Category Archives: local

25 Years of the Columbia Gorge Commission

Posted on July 8, 2011 | Leave a comment

Thank God for Google Alerts. I have an alert setup to send me, up to once a day, a list of references on the Web to “white salmon”, the town I grew up in. Even though I haven’t lived there for (wow) almost 20 years, I try to keep up on the goings on. Google Alerts forwarded me an article in the Columbian newspaper about 25 years of the Gorge Commission, created from the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area Act, signed by President Reagan.

It’s a long piece, with lots of background, and an obvious attempt at balance. I’d love to hear reactions from people in the Gorge that have lived through the Commissions reign. They have some, and the comments afterwards touch upon it, but it’s only scratching the surface. No other single event has impacted the lives of those living in the Columbia River Gorge as much in my lifetime.

What made me post this? This paragraph here:

Counties were given a choice: Adopt their own ordinances implementing the management plan or let the Gorge Commission oversee development. Eventually five counties adopted ordinances. The holdout was Klickitat County. To this day, Gorge Commission staff reviews all applications for development in the part of Klickitat County that lies within the scenic area. Because it chose to ignore the law, Klickitat is not eligible to receive economic development money.

That’s the county that White Salmon’s in. Who would have thought that the county would have been a den of rebels!

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Posted in Economy, local, Politics

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Where Did Oregon’s “Rich” Go?

Posted on December 22, 2010 | Leave a comment

I’ve still yet to read The Fountainhead (maybe someday — flip a coin), but I get what “going John Galt” means. If Government starts punishing the productive too much, the productive stops, well, being productive. Or they move:

So how’s is Oregon’s class-warfare approach working? Not surprisingly, the politics of hate and envy is generating poor results. Revenues are much lower than forecast, as anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the Laffer Curve could have explained. The most noteworthy result is that about one-fourth of rich taxpayers have disappeared. Does the name John Galt ring a bell?

Being an Oregonian, there’s some mixed feelings here. On one hand, the cuts and “shared sacrifices” that are bound to come will affect me, but on the other hand, this kind of class warfare needs to be stopped, and showing that politicians and the Left can’t produce on their promises helps that cause. As an aside, this is one of the main points of federalism. One state acts stupid, the constituents can go somewhere else, hopefully creating a self-correcting mechanism against the State’s worst excesses. All increases of Federal power over the States’ power undermines this mechanism.

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Posted in local, Politics

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What Might Have Been: The State of Jefferson

Posted on May 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

If you’re a student of history — especially American history — and want a fascinating read, follow this link to a post on the Strange Maps blog. Back in 1941, there was a honest-to-God movement for counties in southern Oregon and northern California to secede from those respective states to form a new one. Namely, they were going to name it the State of Jefferson. The idea was that they weren’t receiving the attention they thought they deserved from their respective state capitols, and thought this was the best solution. Things were moving along until, well, December 7th of 1941. The attack on Pearl Harbor and the immediate entry into the war by the United States put to an end talk of state secessions.

I’m sure that many communities in America still share the same frustrations that plagued these local leaders over a half century ago. This is one reason why increasing Federal power is a Bad Thing: the most effective government is a local one, where it tends to be more responsive. This is something our forefathers knew well, as that philosophy is reflected in our Constitution.

It’s a simple idea: whatever can’t be handled by the individual, family, or church, the local city or county government steps in. What they can’t handle the state government steps in, and finally, the Federal government handles the rest. The last run of the ladder includes things like a post office, a currency, foreign relations, interstate commerce, and a military. So, does our modern governmental structure follow this pattern?

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Posted in local, Politics

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Spores that Kill: New Infectious Fungus in the Pacific Northwest

Posted on April 26, 2010 | Leave a comment

I found this late last week, and thought it was important enough for a posting: Deadly Airborne Fungus Spreading in Northwest. Apparently a ultra rare disease has been getting a little less rare in the Pacific Northwest. The culprit is a fungus named cryptococcus gattii. From the FoxNews article:

“Between 2003 and 2006, the outbreak expanded into neighboring mainland British Columbia and then into Washington and Oregon from 2005 to 2009. Based on this historical trajectory of expansion, the outbreak may continue to expand into the neighboring region of Northern California, and possibly further.”

