Despite the problems of the federal health care website, something useful is coming out of the start of Obamacare, especially in Oregon. It is giving people a glimpse of what health insurance actually costs. And the news may come as a bit of a shock to people accustomed to being covered at work or through […]
The last thing any Oregon town needs is a local prohibition against the kind of medical marijuana dispensaries that the legislature has passed a law to allow. The Albany council, as reported here Wednesday night, has voted to ask for a report on the options it has for keeping those dispensaries out. This after Councilor […]
As if it didn’t have enough to do, the Albany City Council has voted to enter the debate about marijuana. On Wednesday night, with nothing much on the official agenda, Councilwoman Bessie Johnson spoke up and said she didn’t want medical marijuana dispensaries in Albany. She made a motion to instruct the city staff to […]
Halloween is coming up, in case you didn’t notice. The chance that you didn’t notice is admittedly very slim. The stores and their ads have been full of Halloween stuff for weeks. And so have some of our neighborhoods, some houses with modest displays on their front porch or in the picture window, others with elaborate […]
A federal law, the Clean Water Act, gives regulators the authority to say what conditions they would like to see in our rivers. But nature does not necessarily cooperate, and then there’s the potential for conflict and a lot of public expense. We’re at that stage in Oregon. Since 2003 the state DEQ, under the […]
Apparently under the impression that not everybody in Albany already knew about it after reading Tuesday morning’s edition of hh-Today, the city manager’s office issued a press release during the day confirming that the public will have a role in the planning if the police and fire station projects move forward. “Public to Help Plan New Fire, Police Stations “The […]
If this is climate change…
Climate change and reports — or predictions — of a dangerous rise in the sea level are in the news almost every day. Yet this preoccupation with climate stories in the media is strangely detached from our everyday experiences. Which raises this question: How come the media keep hammering a theme that does not really […]
Tags: climate change, effects of climate change, sea level rise