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Obama Talks Energy in Bend
Portland Oregonian
05/11/2008
The Illinois Democrat said he would put a higher tax on companies that pollute and use the money to invest in wind, solar, geothermal and other alternatives to oil. He said he wouldn't rule out nuclear energy as a future source of power, if problems of waste storage and safety can be resolved.
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Bill Clinton Gets Windy in Bend
Bend Bulletin
05/12/2008
Clinton told a crowd of about 250 people that he believes the region, with the right infrastructure and government support, could do more to harness wind energy and other alternative fuel sources. Sen. Hillary Clinton, he said, would use her presidency to help set up the necessary systems to get more use out of renewable energy.
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Salmon Closure Hits Winchester Bay Hard
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
The whole Oregon coast will feel the pinch of the broadest shutdown ever, but the sportfishing town is particularly dependent on salmon.
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Portland mass transit fills 'er up
Portland Oregonian
05/11/2008
As gasoline creeps toward $4 a gallon, Oregonians are doing three things: buying less fuel, driving fewer miles and, in the Portland area, using mass transit more often.
It's impossible to say just how linked the phenomena are.
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Agency: Oregon doesn't need imported LNG
Portland Oregonian
05/10/2008
In a potentially fatal blow to three proposals to build liquefied natural gas terminals in Oregon, the state Department of Energy released a report Friday stating that imported LNG isn't needed, would be more expensive and polluting than domestic natural gas, and would come at a higher environmental cost than alternative proposals to ship more gas in from Wyoming.
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Agencies issue plan to run Columbia dams, preserve salmon
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
05/10/2008
The Bush administration Monday issued its final court-ordered plans for making Columbia Basin hydroelectric dams and irrigation projects safe for endangered salmon.
The proposed changes in operations would cost hundreds of millions of dollars but no dam removals.
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Volunteers to clean streams and riverbanks
Salem Statesman Journal
05/12/2008
With the way SOLV's 13th annual Down by the Riverside event is shaping up, Oregonians are set to clean thousands of miles of streams.
Already more than 350 cleanups are scheduled Saturday throughout Oregon.
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Bill Clinton campaigns across Oregon
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
The former president will have visited 10 towns in two days while stumping for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton.
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City Hall and homeless talking past one another
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
As the homeless protest at Portland City Hall hits its third and apparently final week, the philosophical gap between city leaders and protesters grows even wider.
City leaders say protesters need to stop camping outside City Hall now that they've been provided with more shelter space. Homeless people and their advocates say they never asked for shelter space. Rather, they want the right to sleep outdoors and looser anti-loitering laws.
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Seven arrested at homeless protest
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
Portland police made seven arrests Saturday as they began enforcing Mayor Tom Potter's decision to require homeless protesters around City Hall to obey laws against loitering and camping.
Central Precinct Commander Mike Reese said TriMet drivers were complaining that youths were sticking their feet into traffic on Southwest Jefferson Street on the south side of City Hall.
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Style, taxes define Senate race
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
When a Washington congressional candidate started circulating a "Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq," Oregon's leading Democratic Senate candidates both endorsed it on the same day.
House Speaker Jeff Merkley and Portland lawyer and consultant Steve Novick jostled to make sure that neither would gain an advantage on an issue so important to voters in the party's May 20 primary.
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With Oregon visits, Democratic presidential candidates move in two directions
Portland Oregonian
05/12/2008
Obama looks ahead as he picks up superdelegate support; Clinton keeps focus on primary fight, health care.
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Area closed: At-risk wildlife
Bend Bulletin
05/12/2008
in places where an overlap between people and wildlife can’t be avoided, the agency turns to seasonal wildlife closures to help protect animals — including deer, elk, pronghorn and sage grouse — at the times when they’re most vulnerable.
