Current Stories
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Groups push for a less expensive I-5 bridge
Portland Tribune
11/06/2009
Groups are urging WA and OR leaders to toss out the proposed massive $4 billion, 12-lane Columbia River Crossing bridge project and start over, using a new approach that starts with region's shared values of economic vitality, affordable transportation, safe and healthy neighborhoods and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
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Anxiety ebbs over Green River flooding
Seattle Times
11/06/2009
The odds of severe flooding in the Green River Valley have dropped substantially due to repairs on the Howard Hanson Dam. But that relief was followed by barely contained frustration that months of high anxiety have come at great psychic and financial expense - and that the wait for a permanent fix could sap the region further even if a flood never comes.
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Generation recession
The Nation
11/05/2009
When David Thyme was an even younger man, his fantasies of early adulthood did not include a 9:30 pm curfew and a bed in Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth. They also didn't include a recession so severe that his financially strapped father would ask him to help with rent - or kick him out when he couldn't find an entry-level job to do so.
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Ready to jump off the grid?
Oregonian
11/05/2009
Researchers believe the day is coming when the electricity you use will be your own. Instead of relying on large central generating stations - hydroelectric dams, coal plants and the like - scientists say we're moving toward an era of "personalized solar energy."
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Study: Options are key in sex ed curriculum
Washington Post
11/06/2009
Sex education programs that encourage teens to delay sexual activity but also teach them how to reduce their chances of getting pregnant or a sexually transmitted disease cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections, an independent expert panel concluded in a report released Friday.
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From he-cession to housework?
Toronto Globe and Mail
11/05/2009
An estimated two million wives are now the sole breadwinners in families across America as more men than women have been laid off in this recession. Experts say that unemployed husbands are probably taking on more of the housework and childcare duties - for now. But they don't expect that change to stick.
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Canada plans inquiry into disappearance of BC sockeye
Vancouver Sun
11/06/2009
Canada will stage a judicial inquiry into the collapse of sockeye salmon runs on the Fraser River, which have been in a two-decade decline and hit a 50-year low in summer 2009. It has prompted concerns that sockeye are heading for a population failure on the scale of the collapse of Atlantic cod.
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Rural NW could receive economic boost
Oregonian
11/05/2009
Rural and disadvantaged communities in the Northwest could receive an economic boost thanks to $30 million in new markets tax credits allocated to Portland-based Ecotrust. The nonprofit organization plans to target former timber towns struggling to recover jobs and tribes working for economic benefits by improving the health of forests.
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Target, Kmart and Toys-R-Us settle lead claims
Los Angeles Times
11/06/2009
Three major retailers have agreed to pay nearly half a million dollars to settle a lawsuit stemming from the companies' sale of toys containing excessive amounts of lead, the California attorney general's office said Thursday.
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Climate change: Threat or opportunity?
Washington Post
11/06/2009
A curious debate has broken out among American environmental groups, as the Senate balkily starts to focus on the threat of climate change. Is this really the time to talk about shrinking glaciers?
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All in a tree's work
Oregonian
11/06/2009
Twenty years ago, a group of children planted a sugar maple tree behind Boise-Eliot School in North Portland. The tree was supposed to grow tall and spread a graceful canopy, but looks more like a lollypop. The unremarkable tree goes about its remarkable job: cleaning the air of pollution, capturing carbon dioxide and filtering stormwater, while providing shade and a sense of well-being.
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Missoula ordinance targets sidewalk sprawlers
New West
11/05/2009
Once Missoula’s pedestrian interference ordinance takes effect on Thursday, less space will remain available for sidewalk sprawlers. The ordinance itself does not expressly target homeless people but debate leading up to the vote pit downtown commercial interests against advocates for the homeless.
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Spirit bears 'invisible' to salmon
BBC News
11/06/2009
On a few islands in western Canada, white 'spirit bears' walk the woods. Now scientists have discovered why these striking animals, a race of black bear, survive. White bears are less visible to fish than their black counterparts, making them 30% more efficient at capturing salmon in the islands' rivers.
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Takeout, eco-style
Ashland Daily Tidings
11/05/2009
An Ashland High School graduate has created a reusable takeout container that is being used at 200 workplaces and universities nationwide - including Southern Oregon University. Audrey Copeland, 24, created the Eco-Takeout clamshell container after she was inspired by a college environmental studies project.
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Democrats push climate bill without GOP
New York Times
11/05/2009
Democrats on the Environment and Public Works Committee pushed through a climate bill on Thursday without any debate or participation by Republicans. The move suggests that President Obama and bill supporters will have serious problems assembling the votes needed to enact it when it comes to the Senate floor, probably not before next year.
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Views: Scientist stakes reputation on salmon plan
Idaho Statesman
11/05/2009
The Obama administration and the region’s federal dam managers are pinning their hopes to the scientific reputation of Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and a marine ecologist from Oregon State University. And it’s a good call.
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Baucus votes against climate change bill
Missoulian
11/06/2009
Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., was the only Democrat on Thursday to vote against a climate change bill that Democrats rammed through a Senate committee - but said he still supports the effort to limit greenhouse gases and pass a bill.
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Views: A CA water deal at long last
San Francisco Chronicle
11/06/2009
For decades, California's water wars have flared unabated - cities versus farms, north against south - while half measures left the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta drained and decimated. A solution involving all sides was only a dream. Until now.
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Views: Energy initiative should spark broader dialogue
Tri-City Herald
11/06/2009
Promoting clean energy development in the Mid-Columbia region is a natural fit, but we need a broader conversation about our economic future. That includes serious talks about potential uses of those parts of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation that are cleaned up and no longer are needed by the federal government.
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Can guerrilla gardening save downtown?
Eugene Weekly
11/05/2009
If Eugene's city officials fail to act to beautify its long derelict property, fed up residents could arm themselves with agricultural implements and storm the blight with guerrilla gardening.
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California water overhaul caps use
New York Times
11/04/2009
Prompted by a protracted drought -- which has reduced water supply, harmed the fishing industry, and contributed to crop loss -- environmentalists and agricultural interests have agreed to broad concessions in a package of water legislation approved Wednesday.
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Deadly foam gone, more than 10,000 seabirds die
Oregonian
11/04/2009
The deadly foam that clobbered seabirds in the Pacific Northwest has subsided and several hundred birds rescued from the slime are being released. But the death toll worries conservationists.
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Farmed salmon's ecological finprint measured
New Scientist
11/04/2009
The first cradle-to-grave analysis of the environmental impact of salmon farms has found that in some ways they're less harmful than, say, raising beef cattle -- but that there is plenty of room for improvement.
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Senate Democrats advance climate bill without GOP
Seattle Times
11/05/2009
Ignoring a Republican boycott, Senate Democrats pushed a precedent-setting climate bill through a key committee Thursday.
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Haggling over abortion compromise in health bill
New York Times
11/04/2009
US House Democratic leaders struggled Wednesday to strike a deal that would restrict the use of federal money to pay for abortions under sweeping health care legislation headed for debate on the House floor this week.
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