Editor's Take: April 14, 2008
Credit: Kire/Flickr
Compassion With a Side of Green
Can compassion translate to action? The Dalai Lama's Seattle visit provided a forum for this question, while the Green Festival shone a light on the many meanings of "green"--from hemp butter to solar power. Also: The local food economy takes a wild ride and citizen scientists help out in Montana.
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Your editor today is Elisa Murray | View All Today's News
Compassion--and action?
Seattle Times
04/14/2008
On the Dalai Lama's second of five days of public appearances in Seattle, the emphasis was on putting compassion into actions -- large or small.
And from the Tibetan Buddhist leader's speech, to the dozens of organizations in a resource fair, to the people who attended, there were many examples of the varying forms such action could take.
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Global warming has a new battleground: coal plants
Los Angeles Times
04/14/2008
Opponents might frame the battle as a matter of zoning or water use, but the larger war is over global warming: Coal puts twice as much temperature-raising carbon dioxide into the atmosphere as natural gas, second to coal as the most common power plant fuel.
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Wheat market on a wild ride
Yakima Herald-Republic
04/14/2008
Worldwide supply and demand for wheat, a staple of the human diet since the days of Abraham, is taking the local food economy on a wild ride.
"We're looking at something that has never been seen before," says Keith Burkhart, a fourth-generation wheat farmer south of Prosser. "It shoots up like a rocket and it freefalls. This is unnatural."
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Citizen Scientists Help with Montana Osprey Study
Missoulian
04/14/2008
The secrets to human health in western Montana could possibly be found by studying osprey, those handsome fish hunters commonly seen along our rivers and lakes - but about whom scientists know little.
To better understand these bold birds that like living among humans and nest atop power poles, a team of University of Montana biologists is turning to "citizen scientists" for help, UM professor Erick Greene said Sunday.
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Green transportation is key in Oregon
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
04/14/2008
Gov. Ted Kulongoski promised Friday an aggressive push to address problems of transportation, greenhouse gases and climate change, saying that the goals are not exclusive and that Oregon is capable of handling all of them.
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Congestion pricing in California is a tough sell
Los Angeles Times
04/14/2008
Some drivers who could benefit from a shorter commute aren't convinced that turning carpool lanes into toll lanes on parts of the 10, 210 and 110 freeways would do the trick.
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New Minimum Wage Affects Few Idaho Workers
Boise Idaho Statesman
04/14/2008
Nearly 20,000 Idahoans will get a raise Tuesday when the minimum wage rises to $5.85 an hour, up from $5.15.
According to the Idaho Department of Labor, the workers represent just 3.2 percent of all Idaho nonfarm jobs. A quarter of those workers are employed in the food-preparation and restaurant industries.
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Montana-grown camelina could solve more than energy problems
Missoulian
04/14/2008
David Sands is ready for an agricultural revolution. He has a crop so diverse you can wash your face with it, spread it on bread and eat it, heat your house with it, feed cows with it, turn it into plastic, even fuel your truck with it.
The only thing it won't do - this crop that Sands, a Montana State University scientist, is so excited about - is plant itself.
At MSU, researchers keep creating new ways to use camelina, an Iron Age crop with great potential that somehow fell through the cracks of agriculture evolution.
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Commentary: Are these deformed birds the canaries in our mine shaft?
Vancouver Sun
04/14/2008
Observers in Alaska have noticed startling increases in beak deformities among local birds, in particular the frisky black-capped chickadees familiar to most Lower Mainland householders. Since 1999 scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey's Alaska Science Centre identified nearly 1,500 deformed chickadees, "the highest concentration of such abnormalities ever recorded in a wild bird population anywhere."
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Advocate: Immigrants Help the US
Salem Statesman Journal
04/14/2008
When she's not busy defending and advancing immigrant rights at the local or state level, Aeryca Steinbauer can be found at the nation's capital, giving an earful to politicians about how immigrants, even illegal ones, make the country stronger.
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