On the way through Millersburg, the continuing dismantling of the former Albany Paper Mill is not the only sad sight you see. On the opposite side of Old Salem Road, there is another, not nearly as well known or easy to see. That is where in 2009, a company named Peak Sun opened a small […]
What are you supposed to do if you happen upon an invader? Kill it, probably. But it didn’t seem right in this case, and anyway I didn’t realize an invader was what I saw. Let me explain. A few days ago, riding my bike on the Cox Creek path near the Albany and Millersburg Talking […]
It may not be altogether pointless to speculate about some of the twists and turns that history could have taken, other than the ones it actually took. Independence Day makes for an especially tempting date for such an exercise. I have a book titled “What If?” in which historians and others try to answer questions […]
Unless it gets miraculously revived, a bill to raise more state revenue has died in the Oregon Senate because of Republican opposition. That’s just as well. Because what the Democrats wanted to do was to raise taxes on senior citizens who are sick, on a certain range of businesses, and on smokers, many of whom […]
These last few days of warm weather have brought home once again how clean our rivers are, especially compared to half a century ago. If they weren’t, people would not go near them. And as we’ve seen lately, lots of people do seek out the Willamette and Santiam rivers, among others, to have a little […]
Hard liquor on sale at Walmart? That’s what the ad insert in the paper on Sunday said. But it isn’t so, I’m pretty sure, at Walmart stores in Oregon. For decades, Oregon has guarded its monopoly on selling spirits through state-licensed agents and stores. Some time ago, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission started a pilot […]
Fuel bill: We’re not safe yet
A single member’s vote in the Oregon Senate may save Oregonians from having to pay even more for fuel than we’ll have to pay anyway in coming years. Betsy Johnson, a Democrat from Scappoose, voted with the 14 Republicans on July 6 to force a tie vote, 15-15, on Senate Bill 488, which would extend […]
Tags: clean fuels, low carbon fuel, Oregon legislature, SB 488