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BlueOregon: Where do you eat?

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:06:34 -0500

The M66/67 vote is only seven weeks away and the Oregon Restaurant Association is pulling out all the stops by recruiting volunteers for phone banks in Hillsboro, Tigard, Salem, Bend, Eugene and Medford. Perhaps the ORA is representing big corporate restaurant chains but it is cetainly not representing individual restaurant [...]

The gr8ful grind: A nice little window box in all ...

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 06:06:00 -0500

A nice little window box in all its simplistic glory. (click on the thumbnail to see the ingenious way they hung the frame on the wall) Montmontre section of Paris, France; September, 2009. [...]

Newshoggers.com: When More Is Less: "Redundancy" May Actually Reduce Nuclear Security

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 05:43:12 -0500

By Russ Wellen

THE DEPROLIFERATOR -- You've probably heard the word redundancy in its current embodiment. To refresh your memory, it refers to the duplication of the critical components of a system, such as an airplane, to enhance its reliability. Redundancy's rationale is obvious: The likelihood that the entire system will' [...]

Oregon Catalyst: Senate Republicans help soldiers get home for the holidays

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:00:00 -0500

Senate Republicans offer stranded members of Oregon National Guard a trip home for the holidays
By Oregon Senate Republicans,

Salem, OR – The twelve members of the Oregon Senate Republican Caucus have teamed up to offer twelve members of the 162nd Engineer Combat Company [...]

Jack Bog's Blog: You know you've got one

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 03:08:27 -0500

And here's a place to show the world. [Via OurPDX.] [...]

Oregon Natural Resources Report: Water Rights Lawsuit Targets Secret Water Negotiations

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:48 -0500

Water for Life Files Lawsuit Challenging Secret Water Right Negotiations
By Helen Moore,
Water for Life,

(Salem, OR) - Water for Life and a half-dozen individual irrigators have filed suit against the Oregon Water Resources Department and its Director for denying public access to the Tribal [...]

Oregon Biz Report: Oregon recovery closer but diminshed

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:43 -0500

By Tim Duy,
Oregon Economic Forum

The LCBI declined just 0.4% in the third quarter of 2009, a significant improvement in the pace of decline that signals a greatly diminished level of economic stress in the region. Highlights of the LCBI include:

• Labor markets were mixed. [...]

Oregon Faith Report: Washington same-sex partner law to see legal battles

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:00:04 -0500

By JOHN FORTMEYER, CNNW publisher
Christian News Northwest, Subscriptions

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington’s voters have had their say, but the passage of Referendum 71 — which expands the rights of registered domestic same-sex partners, may only be the prelude to continued controversy. The statewide vote [...]

Oregon Women Report: Alive…but forgotten and alone

Fri, 11 Dec 2009 01:50:31 -0500

By Irene Tegeler,

I live in a wheelchair due to a spinal cord injury several years ago. During the long months of recovery, I lived in various assisted living facilities. As difficult as that was for me, it has given me great insight into the needs of [...]

Jack Bog's Blog: The quick Brown 'dogs jump over the terrible towels

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:50:15 -0500

We had an upset in the Thursday night pro football game: Pittsburgh 6 at Cleveland 13. And two players in our charity pro football underdog pool had the winning team: Robert and genop's mom. Each picks up 10 excellent points in the season-long game. This moves Robert into a [...]

Portland Transport: Find Your Transit App

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:45:40 -0500

The folks who brought you WalkScore now bring you City-Go-Round which will help you find transit information applications for your city or region (also biking, walking and driving apps) and will further tell you which transit agencies near you provide open data (kudos to TriMet for starting [...]

PPS Equity: Foundation Fallacies

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 22:18:11 -0500

Number of comments: 1

Discussion on the recent article PPS and the philanthro-capitalists touched on the inequities engendered by local school foundations. That discussion raised a couple common misconceptions about direct funding of schools, which I’d like to dispel.

1. “…my guess is that the [Title 1 funds] lower income schools receive equal, [...]

Loaded Orygun: Volm Takes Up Wurster's Cudgel...So to Speak

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:06:44 -0500

As broken early on by Matt Davis at The Merc--in one of the longer comment threads in Blogtown history I'm sure, featuring a pretty grand extended personal meltdown--former City of Portland spokesperson Mary Volm will be throwing her hat into the ring for City Council, specifically Dan Saltzman's [...]

Allen of Salem: What a friend we have on CNN!

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 20:05:00 -0500

More change but can we believe it? Anderson Cooper's show this evening featured several segments covering conditions at our Southern Border and it wasn't a tear-jerk piece on the Poor People of Mexico.

