Editor's Take: May 21, 2008
Biking in Stanley Park
BC's Smart Growth Slips; Green Patriotism
Could Vancouver, BC's smart-growth leadership be slipping? That's what a new Sightline analysis suggests. Also, California's teen birthrate increases for the first time in 15 years, and green may be "the new patriotism." Plus, if you like sorting your news by topic or region, try out Sightline Daily's varied rss feeds.
Editor's Top Picks
Your editor today is Elisa Murray | View All Today's News
California Sees Costly Increase in Teen Birthrate
San Francisco Chronicle
05/21/2008
The teenage birthrate in California increased in 2006 for the first time in 15 years and costs taxpayers $1.7 billion a year - or $2,493 per baby, according to a report released Wednesday by the Oakland-based Public Health Institute.
Go to article.
Vancouver, B.C.'s 'Compact Growth' Slows
Vancouver Sun
05/21/2008
Greater Vancouver failed to curb population sprawl in recent years after some success in creating more compact communities in the '90s, a new report shows.
The share of new urban and suburban growth that went into pedestrian-oriented development in Metro Vancouver declined from 2001 through 2006, according to the Sightline Institute.
Go to article.
Views: 'Green is the New Patriotism'
Seattle Times
05/21/2008
"Green is the new patriotism," says Brendan Woodward, a Seattle-area Christian greenie. America's energy crisis is its economic crisis and its global security crisis. Using government and free markets to solve that is the great challenge that could reunite us all.
Go to article.
Obama's One Big Win Closer
Oregonian
05/21/2008
Oregon voters handed Sen. Barack Obama a decisive victory Tuesday in the Democratic presidential race, a win he said "put us within reach" of the nomination. But Sen. Hillary Clinton won even bigger in Kentucky and renewed her vow to stay in the hunt.
Go to article.
Consumers Cut Driving But Not Diets
KPLU
05/21/2008
As prices at gasoline pumps and grocery stores rise U.S. consumers say they are driving less but they can't cut down on eating, a new poll found.
Go to article.
Non-Food Biofuel Crops Have Own Risks
New York Times
05/21/2008
In the past year, as the diversion of food crops like corn and palm to make biofuels has helped to drive up food prices, investors and politicians have begun promoting newer, so-called second-generation biofuels as the next wave of green energy. These, made from non-food crops like reeds and wild grasses, would offer fuel without the risk of taking food off the table, they said.
Go to article.
BC's Living Wage Climbs
Victoria Times Colonist
05/21/2008
This year's living wage for a family with two children has been calculated at $16.39 per hour, through research done for the local Quality of Life Challenge. Last year, that figure was just under $15.
Go to article.
Views: Feed the Working Poor
Astoria Daily Astorian
05/21/2008
we who can must dig a little deeper and contribute to food banks, while lobbying our Congress to beef up food programs for the working poor.
It is a tragedy and a travesty for anyone to go hungry in America.
Go to article.
B.C. Cattle Industry Hurt by Climate Change
Vancouver Sun
05/21/2008
The woes of the B.C. cattle industry can be summed up in two words: climate change. The shopping list of related impacts is a long one. Droughty grasslands. Sage and shrub encroachment. Pine encroachment. Pine beetle. Reforestation. Carbon tax. Biofuels. Spiralling feed grain prices.
Go to article.
End of an Era for Montana Historic Mill
Missoulian
05/21/2008
For some families, more than four generations have worked at the 122-year-old Bonner mill. Names, scrawled over the decades on several beams inside a stone building, chronicle their toil.
From the first logs in 1886 to Tuesday's last cuts of white fir, the mill has provided steady paychecks to the timber workers. Now, the Bonner Mill's legacy ends.
Go to article.