Reading about this on various web sites, it appears that you can get this anywhere, but urban areas are less likely to expose people to the spores. Of course, it’s still rare enough that losing sleep or gaining stress over this would be uncalled for. Still, it’s a good thing to be aware of it and the symptoms. Here’s the list from Wikipedia that you should become at least a little familiar with:

Most people who are exposed to the fungus do not become ill. In people who become ill, symptoms appear many weeks to months after exposure. Symptoms of cryptococcal disease include:

* Prolonged cough (lasting weeks or months)
* Sputum production
* Sharp chest pain
* Shortness of breath
* Sinusitis (cottony drainage, soreness, pressure)
* Severe headache (meningitis, encephalitis, meningoencephalitis)
* Stiff neck (prolonged and severe nuchal rigidity)
* Muscle soreness (mild to severe, local or diffuse)
* Photophobia (excessive sensitivity to light)
* Blurred or double vision
* Eye irritation ( soreness, redness)
* Focal neurological deficits
* Fever (delirium, hallucinations)
* Confusion (abnormal behavior changes, inappropriate mood swings)
* Seizures
* Dizziness
* Night sweats
* Weight loss
* Nausea (with or without vomiting)
* Skin lesions (rashes, scaling, plaques, papules, nodules, blisters, subcutaneous tumors or ulcers)
* Lethargy
* Apathy

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Posted in health, local

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White Salmon History: The Jewett’s and the Suksdorf’s

Posted on April 14, 2010 | Leave a comment

I have a Google Alert setup for the term “white salmon”, so every day, I get an email when a bunch of links to pages that Google has ferreted out for me off the internets. Most of the time the results just aren’t that interesting, but sometimes a gem comes through. Over the weekend, it picked up a post off a blog called “The Plummer Family Meets the Billette Family”, which copied and pasted something from the town paper of record, The Enterprise. They didn’t link it, and I couldn’t find the original article online.

For those that grew up in the White Salmon area, it’s pretty interesting. This is the kind of stuff that should be taught in the local schools, I think: local history. For some reason, it’s almost always ignored, but I think it would find a more receptive audience than a lot of world history does. (Personally, I love almost all history, but I do understand that most people find non-personal history boring, to say the least.)

Anyway, the piece goes on to describe the original settling of the area by the Jewett’s and the Suksdorf’s, and their nascent rivalry that still continues today. I think that this is the most interesting — and telling — part of the article, though:

At one time Sam Hill tried to buy the Jewett land on which to build his mansion. The agreement was written up and signed, but when Sam Hill proposed a drink to celebrate his new purchase, the agreement dissolved as Mrs. Jewett strongly opposed drinking. He was to have paid $80,000 for the land on which could have been build the now famous Maryhill Museum.

The start of a series of poor business decisions by the White Salmon leadership. Here’s an interesting aside: the same kind of decision was made in 1950 when the City had the opportunity to buy (in whole or in part) the Hood River Bridge, and turned it down. In large part due to that decision, wind surfing’s mainland capital is Hood River, and White Salmon/Bingen gets a pass in the travel guides.

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Yeah, There Are Things About Portland That Suck

Posted on March 25, 2010 | Leave a comment

A co-worker of mine pointed me to this site yesterday, Things About Portland That Suck. I’m slowly working my way through it as free time shows itself. It’s fairly obviously inspired from the sensation from a couple years ago, Stuff White People Like. (Incidentally, reading that entire book out loud to your wife actually works pretty well — so many opportunities for weird voices.) So, some of the Portland stuff is right on the money. For an example, I point you to #32: Happy Hour:

In the professional world, a work day never ends at 5. For the few times you have left before 5:30, I can only imagine the sheer guilt consuming you. Leaving before projects have been completed to provide the body with sustenance* will add to your unhappiness. Why are the old popular happy hour joints suddenly shortening their hours to 4-6? We can blame this decrease on the general popularity of happy hour, Californians, or point our finger at the Oregon Restaurant Association.

Preach on, brother! Yeah, I’d love to hit more happy hours. The 4-6 thing makes it nearly impossible for us, though.

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Posted in Beer, local

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Bob’s Red Mill is Now Employee Owned

Posted on February 19, 2010 | Leave a comment

Wow. I love Bob’s Red Mill. My wife and I shop at the company store every chance we get. They sell great quality grains, legumes, among other types of food, and in bulk, if you want it. I just had some of their 13 bean soup mix on Ash Wednesday, actually. The employees there have always been top notch and very helpful to us. All this is a backdrop for the bombshell that was dropped today: Bob Moore — the founder and owner of the company — is giving the entire works to his employees. Considering they only have 209 employees, this is a big, big deal:

“This is Bob taking care of us,” said Lori Sobelson, who helps run the business’ retail operation. “He expects a lot out of us, but really gives us the world in return.” Moore declined to say how much he thinks the company is worth. In 2004, however, one business publication estimated that year’s revenues at more than $24 million. A company news release issued this week stated that Bob’s Red Mill has chalked up an annual growth rate of between 20 percent to 30 percent every year since.

Wow. As an employee of a privately-held company, you really can’t expect this. You make an agreement to do your job at the best of your ability for an agreed upon package, mostly being salary. No complaints there, but this is pretty much a dream for these workers. Instead of only the executives getting the package, they’re all getting it. Neat.

We’ll find out now, I guess, how much of their success had to do with Bob Moore himself, and his company can keep succeeding so wildly at what they do. I know I’ll keep spending my cash there (from another privately held company, by the way).

Here’s a video about it on ABC News that, unfortunately, I’m unable to embed.

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Posted in Economy, local

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