in single file -- black- and gray-coated wolves gliding through a snowy open forest in eastern Oregon. The remarkable video, captured last week by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, is further evidence that wolves are re-establishing themselves here.
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RV park tenants face eviction from affordable housing
Oregonian
11/19/2009
A pastoral campground on the banks of the Columbia River has for decades provided about 60 low-income residents with a clean, cheap, and safe place to live in an Oregon county with a dearth of decent affordable housing. But regulators say it's operating illegally and the long-term tenants must go.
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Bottled water sucks
The Nation
11/19/2009
With style, verve and righteous anger, a new documentary exposes the bottled water industry's role in suckering the public, harming our health, accelerating climate change, and contributing to overall pollution.
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Questions arise over Obama's salmon plan
Oregonian
11/19/2009
On Monday comes the latest in the long-running court battle over the government's plan to run its hydroelectric dams without pushing Columbia Basin salmon closer to extinction.
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Possible park at Fernhill Wetlands
Oregonian
11/19/2009
Wetlands near a Forest Grove sewage treatment could be turned into a park, a plan that delights area birdwatchers, but there's no money budgeted for the effort in the city west of Portland.
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Views: Sliding backward on climate change
Oregonian
11/19/2009
Portland may be at the edge of the continent, but in so many ways it's right at the center of Al Gore's green thinking.
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Low-income housing reimagined
Real Change
11/19/2009
The Seattle Housing Authority unveiled a plan last week to remake Yesler Terrace's 561 units of public housing into a mixed-use area of office, housing, and retail with buildings up to 22 stories high.
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Health bill hopes to sway reluctant Democrats
NPR
11/19/2009
The Senate needs 60 votes to bring its health care bill to the floor. To round up those votes, the bill unveiled Wednesday costs less than the House version, and delays the effective date for many provisions to 2014.
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Toward Copenhagen
The Nation
11/19/2009
As we approach the Copenhagen UN Climate Change Conference, December 7 to 18--the world's last chance to secure an emissions reductions agreement that will replace the Kyoto Protocol before it expires--activists racing against a ticking environmental bomb are channeling their energies at the UN talks and beyond. Join them.
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Give in on same-sex benefits, judge orders feds
San Francisco Chronicle
11/19/2009
The chief federal appeals court judge in San Francisco bluntly ordered the Obama administration Thursday to stop resisting his finding that the wife of a lesbian court employee was entitled to government insurance coverage.
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Nations unveil plans to rein in emission
New York Times
11/19/2009
With less than three weeks remaining before negotiators gather in Copenhagen to hammer out a global response to climate change, a rapid-fire succession of countries are unveiling national plans that serve as opening bids for reining in heat-trapping emissions.
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Pelosi: Abortion issue won't sink health care bill
NPR
11/19/2009
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday predicted that she can corral enough moderate Democrats to guarantee passage of health care overhaul legislation -- even if it doesn't contain a controversial House proposal that would expand abortion limits.
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Free clinics tied to health-care debate
Seattle Times
11/20/2009
A nonprofit group's campaign to hold free medical clinics for the uninsured in three states is turning into a not-so-subtle jab at moderate Democrats to support their party's efforts to reform health care.
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Waste Not Baskets ready for Winter Olympics
Vancouver Sun
11/20/2009
Rooms in the Vancouver and Whistler athletes' villages will feature recycling containers -- called Waste Not Baskets -- made from recycled plastic.
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State gets grant to study green jobs
Salem Statesman Journal
11/20/2009
The state of Oregon has received a $1.25 million grant from the federal government to study green jobs.
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Reid pushes for votes on US health-care bill
Washington Post
11/20/2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid worked Thursday to nail down the votes needed to move to a final debate on health-care legislation, but a tepid assessment of the public insurance plan he crafted emerged as the latest potential obstacle to the passage of the far-reaching changes.
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'Cash for Caulkers' home weatherization program
New York Times
11/18/2009
The economy still needs help. So White House officials are looking at creating a new version of cash for clunkers -- this time for home weatherization. Call it "cash for caulkers."
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