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Salmon Gone, Fishermen Adapt
New York Times
05/09/2008
With most of Oregon and California's commercial salmon fishery shut down because of sharp declines in the number of the fish returning to the Sacramento River to spawn, many fishermen are looking for almost any alternative, trying to diversify along with the rest of the regional economy.
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Millions for Timber Payments Added to Iraq Bill
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
The chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee has agreed to add $400 million for county payments to the must-pass Iraq war funding bill, giving rural communities in Oregon and beyond unexpected hope that federal aid could be delivered this year.
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Medford's H2O is No. 1
Medford Mail-Tribune
05/09/2008
Next time you take a swig of Medford tap water, appreciate the clarity of its color in the glass, the full-mouth feel, the mineral finish.
You're drinking an award winner.
Judges at the regional conference of the American Water Works Association said Medford has the best-tasting tap water in the Northwest.
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Clinton visits Oregon, stumps in timber country
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
Hillary Clinton kicked off three days of Oregon visits from presidential hopefuls with a town hall meeting Thursday night in Jackson County.
The rally in the Olsrud Pavilion, a 20,000-square-foot arena usually home to livestock sales, boxing exhibitions and farm equipment expos, was to feature a question-and-answer session between Rogue Valley residents and the New York senator. But because of the late hour, Clinton offered to stick around to shake hands and answer questions after speaking.
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Sea lion cages were outside Bonneville Dam surveillance
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
No security cameras were pointed at the floating cages where six sea lions were mysteriously found dead at Bonneville Dam over the weekend, federal authorities said Thursday.
State officials responsible for the trapping of sea lions at the dam also acknowledged there were no measures to monitor activities around the cages or prevent foul play when state crews were not present.
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As Roslyn Lake drains, fond times ebb and a river renews
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
After almost a century of reflecting the sky north of Sandy, Roslyn Lake is draining away.
On Monday, workers closed the gate at the head of a long, wooden flume leading from the Little Sandy River. Since then, the shallow, 160-acre lake has been flowing slowly through the turbines of the Bull Run Powerhouse, leaving baffled birds and trapped fish in pools across the muddy bottom.
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Hey, Leadfoot! Get more miles per tank
Portland Oregonian
05/09/2008
Gas prices creeping toward $4 a gallon mean Priuses are selling fast, and not just in hybrid-loving Portland. Toyota says sales of its fuel-sipping car are up 54 percent over last year.
But what if you can't take on a new car payment, despite what a hybrid would save in gas costs down the road? Could you drive your current car to better mileage and help the planet a bit, without spending a cent?
Yes, but we've got to slow down. And stop driving like jerks. It could be the quarter-or-more-per-gallon discount card you didn't know you had.
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Clinton renews call for debate with Obama in Oregon primary
Salem Statesman Journal
05/09/2008
Hoarse from a cross-country campaign trip through three states, Sen. Hillary Clinton told die-hard supporters in southern Oregon on Thursday night she would keep running for president, and pressed her opponent to debate on Oregon issues.
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Obama in Bend Saturday
Bend Bulletin
05/09/2008
Central Oregon will enter the national political spotlight Saturday when Democratic Party front-runner Barack Obama touches down in Bend.
Plans call for Obama to lead a town hall meeting at the Summit High School gym.
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Clinton flying against the wind
Medford Mail-Tribune
05/09/2008
Despite increasing pressure for her to concede the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Hillary Clinton assured a Rogue Valley audience Thursday that she will carry on the race to the end.
Her stop in Central Point capped a long day for the New York senator. She kicked off her morning in West Virginia before a stop in South Dakota on her way to Southern Oregon to stump for the May 20 primary.
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A Company Ahead of Its Time
New York Times
05/09/2008
Had you caught “Big Ideas for a Small Planet” on the Sundance Channel on Tuesday night, or read last week’s issue of Fortune, you might have been intrigued by reports about the environmentally conscious philosophy of a Portland, Ore., fashion company called Nau. But if you had then visited the company’s Web site, you would have discovered a notice that Nau is going out of business.
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