Editor's Take: July 14, 2009
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Here's to Your Health
Mixed news today for self-powered commuters: walking or biking to work are linked to better health, but less than a fifth of us do it. Meanwhile, the Obama administration says green jobs won’t be the only industry to boom: they expect jobs in health care to increase, too. And finally, how do you find cheap, healthy food? Why not try organic farming.
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Your editor today is Eric Hess | View All Today's News
Oregon's job loss levels off
Oregonian
07/14/2009
After steep increases, Oregon's seasonally adjusted jobless rate -- initially reported as 12.4 percent for May -- leveled out at a revised 12.2 percent for that month and June. A separate employment survey also released Monday showed the state lost 1,600 payroll jobs in May, instead of the 100 estimated a month ago.
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White House: Health, green jobs growing quickly
Seattle Times
07/13/2009
Health care and environment-focused jobs will drive a jobs recovery, the White House predicted Monday even as it cautioned that the work will require better training to give workers greater skills. President Barack Obama's Council of Economic Advisers said jobs ranging from technical record keeping to nursing and physical therapy will grow in the health fields and that greater spending on renewable energy and on a more efficient electrical power grid will spike employment in those sectors as well.
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Walking, biking to work linked with better fitness
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
07/13/2009
Walking or biking to work, even part way, is linked with fitness, but very few Americans do it, according to a study of more than 2,000 middle-aged city dwellers. In what may be the first large U.S. study of health and commuting, the researchers found only about 17 percent of workers walked or bicycled any portion of their commute. Crumbling sidewalks, lack of bike paths and sheer distances all keep American commuters in their cars, experts said.
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Obama wants $12 billion for 2-year colleges
Seattle Times
07/14/2009
President Barack Obama is proposing a multibillion-dollar investment in the nation's community colleges, a $12 billion effort to help the two-year institutions reach, teach and train more people for "the jobs of the future." Obama speaks of expanded education and job training as a way to help workers compete for jobs such as those expected in the clean energy industry, when the economy turns around and begins to create jobs again instead of shedding them.
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EPA to ensure miners pay for damage
Los Angeles Times
07/13/2009
The Environmental Protection Agency, complying with a court order, will develop a rule to guarantee companies that mine everything from copper to uranium will pay for needed environmental cleanup, not taxpayers.
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Hunting best buys when eating healthy costs more
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
07/13/2009
Has the recession cut heart-healthy seafood and leafy greens out of your budget? Are you squeezing boxed meals or fast food between two jobs? Obesity experts say the lousy economy threatens to worsen Americans' already bulging waistlines because bad-for-you food happens to be the cheapest. But there are healthy cheap eats, and new research aims to show how to eke the most nutrition out of every buck.
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Debate on clean energy leads to regional divide
New York Times
07/13/2009
While most lawmakers accept that more renewable energy is needed on the nation's grid, the debate over the giant climate-change and energy bill now before Congress is exposing a fundamental rift. For many players, the energy not only has to be clean and free of carbon-dioxide emissions, it also has to be generated nearby.
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Tester wilderness bill targets jobs, recreation
Missoulian
07/14/2009
There may be more ideas than acres going into an anticipated wilderness bill under construction in Montana Sen. Jon Tester's office.
And one of those ideas may be a new name.
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Second wolfpack may be living in eastern Washington
Oregon Public Broadcasting
07/13/2009
Washington wildlife officials say they have evidence of a new breeding pair of wolves in the northeastern corner of the state. It would be only the second pair to take up residence in Washington. Correspondent Doug Nadvornick reports.
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On tiny plots, a new generation of farmers emerges
USA Today
07/13/2009
The wave of young farmers on tiny farms is too new and too small to have turned up significantly in USDA statistics, but people in the farming world acknowledge there's something afoot. For these new farmers, going back to the land isn't a rejection of conventional society, but an embrace of growing crops and raising animals for market as an honorable, important career choice.
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