Why, it was almost like a Lou Dobbs re-run.

They made a special point' [...]

MaxRedline: Interrupt

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:44:25 -0500

Number of comments: 0

Been working for ten days straight and in the midst of a refi. Things should get back to "normal" in the next day or so.

There are some interesting things cooking up: Mary Volm is looking at Portland City Council. Now, this would be a huge shake-up; she was involved [...]

PORT: Tharp and Hutchins in the Whitney

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 19:38:00 -0500

Congratulations to both Storm Tharp and Jessica Jackson Hutchins who will take part in the 2010 Whitney Biennial curated by Francesco Bonami and Gary Carrion-Murayari.

For more information check out PORT's in depth interview with Storm Tharp and my review of his breakout show in 2007.

For [...]

Loaded Orygun: Testing, Testing: Facebook/Twitter Feeds Fixed?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 18:35:56 -0500

Apologies for a post that is heavy on the meta, but if you've been seeing LO's links on your Facebook account or because you follow us on Twitter, you may have experienced the frustration of broken links--if you clicked on them, it would take you to LO...but to a broken [...]

Robin's Nest: PC correctness be damned... we want our tree!

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:54:00 -0500

Number of comments: 0
Daily Tidings--Bellview Elementary School Principal Michelle Zundel, who decided to remove the schools Christmas holiday tree and replaced it with snowmen after a family and a couple students complained that the tree was offensive and a religious symbol decided to return the tree after more than 300 people were upset [...]

Robin's Nest: PC correctness be damned... we want our tree!

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:54:00 -0500

Daily Tidings--Bellview Elementary School Principal Michelle Zundel, who decided to remove the schools Christmas holiday tree and replaced it with snowmen after a family and a couple students complained that the tree was offensive and a religious symbol decided to return the tree after more than 300 people were upset [...]

Conservative Northwest: As a Conservative, I Really Can’t Complain, Can I?

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:53:21 -0500

Yesterday I got a call from my boss. Seems the Governor’s revised budget for the new fiscal year came out, included within that budget is the decision to close the prison where I have taught for the past 4 years. The plan is to begin the process “immediately” with one [...]

Chuck for ...: Health Care (ahem) Reform

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:36:00 -0500

It begins to look as though the Senate version of health care reform will be composed of letting some older Americans "buy" into some sort of "Medicare" and piling some more customers into the HealthInc rapists' paths (on the public dime). There are some pretty good guys in the Senate' [...]

Persuasion, Perseverance, and Patience: He wouldn't be talking about it as a possibility if it weren't already an actuality

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:33:00 -0500

Via emptywheel comes comes this astute take on a remark by Google CEO Eric Schmidt about Internet search engine records (including Google's):

we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the' [...]

BlueOregon: A small event that's big. And fun.

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:13:03 -0500

This is what our 8th Annual Abundance Swap looked like last Sunday in Ashland. We invented it in the heat of the "Black Friday" buy-buy-buy frenzy in 2002. We're proud of it. We're proud of the experience people have there -- here's this year's' [...]

Jack Bog's Blog: Winter storm watch posted

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:52:44 -0500

Portland could be in for snow and freezing rain starting tomorrow night. But the city's transportation bureau is already getting ready. They've been testing some of their new equipment up on Mount Hood over the last month or so, and they say they're in great shape for the first winter [...]

The Oregon Economics Blog: Eco-nomics: $1.4 Billion GE investment in Wind Power Coming to Oregon

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:06:00 -0500

From General Electric themselves:

NEW YORK, NY -December 10, 2009-GE announced today it has received a $1.4 billion contract from independent power producer Caithness Energy to supply wind turbines and provide services for an 845-megawatt (MW) wind farm project to be located in [...]

Ridenbaugh Press: Allred’s entry

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 15:04:41 -0500

Keith Allred With word out about the entry of Keith Allred, founder and leader of the Common Interest group, into the race for governor as the first substantial Democratic candidate, some scattered thoughts come to mind. (More collected thoughts will follow, later.) It may go without saying but should be noted [...]

Newshoggers.com: Amazing Facts

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:58:44 -0500

Number of comments: 0

By John Ballard

UNNATURAL CAUSES is the acclaimed documentary series broadcast by PBS and now used by thousands of organizations around the country to tackle the root causes of our alarming socio-economic and racial inequities in health.

The four-hour series crisscrosses the nation uncovering startling new findings that suggest there [...]

