Editor's Take: March 23, 2009
Barack Obama, flickr
The Healthcare Squeeze
Healthcare costs are creating a stir in the news today. The Oregonian shines light on the shortcomings of post-hospital homeless treatment. Across the country, governments are cutting back healthcare spending—especially for illegal immigrants; in the private sector, American’s are feeling the squeeze of rising costs. Meanwhile, today marks the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez spill—but some effects still linger.
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Portland's Post-Hospital Care for Homeless Falls Short
Oregonian
03/24/2009
Portland is one of a few dozen U.S. cities with "respite care" programs to help the homeless recover medically. But Portland's programs don't come close to meeting the full need. Homeless people recovering from poisoning, broken bones and other conditions that don't need intense post-hospital care are often left to fend for themselves.
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Twenty Years On, Exxon Valdez Disaster's Effects Linger
Fairbanks Daily News Miner
03/24/2009
Scores of residents of Cordova and other communities' lives were forever changed on March 24, 1989. That's when the tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground at Alaska's Bligh Reef, spewing 11 million gallons of crude into the rich fishing waters of Prince William Sound. The legal and environmental repercussions are still felt today.
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In Hard Times, Illegal Immigrants Lose Healthcare
Christian Science Monitor
03/23/2009
The recession is leading some California counties to cut back on nonemergency health services to illegal immigrants. The problem is socking California because it is home to the lion's share of US immigrants, both legal and illegal. The latter are often eligible for healthcare provided to the poor. But health departments across the country are facing budget pressures that are leading to slashed services.
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Workers Feel the Brunt of Health Insurance Woes
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
03/24/2009
American workers are getting squeezed like no other group by private health insurance premiums that are rising much faster than their wages. While just about all retirees are covered, and nearly 90 percent of children have health insurance, workers now are at significantly higher risk of being uninsured than in the 1990s.
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What We Need Is 'One Orca, One Vote'
Crosscut
03/23/2009
The orca vote evidently doesn't count for much these days. The Puget Sound Partnership went to Olympia this year hoping for a statute that would enable voters in the 12 counties bordering Puget Sound to create an improvement district that could raise money for restoring the Sound. A Puget Sound improvement district won't even come up for a vote this year.
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EPA Moves Toward Regulating Greenhouse Gases
New York Times
03/23/2009
The Environmental Protection Agency has moved to declare that greenhouse gases are pollutants that pose a danger to the public's health and welfare. That determination, once made final, will pave the way for federal regulation of carbon dioxide, methane and other heat-trapping gases linked to global warming.
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OSU's Green Energy Fee Helps Cut Emissions
Oregonian
03/24/2009
A renewable energy fee approved by Oregon State University students helped the college reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in 2007-08, the university says.
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Obama Touts Stimulus, Budget Funds for 'Clean Energy Future'
Washington Post
03/23/2009
President Obama today outlined plans to spend about $59 billion in economic stimulus funds and $150 billion from the federal budget to promote what he calls America's "clean energy future."
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Green Gift: Energy Upstarts Chase Stimulus Cash
Fortune
03/23/2009
The fragile renewable energy economy is dominated by small firms, and for some of them the stimulus arrived in the nick of time. Last October's credit market crisis was an especially rude shock for a sector that had grown fat on six straight years of record investment growth. Even now, few in the industry doubt that a great green shakeout is under way.
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Views: The Price of Greenhouse Gases
Los Angeles Times
03/24/2009
President Bush's greatest crime against the environment was his refusal to regulate greenhouse gases. The Obama administration is reportedly wasting little time righting that wrong. The Washington Post reported Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency has sent the White House a preliminary finding that climate change is endangering public health and welfare.
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