Sightline Daily top picks 05/28/2009

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Sightline Daily | Northwest News That Matters

Top Picks of the Day

1. How many jobs does $3.9 billion buy?

Since the American Recovery and Re-Investment Act was passed, Oregon’s been busy divvying up $3.9 billion in stimulus money. But how many new jobs does that money buy? Oregon Public Broadcasting 05/28/2009

2. Women lead first-time homebuyers in BC

New home buyers, spurred on by rock-bottom mortgage rates and declining prices that put home prices back in reach, have started coming back into the market, and in BC, some 60 per cent of them are women. Vancouver Sun 05/28/2009

3. Jockeying for US ‘weatherizing’ funds

President Barack Obama wants to make a million houses a year more energy efficient as part of his goal to create thousands of “green” jobs and reduce carbon emissions. But the administration’s push to expand an obscure antipoverty program into a centerpiece of that initiative is stirring debate over the best way to use a flash flood of federal stimulus dollars. Wall Street Journal 05/27/2009

4. Former ‘poor farm’ will help feed OR county’s hungry

A blackberry-infested plot of land once farmed by indigent people at the former Multnomah County Poor Farm is being reclaimed to feed the poor again. Volunteers will grow organic produce on the surplus county land to help feed the hungry. Portland Tribune 05/28/2009

5. Scientists set 2020 goal for aiding ailing Pacific

An international consortium is calling for action against threats to the Pacific Ocean that they say endangers environmental and human well-being in countries rich and poor. Contra Costa Times 05/28/2009

6. Provinces take action to fight climate change

Impatience for a North American cap-and-trade system to curb greenhouse gas emissions has driven Ontario and Quebec to move ahead with their own plan to fight climate change. Ontario is the third province to move towards a cap-and-trade system after British Columbia and Quebec. Manitoba is expected to soon follow suit. Toronto Globe and Mail 05/27/2009

7. The best natural healer turns out to be nature

Studies repeatedly have shown that contact with nature can lower blood pressure, reduce anxiety, relieve stress, sharpen mental states and, among children with attention and conduct disorders, improve behavior and learning. Oregonian 05/27/2009

8. BC’s urbanites flee city for better life in the sticks

Given the recession, the cost of buying a home, the baby boom’s refusal to leave the work force, and the jammed commutes to the suburbs, young Vancouver urbanites are seeking rural living. Georgia Straight 05/28/2009

9. Stimulus wanted for better NW train service

The Washington state Department of Transportation will angle for more than $800 million in federal stimulus funds to help finance an ambitious overhaul of rail lines that run from the Canadian border south to the Columbia River Seattle Times 05/28/2009

10. Report: Uninsured cost everyone, expanded care is answer
The average US family and their employers paid an extra $1,017 in health care premiums last year to compensate for the uninsured, according to a report being released Thursday from a group supporting expanded health care coverage. Seattle Post-Intelligencer 05/28/2009