en-us Copyright Sightline Daily - all rights reserved newsfeeds@sightline.org newsfeeds@sightline.org Most recent Policy headlines from Sightline Daily, the Northwest news that matters http://daily.sightline.org Plone http://daily.sightline.org/logo.gif 427 69 Searing headlines about local job cuts sharpen interest in universal health-insurance coverage. The topic grabs the attention of those vulnerable families and voters broadly defined as the middle class, the engine of change. Increasingly, the focus is on national single-payer health insurance. Acceptance of the concept is growing, especially among a key constituency: doctors. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2008098461_lance08.html Economy Human Health Policy United States 08/08/2008 Seattle Times At a time when so many people are losing homes and jobs, and making tough decisions about whether to fill a gas tank or pay health insurance, city governments should avoid counting calories and dispatching garbage police. Government should empower us, to use the word so favored by activists. Make sure our food is safe. When products kill, make companies pay. Show us the way to a cleaner garbage stream. Lead by example. http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/nanny-nation/?ex=1218859200&en=5ec1035f25ee8b20&ei=5070&emc=eta1 Economy Environment Human Health Policy Solutions US Northwest 08/08/2008 New York Times Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., wants to rein in oil prices by requiring speculators to pay regular income tax on their profits. Speculators now pay the capital gains tax on profits from their investments, which is far lower than the regular income tax paid by commercial purchasers of oil commodities - such as airlines. http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1218165917122730.xml&coll=7 Energy Policy United States 08/08/2008 Portland Oregonian Politics has its puzzling moments. John McCain and most of the GOP experienced one late last week. That was when five of their own set about dismantling the best issue Republicans have in the upcoming election. It's taken time, but Sen. McCain and his party have finally found - in energy - an issue that's working for them. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121815293390922431.html?mod=todays_columnists Energy Policy United States 08/08/2008 Wall Street Journal There are many things I want independence from - incoming e-mail, the section of my wedding vows about monogamy, this bogus corporation I created to lower my taxes but now takes up all of my time, Sam Zell - but foreign oil is not one of them. Foreign oil is my favorite kind of oil. It means other nations clog their beaches with ugly rigs, do dangerous work and suffer environmental disasters and I still get to cruise Sunset Boulevard in my yellow Mini Cooper convertible. http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-stein8-2008aug08,0,3426468.column Energy Policy California United States 08/08/2008 Los Angeles Times The British Columbia government should consider increasing and expanding its carbon tax if necessary to stay on track with an aggressive target for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions, a provincial cabinet advisory group recommended yesterday. http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/story.html?id=c175b233-68ff-45bf-b42c-21b0dab48b55 Cap and Trade Economy Policy Pollution & Toxics British Columbia 08/07/2008 Victoria Times Colonist Depending on their own point of view, a panel of experts give thumbs up – or down – to Sens. Obama's and McCain's energy proposals. http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0806/p12s01-usec.html Energy Policy Solutions United States 08/06/2008 Christian Science Monitor In 1973, the world economy was thrown into a recession after the Arab OPEC nations cut off oil supplies to nations that supported Israel. Two years later, President Gerald Ford promised the nation that he had a plan to make the nation "invulnerable" to cutoffs of foreign oil. "It will require sacrifice, but – and this is most important – it will work." Sound familiar? http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0806/p11s01-usec.html Energy Policy United States 08/06/2008 Christian Science Monitor You could write the formula with mathematical precision. The higher the price of oil and the lower the number of days until the election, the shriller the rhetoric, the grander the promises and the dumber the policy. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/373837_marcus07.html Energy Policy United States 08/07/2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer