Oregon News from NW Portal

• Coming to a Neighborhood Near You: 20 MP...(Blogtown, PDX, Portland ...) — Here's some great news for anyone who walks and/or bicycles in Portland. At a press conf...
• Tonight in Music(Blogtown, PDX, Portland ...) — Husky Crystal Ballroom – Husky , Quiet Life, 9 pm, $0.94, all ages Alberta Rose T...
• Wyden again pulled into campaign politic...(KGW - News - Politics) — Republicans were on the talking points bright and early Tuesday morning, reminding the pu...
• Sen. Wyden and Rep. Schrader on Medicare...(Capitol Watch) — This post elaborates on remarks in separate appearances last week in Salem by Sen. Ron Wy...
• Restore an economy that works for the mi...(nwLaborPress) — A message to labor from U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)

Hundreds of Oregon students with the grit and brains for college, but not the money, get it from Ford Family Foundation

August 25 − Julie Pham is a Thai immigrant, the lone fluent English speaker in a family that gets by on her mother's income as a hair stylist. She took eight Advanced Placement classes at Hillsboro's Glencoe High, writes and performs poetry, loves science and wants to become a doctor. Sydney Fuller, daughter of two high school dropouts, bounced from home to home during childhood and worked long hours at Papa Murphy's in the last years of high school to help pay for her basic needs. Still, she earned top grades at Portland's Franklin High and found time to volunteer at a hospital. She wants to become a nurse and works the night shift at a care facility to gain experience. Although born in Portland, David Shiryayev still speaks more fluently in Russian than in English. His father, a tow truck driver, mother and three siblings speak Russian at home and at church, so as a young boy, school was hard for him. He loved high school, however, soaking up Latin, AP calculus, AP statistics and physics at Portland's Madison High, while making time to feed the homeless and tutor others in math. He wants to become a high school or university math teacher. All three 2012 high school graduates are dedicated students with killer work ethics and a pronounced willingness to help others. They also share a challenging circumstance: Their families have next to no money to help them pay for college, putting those dreams in jeopardy.  Read more...

Rural firefighting forces harder to maintain

August 25 − When a wildfire breaks out in rural parts of the Northwest, the first people on the scene are often volunteer firefighters. Much of the region relies on these unpaid first responders who have day jobs of their own. But changes in rural America are conspiring to make volunteer forces harder to maintain. And that could make it more difficult for communities to respond to emergencies like wildfire. Alex Arnold doesn’t usually try to make his pager go off. It does it all by itself a couple times a day. It’s the sound that rouses him out of bed and makes him leave parties early -- and takes him to scenes like this one. This is not a real accident. But it looks a lot like one. Volunteer firefighters in Pend Oreille County, Wash., along the border with Idaho, are practicing using the jaws of life to extricate fake victims from an old Ford Thunderbird.  Read more...

Rep. Earl Blumenauer pushes for a look at flexibility within school lunch guidelines

August 25 − Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) threw his support behind Abernethy School's celebrated lunch program on Friday, saying he wants to convene a working group in Congress to encourage flexibility within new school lunch guidelines aimed at preventing childhood obesity. Abernethy's School Kitchen Garden program was in jeopardy earlier this summer because of a bureaucratic hangup. District officials claimed they didn't have enough staff to analyze their menus to line up with new federal school lunch guidelines in time for the school year. Parents have since pledged to fund up to $15,000 in necessary administrative work for the program, which includes meals cooked from scratch by a trained chef, and a school garden that links with curriculum. On Friday, Blumenauer joined Portland Public Schools Superintendent Carole Smith in front of Abernethy's garden to officially announce its continuation.  Read more...

20 mph speed limit on neighborhood greenways unveiled in Northeast Portland

August 25 − Seventy miles of Portland neighborhood streets will drop from 25 to 20 miles per hour, state and city officials announced during a Friday morning ceremony. The announcement came a year after legislators gave municipalities the power to lower traffic speed. The passage followed four years of efforts by Mayor Sam Adams and city leaders to get the law changed. Adams spoke at a sign unveiling on Northeast Morris Street near Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He said the change will make travel safer for the city's "most vulnerable" -- pedestrians, cyclists and children heading to school. The drop in speed will take place on streets marked "neighborhood greenways." The first 70 miles are roads where speed bumps and other devices currently reduce speed. "This has taken real determination," said state Sen. Ginny Burdick, who applauded the effort for steering cyclists and pedestrians from busier arterial roads to safer streets. Research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows pedestrians struck by an automobile traveling 30 mph have a 40 percent chance of being killed. At 20 mph, it's 5 percent.  Read more...

Portsmouth resident builds 'Little Free Library,' adds doggie bags and free vegetables, too

August 25 − Multnomah County library book-hold lines tend to run long in this hyper-literate city. Powell’s is always packed. Portsmouth residents now have another place to find books. Portsmouth resident Victoria Ezell built a Little Free Library -- bright green and orange, painted on wood with a neat little door clasp and a garden on top -- at the corner of North Portsmouth Avenue and North Fessenden Street last month. She kicked off the library with donations of her own books. A few weeks in, the neighborhood is curating the collection with offerings of its own. “Books come and go miraculously without me even knowing who was there,” Ezell said. Since Sellwood resident Mark Lakeman installed Portland's first known community lending library 15 years ago at Southeast Ninth Avenue and Sherrett Street, about a dozen residents from Alameda to Sunnyside have built their own. Read more...

Hood to Coast 199 mile runner relay underway

August 25 − The 31st running of the Hood to Coast Relay is underway. The race started Friday at Timberline Lodge and will conclude Saturday in Seaside. A total of 1,050 teams will attempt the 199-mile run, which is described by organizers as the largest relay race in the world. The event includes 12,600 runners and about 3,000 volunteers. All 50 U.S. states will be represented, along with participants from 36 countries.  Read more...

Nearly one in three high school seniors failed writing test, must write better to earn diplomas

August 24 − Nearly 13,000 Oregon high school seniors failed the state writing test as juniors and won't get a diploma unless they can demonstrate better writing skills this school year, state officials said Thursday. Students in the class of 2013 are the first in state history to have to prove they have adequate writing skills, demonstrated in a polished essay or two, to graduate. They also must demonstrate acceptable reading skills, making them the second class to face that requirement. Unlike with the state reading test, which students can take six times during their junior and senior years, the state writing test is given to students just once, in the winter or spring of junior year. Students know their diploma now hinges on a passing score. But only 68 percent passed last school year, state officials revealed Thursday. Another 14 percent, or about 5,700, came close. And 18 percent, or about 7,100, wrote essays judged to be far from acceptable. The 13,000 students who didn't pass on their lone attempt will instead have to demonstrate adequate writing skills on two writing exercises graded by teachers at their school. Read more...

Portland fares well, state not so much, in jobs report

August 24 − Portland has nudged its way onto a job growth top 10 list. The city ranks ninth on Arizona State University's "top cities for job growth" rankings, published on Thursday. The Tempe, Ariz. school ranks cities with more than 1 million workers on the non-agricultural job growth they've posted between July 2011 and July 2012. Portland tied with Boston for the ninth spot, with each city logging 2.2 percent growth. San Francisco led the list, posting a 3.5 percent growth rate. Houston was second, at 3.2 percent while Denver was up by 3 percent. Seattle tied for fifth with Phoenix, with each city posting a 2.9 percent jobs growth rate.   Read more...

Boys spend summer soaking in Mandarin

August 24 − That’s exactly what Will Sitz and Noah Szumski are doing. Each week, the two Pendleton 15-year-olds meet their teacher, Esther Su, at the Blue Mountain Community College student union to practice one of the most complex languages on the planet. On Thursday, the boys focused on Su as she lifted a bottle of water and said, “Shway.” “Shway,” they repeated. “Yes, good,” Su enthused in heavily-accented English. A third student, Harmony Talbott, 10, also chimed in. She is part of a homeschool group that meets a private Pendleton home with Su — Harmony’s older sister is also part of the class. This day, Harmony wanted some extra practice. Soon, the trio had demonstrated they could say water, orange juice, milk and soda in Chinese and could match each beverage to flashcards of Chinese characters. Next the students took turns role-playing as waiters or customers in a restaurant. Noah, Will and Harmony are part of a growing group of Westerners studying Mandarin.   Read more...