May 22, 2012

A bill that passed in the 2012 Oregon Legislature promises to deliver more fish to the Oregon Food Bank. House Bill 4068 makes it legal for the food bank to pay fish processors to package unintentionally caught fish – aka bycatch – that can’t be sold in the marketplace.

How are nitrates getting into Puget Sound? Sure, some of it comes from the rich coastal upwellings of nutrients that make their way in to these protected waters. But scientists think it’s no accident that the rise in nitrate levels in the past dozen years corresponds with population growth around Puget Sound.

Everyone who breathes will be at risk in Missoula if all the planned coal terminals on the Pacific Coast get built out – and coal train traffic here skyrockets, one doctor said Monday. She was among many members of the public speaking in support of a resolution calling on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study the cumulative and local environmental effects of multiple proposed coal export terminals on the Pacific Coast.

Teenage pregnancy rates in the US have declined dramatically – 40 percent in two decades – but remain among the highest in the developed world. A new study suggests American teens don't have more sex than teens elsewhere, but that they suffer more "despair" due to poverty.

You didn't necessarily notice, but drivers in the Seattle-Tacoma-Everett area spent less time in congestion last year than in 2010, according to a new traffic study.

Six years after initiating the first wolverine study in the Pacific Northwest, Keith Aubry has been able to confirm that these elusive animals not only visit the North Cascades, but also breed and reproduce here.

Nearly every Northwest city and town has a center of gravity — a place with a heartbeat — Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square or Seattle's Pike Place Market. But in the remote town of Arock , in southeast Oregon, that kind of spot has been missing for a long, long time. That's about to change.

After a year of drafting off of Minneapolis, Portland has once again pulled into the lead as Bike City U.S.A., according to the latest annual ranking from Bicycling magazine.

We are one year away from a provincial election likely to be fought on who is best to create economic growth and particularly good jobs in B.C. Here is a question all candidates should be asking themselves: What is our province's "comparative advantage"?

As Congress hustles to pass the next food and farm bill, there’s been a lot of discussion about how little government support goes to fruit and vegetable farmers compared to the Big Five commodity crops (wheat, corn, soy, rice, and cotton).

The Native American Youth and Family Center of Portland announced today it is building an innovative, nine-unit housing project for low-income Native Americans. The project, called Kah San Chako Haws, or East House, will be built in Portland's Lents neighborhood at 9707 SE Holgate Blvd.

At first glance Broward County, Florida, doesn't look like the friendliest place for public transportation. The metro area just north of Miami has a couple downtown areas — Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood — but lacks a strong central business district. It also lacks much transit-oriented development. On the contrary, Broward has a very typical postwar, auto-oriented design marked by wide highways and sprawl. Looks can, of course, be deceiving. As it happens, Broward County has one of the strongest transit systems among other mid-sized metro areas in the United States.

An unusual mountain stands in Westley, California. Made up of 6 million tires, it is testament to our love affair with - or, as some would say, perverse reliance on - oil.

One quarter (12 of 39) of U.S.-operated tsunami warning buoys in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are out of service. That includes the two tsunami detection buoys directly off the Pacific Northwest coast. But the warning system has some redundancy built in.

"Pink slime" was almost "pink paste" or "pink goo." The microbiologist who coined the term for lean finely textured beef ran through a few iterations in his head before he decided to send an email about the filler to a co-worker at the U.S. Department of Agriculture a decade ago. Then, the name hit him like heartburn after a juicy burger.