Ridenbaugh Press: Defining unsupportable

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:44:50 -0500

Each December, the governor of Washington has to release a proposed state budget. (Earlier there than in Oregon or Idaho, and probably a better schedule.) Those budgets have to work within expected state revenues. Usually, that’s not much of an issue, even if the governor is proposing a tax increase. [...]

Chuck for ...: Bad For The Nation, Bad For Parties

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:30:00 -0500

You've no doubt noticed over the past few months that the Right of the GOP has been become more influential and reaching for considerably more power. Sen Jim DeMint is probably as whacked on the right as any politician in somewhat recent history, he has pursued foreign adventures that under' [...]

Oregon Catalyst: Oregon Lands Massive Wind Farm

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:55:04 -0500

Number of comments: 10
In a stunning, dramatic development, General Electric has announced that it has won a 1.4 billion dollar contract to provide turbines for the largest wind farm ever in the United States – and Oregon is the site! This massive project in renewable energy is quite a [...]

OregonGuy: Amazing Poll Data

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:52:00 -0500

I visit Real Clear Politics on a daily basis. Say Anything less regularly, although it is one of the best political blogs on the intertubes. But it was on Say Anything that I got the amazing news.

The column I check in [...]

Newshoggers.com: Instahoglets 10 December 2009

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:10:35 -0500

Number of comments: 1

By Steve Hynd

Yet again, it's been a while since I did one of these. Mea culpa. But there's a bunch of fun and interesting stuff out there today that's worth noting even if I don't have a full post on any of it. So...

-- Obama's Nobel speech proves he's a neoliberal [...]

Silicon Florist: memePDX 016: JanRain, NedSpace, 30 hour day on KGW The Square and TreeUp TweetUp, Lala, Google, and DARPA balloons

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:44:47 -0500

Where has the week gone? It seems like just yesterday that we were regaling in the exploits of the Portland tech scene. Well, like it or not, it’s Thursday. And that means you get a new episode of memePDX. It’s like fruitcake. Only less edible.

This week, [...]

Portland Transport: JPACT Adopts Weak Greenhouse Gas Policy for RTP

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:34:48 -0500

The Portland Mercury is reporting that at this morning's Joint Policy Advisory Committee on Transportation meeting, the committee rejected an amendment from Mayor Adams to review the project list for climate impacts, while adopting a weaker amendment by Councilor Rex Burkholder.

The weaker language postpones any real impact by climate [...]

Jack Bog's Blog: Fun and games with Rule No. 6

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:28:04 -0500

We blogged last week about the Portland parks bureau "rules of conduct" for the new Director Park, a greenless downtown plaza also known as "Portland's carport." An alert reader has pointed out that one of the new rules is extremely broad. Here it is: No person shall possess any graffiti instrument [...]

Newshoggers.com: "Flooding The Zone" - How McChrystal Bulldozed Obama

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:22:42 -0500

Number of comments: 0

By Steve Hynd

The best piece you're likley to read on how the Obama administration came to the decision to surge 40,000 extra US and allied troops in Afghanistan is by Mark Perry, writing for the Asia Times (h/t Russ Wellen). Unlike the stenographed versions in the Washington Post or' [...]

The Rev. Chuck Currie: The Portland Tribune Story On Homelessness & Churches Misses The Real Story

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:11:19 -0500

34Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; 35for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger [...]

Ikeonic: Climate change: Ocean heat is where it's at

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:58:00 -0500

Number of comments: 0
Who am I kidding... I can't stop blogging for Advent. Guess I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue...

I've been a little obsessed with climate change as of late, looking for real data (charts) to get closer to the truth. Sadly, neither the deniers or the alarmists [...]

Newshoggers.com: Pelosi To Include $1.5 Trillion Boost To Debt Level In Defense Bill

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:48:31 -0500

Number of comments: 0

By Steve Hynd

"Paying on the never-never" means running up massive credit card bills you've no hope of ever paying back. It's always a bad idea, and doubly so when governments do it.

Legislation to increase the federal debt limit got a boost on Thursday when House of Representatives Speaker Nancy' [...]

NW Republican: Pro-Tax man Pat Ryan swings and misses at Mathew Wand

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:21:00 -0500

Number of comments: 1
I've known Mathew Wand for several years now. He is a fine upstanding young man. He is a Troutdale City Councilor and is running for the legislature. He published this op-ed opposing the tax... ' [...]

OregonGuy: Climate Stuff You Won't See Elsewhere

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:04:00 -0500

This is a .gif image. My understanding is, to view the .gif you need to click it. One of the limitations of blogger. Image from The Dog Ate My Data.

Point is, you may have heard about the monkey business surrounding [...]