Editor's Take: January 28, 2009
Credit: OregonDOT, Flickr.
Oregon's Green Legacy
If a governor could leave a political legacy behind, what would it be? For Oregon's Gov. Kulongoski, it's the role of green-energy and green-job maverick. The Oregonian writes, "In the midst of Oregon's worst economy in decades, [Kulongoski is] pushing to make sure [historians will] write about windmills, solar panels, electric cars, and buoys turning ocean waves into energy."
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Kulongoski Hopes History Will Color His Legacy Green
Oregonian
01/29/2009
As Oregon's Gov. Kulongoski enters his last regular legislative session, it's not whether he'll be remembered, but how.
Despite the fiscal pummeling the state is taking, he says, he promises to be the governor who puts Oregon on the front lines of what he firmly believes will be the next economic revolution: green energy.
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Solar Panel Installations in California Warmed Up '08
Los Angeles Times
01/29/2009
Despite a credit freeze that's stunting renewable-energy projects throughout the country, 2008 was a hot year for solar power in California.
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Increasingly, Coos Bay Youth Live in Poverty
Coos Bay World
01/28/2009
A new report from Children First for Oregon suggests more children in Coos and Curry counties are living in poverty and have limited access to health care. And it's only going to get worse.
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All Aboard! Baker City, Others Want Amtrak Back
Oregon Public Broadcasting
01/28/2009
The Pioneer train ran from Seattle to Portland and then turned east, stopping in Pendleton and Baker before rolling on to Boise.
And now, many eastern Oregonians want the train to rumble back down the tracks.
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Vancouver, WA, C-Tran Sees Rise in Riders
Vancouver Columbian
01/28/2009
High gas prices may have attracted new riders to C-Tran over the past year, but a positive experience kept them coming back.
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Lane Transit Magnetized to Alternative Bus Steering
Eugene Register Guard
01/28/2009
Lane Transit District has seen the future, and the future is magnets.
The district next year will test the performance of a bus that is steered through its route by a computer reading palm-sized magnets embedded in the road.
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American Union Ranks Grow After 'Bottoming Out'
Washington Post
01/29/2009
The percentage of American workers belonging to a union jumped in 2008, the first statistically significant increase in the 25 years that the figure has been reported, reversing a long decline in union membership.
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Boy Scout Councils Logging for Profit
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
01/29/2009
For nearly a century, the Boy Scouts have worn a self-adorned badge as campsite conservationists and good stewards of the land.
But for decades, local Boy Scouts of America administrations across the country have clearcut or otherwise conducted high-impact logging on tens of thousands of acres of forestland, often for the love of a different kind of green: cash.
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Views: Rewriting the Rules for 21st-Century Capitalism
Guardian
01/29/2009
One of President Barack Obama's historic contributions will be a grand act of policy jujitsu - turning the crushing economic crisis into the launch of a new age of sustainable development.
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Northeast Portland House Wins Platinum LEED
Oregonian
01/29/2009
A house in Northeast Portland has become the first newly constructed home in the city to receive the highest possible rating for sustainability: LEED platinum certification.
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