Posted on November 18, 2008 by brandibratrude
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Sightline Daily | Northwest News That Matters
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1. Portland’s Low-Income Areas Are ‘Food Deserts’
Where we live determines where we buy food, which influences what we eat, factors into whether we’re fat and can seal whether, someday, we get diabetes or have a heart attack. Low-income and minority families, prone to obesity and dietary-related diseases, are also more likely to live in communities where nutritious food is hard to come by, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation reports. Oregonian 11/15/2008
2. Densification Coming to West Vancouver, BC
Pamela Goldsmith-Jones, who was re-elected Saturday as West Vancouver’s mayor, would like to see a shift in thinking when it comes to the types of housing being built in the affluent municipality. Instead of allowing more massive single-family homes to be built on the uplands and on existing properties throughout the community, Goldsmith-Jones favours the idea of new, multi-family dwellings and converted carriage houses. Vancouver Sun 11/17/2008
3. Report Gives Montana ‘D’ in Premature Birth Rates
Montana’s premature birth rate is too high, and the state urgently needs to take action to prevent more deaths and disabilities, according to a March of Dimes report released Wednesday. Missoulian 11/17/2008
4. Views: Making Schools a Healthy Place To Be
In an era of rising academic standards, there is no more fundamental responsibility than moving up today’s very low bar for the health and safety of school children, teachers and staff. The upcoming legislative session will be a make-or-break opportunity for intelligent decisions in favor of healthy schools. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 11/14/2008
5. Swinomish Teens Film Refinery’s Effect on Tribe
For three high school boys on the Swinomish Indian Reservation, the chance to make an environmental film at first seemed like a chance to get out of drug court and hang out with friends. But as Nick Clark, Cody Cayou and Travis Tom interviewed elders and learned about their history, they discovered that generations-old tribal traditions of crabbing and clam-digging had been jeopardized by years of chemical waste. Seattle Times 11/16/2008
6. Delta Study Uses Transmitter-Equipped Salmon
State and federal researchers Friday released hundreds of tiny, transmitter-equipped salmon into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta as part of California’s largest effort to track movements of the pink fish through an estuary that has grown increasingly hostile to salmon and other species. San Francisco Chronicle 11/15/2008
10. Utilities Consider Buying Electric Car Fleets
The auto industry’s quest to launch a new generation of electric cars may get a big boost from a sector with much to gain from getting advanced vehicles on the road: U.S. electric utilities. Top executives at several utilities are mulling the possibility of ordering thousands of the vehicles — known as plug-in electric cars — as an expression of support for the technology they fear could be derailed by the auto industry’s financial traumas. Wall Street Journal 11/14/2008
Filed under: Community News, National and World News | Tagged: birth rates, Buy American Act, chemical waste, climate change, economics, Education, electric car fleets, environment, food, food access, green, health, home power use, low-income neighborhoods, population growth, Portland, salmon, seattleDIRT, Sightline Daily, Sightline Institute, sustainability, Swinomish Indian Reservation, transmitter equipped salmon, urban development
