Spanning the State: Old media/New media by: nothstine Sun Nov 29, 2009 at 16:31:22 PM PST

Item 1: I was in downtown Portland (on the east side--that becomes important) to hear live music last night, and the people who were in the bar were, for a time, living in totally different worlds, depending on what media they were plugged into at the moment. If you were watching the TV, it was the Blazers and Utah. If you were checking Facebook or Twitter, it was this: Portland Water Bureau customers west of the Willamette River and water users in the Valley View, Burlington and Palatine Hill water districts should continue to use boiled or bottled water Sunday because of an E.coli contamination, the Portland Water Bureau said. The Water Bureau has updated the map of affected areas. A bartender friend was on duty last night in a bar at ground zero, and she slid her iTouch across the bar to me almost as soon as I walked in to see how things were going.  That's how she was keeping up on the story (the game was still on three televisions).  A bar can make it through the weekend without drinking water, I suppose, but to be unable to serve iced drinks . . . there's trouble. (If you live in one of the affected areas, and you're just now finding out about this, you may be in for a rough few days, but you should check out this information anyway.) Item 2: Call this one "If it's important to Oregonians, it's on Facebook:"  I can understand why the E.coli story is driving the Portland news this morning, but shouldn't the Oregonian be at least mentioning what 1927 FB friends and 1604 Twitter followers of Multnomah County Commissioner Ted Wheeler already know:   As I'm writing this up, still there's still no word at the Oregonian's web site. Best wishes to the Commissioner for a speedy recovery. (Hat tip to T, A, Barnhart, who notes that Matt Davis at the Mercury has posted about the story, but neither the O nor Willamette Week has it on their radar yet.  In the time it's taken me to finish this, the story [and the meta-story] have advanced some more, but I can't keep updating this post or it'll never get out.  Follow T.A.'s links, above.) Time to Span the State! [More after the jump.]

