Editor's Take: March 03, 2008
Zillow snapshot
Affordability, Jobs, and the Northwest
Affordability is a hot topic. The Seattle Times offers one perspective in a long editorial. Last week, Sightline's Eric de Place debated affordability and growth management on a Seattle TV show. The New York Times and the Globe and Mail also cover the economic downturn -- and who it's affecting most.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Kristin Kolb | View All Today's News
Seattle: For Richer or Poorer
Seattle Times
03/03/2008
For the working middle class, people who traditionally lived comfortably in Seattle, the firefighters, police officers, teachers, even professors, it has become harder to buy a home and raise a family.
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Oregon's parkland grows
Oregonian
03/03/2008
In an era in which government budgets seem increasingly tight and most agencies are looking for areas to trim, the 100,000-acre state parks system is flourishing.
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Blood lead levels in Alaska raise concern
Anchorage Daily News
03/03/2008
Roughly one in 10 Alaska workers tested for lead in their blood in recent years -- mostly because they worked around it -- had an amount that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention considers unhealthy.
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Booming growth raises idea of dams
Seattle Times
03/03/2008
A booming population and growing fears about climate change have governments once again studying dams, this time to create huge reservoirs to capture more winter rain and spring snowmelt for use in dry summer months. New dams are being studied in Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada and other states, even as dams are being torn down across the country over environmental concerns — worries that will likely pose big obstacles to new dams.
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Gas players gear up for B.C. rush
Toronto Globe and Mail
03/03/2008
The remote and rugged northern fringe of British Columbia is set for a frantic land grab by natural gas explorers, following months of speculation and intensified by last week's announcement of what could rank among the largest gas discoveries in Canadian history.
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Court holds Navy to rules safeguarding marine mammals
Los Angeles Times
03/03/2008
A federal appeals court has rejected the Bush administration effort to exempt Navy sonar training from key environmental laws, backing up a lower court that imposed extensive safeguards to protect whales and dolphins from harmful sonic blasts.
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Vancouver's EcoDensity concept gets public’s attention
Vancouver Sun
03/03/2008
EcoDensity has emerged as the surprise hot-policy topic of Vancouver, with a second week of public meetings kicking off today to accommodate the 160-plus people who want to speak to council to support it or oppose it.
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Congress wants rich schools like UW to give students a break
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/03/2008
Congress is inspecting the spending habits of wealthy universities across the country, and the University of Washington is on its watch list. The UW is one of 76 universities that reported endowments totaling more than $1 billion in 2007, a trend some members of Congress have labeled disturbing in the face of constant tuition increase.
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Is a Lean Economy Turning Mean?
New York Times
03/03/2008
It’s getting tougher — particularly for those at the lower rungs of the economic ladder, and especially for African-Americans. As the economy slows and perhaps slides deeper into a recession that may already be under way, communities like Oakland, California — cities that have long struggled with a shortage of jobs — see work becoming scarcer still.
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B.C.'s boom doesn't echo in the outskirts
Toronto Globe and Mail
03/03/2008
The construction frenzy, hiring binge in the lower mainland contrasts with a resource-based body blow in rural areas.
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