nothstine :: Spanning the State: Old media/New media

--------------- When everyone's interests lie in the same direction, you don't need a conspiracy.  Willamette Week's Nigel Jacquis has been following the money:   Large Portland companies are contributing big money to defeat two tax increases on the statewide January ballot-but voters will have a hard time determining that. The opposition campaign, Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes, is not hiding the contributions against Measures 66 and 67. Rather, local companies such as Portland General Electric, the Standard, City Center Parking and Nike are funneling contributions to the anti-taxers through intermediaries, primarily the Portland Business Alliance and Associated Oregon Industries. Oddly, for the money-is-speech crowd, while many of these organizations want to exercise their free-speech rights, it seems very few of them want to be caught exercising those rights at this moment (emphasis added): Donors are careful to deny they are "directing" contributions to the tax fight because that could violate election law prohibiting donations given in a false name. "We know where PBA stands on the issue [the tax hikes]," says PGE spokesman Steve Corson. "But once we send them a check, it's up to them to know how to spend it." [. . . ] In Portland and other tax-loving parts of Oregon, there are reasons to worry about fallout from contributions made to opponents of such a hot-button issue. Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle, for instance, contributed $10,000 to the tax foes Aug. 25. Critics responded with a Facebook page targeting Boyle. It currently has 135 friends. As of noon today, the FB group Hey Columbia Sportswear! Stop fighting funding for schools, police, etc! has 150 members. --------------- This item is Atrios-approved: Economist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman won't be invited to the president's Jobs Summit next week, and one of Portland's business executives will be: U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer has announced that, at his recommendation, the White House will invite Chandra Brown, an executive with an Oregon maker of modern streetcars, to participate in President Obama's Jobs Summit Dec. 3. Top administration officials have pointed to Portland's streetcar and light rail networks as a model for "livable communities" that help people walk and use mass transit, cutting down on auto emissions. Brown's company, Clackamas-based United Streetcar, has built the first American-made streetcar in 58 years. A Portland Streetcar extension from the Pearl District, over the Broadway Bridge to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, will get the company's first cars. --------------- How long until Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville?Not everyone is likely to greet the United Streetcar news with cheers and applause, though.  There's no recovery on the horizon for small town Oregon   Oregon's economy has hit bottom, and a slow recovery is under way, state lawmakers learned from forecasters Thursday. But the folks in Willamina, Dallas and countless rural towns across the state aren't celebrating. "So Portland's unemployment rate is 8 percent," said Rep. Jim Thompson, R-Dallas. "What the hell does that have to do with anything?" Economic forecasters say Oregon will have a "jobless recovery." They expect it will take about five years for employment levels to return to those of 2007. But Willamina's unemployment rate is 22 percent and the town is "one mill closure away from 80 percent unemployment," Thompson said. In Albany, the paper mill, one of the city's largest employers, has closed permanently. Weyerhaeuser permanently shut down its softwood lumber mill in Dallas this year. "Those jobs aren't coming back when the recession ends," Thompson said. "The rural economy in Oregon is in really tough straits. The governor's electric cars aren't going to do it." --------------- Oregon gas prices: climbed a little under 2¢ this week, to $2.771/gal.  (AAA of Oregon, where they always sing "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life," pegs it at $2.76.) We have two gas wars going on this week--only one of which appears to understand the fundamentals: Cheapest reported pump price:  $2.48/gal, at the Astro station, 171 SW Main St near NW Douglas Blvd, in Winston.  They're currently one penny cheaper than the 76 station a block away, at 30 NW Main St near NW Jorgen St.  This is how gas wars are supposed to work. This is how they're not supposed to work: Highest reported pump price:  For the fifth week, the 76 station and the Shell station across the street at Exit 19 in Ashland are tied for the highest price in the state: $2.99/gal.  Also selling at $2.99/gal today are the Chevron station, 2230 W Burnside St & SW St Clair Ave, in Portland; the Shell station at 10120 SW Capitol Hwy & SW Huber St, also in Portland, and the Chevron station at 21755 NW Imbrie Dr & NW Cornelius Pass Rd, in Hillsboro. --------------- Nothing about the phrase "sudden oak death" sounds good: Bad news for some eastern Oregon tree farmers (and some California Christmas tree shoppers too): Californians who travel to Oregon's Curry County to get Douglas fir trees for Christmas won't be able to bring them back. The California Department of Food and Agriculture says it will confiscate the trees at the agency's Smith River Border Inspection Station on Highway 101 in an effort to stop the spread of sudden oak death, a deadly tree disease caused by a fungus. An agency spokesman says the ban applies to trees cut for personal use, and to Douglas firs bought from commercial vendors. --------------- Update (technically): (I know I posted on this at StS when the story first cropped up, but I can't find the link now.)  Anyway, an eight-decade law that demonstrates in its own way why religion, speech, and government ought to keep their distance may finally be repealed: An Oregon legislative leader plans to introduce a bill to repeal a 1923 state law that bans teachers from wearing religious garb. House Speaker Dave Hunt, D-Gladstone, said he will push to "allow teachers to have the same religious free exercise rights as every other Oregonian" when legislators meet in February. Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and state schools Superintendent Susan Castillo, who recently sent letters to every lawmaker asking them to drop the ban, also support such a proposal. The Legislature passed a law this year allowing all workers except teachers to wear religious dress at work in most instances. Its passage led to questions about why the law remains on the books, given that Oregon is one of only three states with such a ban. The law, which was aimed at keeping Catholics out of public schools, has not been tested in court since the Eugene School District won a 1986 Oregon Supreme Court case that upheld its firing of a Sikh teacher for wearing a turban. --------------- Bad news for fishers, ranchers, farmers: This is bad news for ranchers, farmers, and salmon fishers: Scientists report that rising temperatures appear to be responsible for cutting the snowpack in Oregon's Cascade Range in half over the past 77 years. The report from Oregon State University released Tuesday found that the warming trend is seen most in the spring. Temperatures are up almost 4 degrees since 1958 in January, March and April. Lucky for us that global warming  is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated upon the American people TM. --------------- Hot damn! Looks like I get to bring back one of my favorite Separated at Birth images. (Shameless plug.) --------------- Tune in to the Morning Show on KPOJ AM620 tomorrow morning between 7.30 and 8.00 to hear Carl, Christine, and Paul match wits with TJ on the weekly Spanning the State Limerick Challenge!   ---------------

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