Featured Stories
Featured Stories
Aerial view of the Pentagon Building located in Washington, District of Columbia (DC), showing emergency crews responding to the destruction caused when a high-jacked commercial jetliner crashed into the southwest corner of the building, during the 9/11 terrorists attacks. Source: Wikipedia
A daycare facility inside the Pentagon had many children, including infants who were in heavy cribs. The daycare supervisor, looking at all the children they needed to evacuate, was in a panic over what they could do.
There were many children, mostly toddlers, as well as the infants who would need to be taken out with the cribs. There was no time to try to bundle them into carriers and strollers.
Just then a young Marine came running into the center and asked what they needed. After hearing what the center director was trying to do, he ran back out into the hallway and disappeared. The director thought, “Well, here we are, on our own.”
About 2 minutes later, that Marine returned with 40 other Marines in tow. Each of them grabbed a crib with a child, and the rest started gathering up toddlers. The director and her staff then helped them take all the children out of the center and down toward the park near the Potomac . Continue reading
Rachel Dawson, Policy Analyst, Cascade Policy Institute
TriMet’s MAX Yellow Line first opened 15 years ago in May 2004. The Yellow Line’s Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) made a myriad of predictions for the year 2020, which makes now the perfect time to reflect on what officials promised and what taxpayers and transit riders have since received.
Yellow Line History
The Yellow Line originated in 1988 as a 21-mile project connecting Vancouver, Washington with Downtown Portland and Clackamas Town Center. This plan was scrapped after Clark County voters defeated a proposal to raise $236.5 million in 1995 and Oregon voters turned down a $475 million regional ballot measure in 1998.
Not to be deterred by a lack of voter support, officials developed a shorter alternative in 1999 that would run from the Expo Center to Downtown Portland along Interstate Avenue. This alternative cost $350 million, 74% of which came from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA). Continue reading
The “rent-via-credit card” electric scooters that are now the rage around Portland and other “eco-friendly” cities — are intended to “help the environment.” But, do they, really?
Researchers at North Carolina State University disassembled a scooter in their lab and calculated what it took to produce it. The aluminum (scooter frame) and lithium (battery) metals must be mined, and all other vehicle’s components must be manufactured. All this accounts for about half the greenhouse gases an e-scooter is “advertised to save,” over its lifetime. Adding up the environmental costs of collecting discarded scooters, transporting them to charging stations, maintenance — and disposal (when old or damaged beyond repair) — amounts to far more than the other half of greenhouse gases that e-scooters are supposed “to save.”
So, with e-scooters, it’s the same story as with solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars: everyone feels “warm and fuzzy” about “helping the environment,” but the undesirable effects on our environment are actually more severe than using fossil fuel instead!
Marlon Furtado
When you think of the Bible’s Love Story, what comes to mind? Many people will respond, “Song of Solomon.” There’s nothing wrong with that choice, but I would like to suggest that there is an even better love story recorded in the book of Hosea. If this short book is not familiar to you, don’t feel bad if you have to peer into your Bible’s table of contents to find it. It follows the exciting story of Daniel.
Hosea was a prophet of God to the northern nation of Israel during the eighth century before Christ. About 200 years earlier, the nation had been divided into a northern portion, called Israel. The southern portion was called Judah. During those two hundred years, Israel had several kings, all of whom refused to follow God. As a result, the entire nation had walked away from God. Continue reading
Bryan Fischer
Pete Buttgieg intends to be the first openly homosexual president in American history. (Cory Booker is trying to tamp down speculation about his own proclivities by squiring actress Rosario Dawson around town. But she had to be coaxed into endorsing him, giving the lie to the whole thing.)
Unfortunately, Buttigieg is making such a transparent and phony play for evangelical votes that his shtick isn’t convincing anyone. Earlier in the campaign, he tried to squeeze open borders and minimum wage mandates out of Scripture, and now he’s breezily trying to wedge abortion in. Continue reading
Art Crino
Small modular reactors are designed to be factory-built then transported, as in this illustration. Supplied: NuScale
Renewable energy proponents boast of the reduction in costs for windmills, solar panels and storage batteries. However, for all three the 10-fold decrease in cost faces the “law of diminishing return,” where every incremental gain yields less progress than in the past.
A typical wind turbine requires 900 tons of steel, 2500 tons of concrete and 45 tons of non-recyclable plastic. Converting the iron ore into the 900 tons of steel requires about 170 tons of coking coal which is transported by fossil fuel. The turbine will never generate as much energy payback during its typical operating lifetime as was invested in building it.
That is where government subsidies enter the equation.
As more electricity is generated by wind and solar, the battery becomes more of a partner. Continue reading
Helen Maguire
War’s end: 2,400 pianos shipped to soldiers
Steinway & Sons was founded by a German immigrant named Heinrich Engelhard Steinweg (later changed to Steinway) in 1853. Heinrich began building pianos in 1835, and by 1839 his reputation as a piano builder grew throughout the Braunschweig area. In 1850 Heinrich immigrated to the United States with his family, taking jobs with several different piano manufacturers. In 1853 Heinrich and his sons (Theodore, Charles, and Henry) founded the Steinway and Sons piano company. The Steinway family was known for their engineering and scientific innovations, which are shown through their many patented ideas.
The very first Steinway & Sons patent was granted in 1857, and since that time the company has been granted more than 125 additional patents, positioning the Steinway as the piano by which all others are judged. Continue reading
Some years ago I attended the Wild West Rough Stock Rodeo at the Northwest Equestrian Center on Highway 26 and Haley Road. Along with most of the audience, I removed my hat, and placed it over my heart when the graceful teen-age girl rode her horse around the arena carrying the American flag.
And I suspect that many of them, like me, surreptitiously wiped a little moisture from the corners of their eyes as we listened to a stirring blended audio recording: the National Anthem, the Pledge of Allegiance, the Declaration of Independence, even parts of Martin Luther King’s famed “I have a dream” speech.
It felt good to feel good about being an American—to have a good, clean, wholesome time of fun enjoying a well-presented, particularly American form of entertainment and sport among a crowd of Americans who didn’t have to apologize for taking pleasure in their Americanism. Continue reading
Susan Gallagher, Parents Rights In Education
WHAT ARE
DRAG QUEEN STORYTIMES
REALLY ABOUT?
Grooming pre-school children to embrace the LGBTQ+ lifestyle, with your tax $$$!
Parents’ Rights In Education (PRIE) is committed to protecting the rights of parents in K-12 pubic schools. We are tackling the issue of LGBTQ agenda in public libraries because they are a public government agency serving children and families. An appreciation of literature at a young age is the first step to an education, however grooming and indoctrination is NOT education.WE Cannot Avoid This Issue!
The American Library Association promotes these dangerous events in libraries across the nation, causing concern for all adults who care about the innocence of children. Continue reading
Victoria Larson, N.D.
With school starting I want to help our kids and grandkids focus. For that matter many of us adults could use some help in this matter as well. Though changing what you eat, or what your kids eat, may not be easy it’s certainly worth the effort—especially if you want them (and you) to focus and think.
I’ve been writing these columns for nearly twenty years now (!) so long-time readers know that I don’t like the word “diet.” So let me start with calling it the Ketogenic Food Plan. The Ketogenic Plan has grown out of the Paleo style of eating which is what out ancestors did–from early humans up to about 100 years ago. Then things changed. Face it; our grandparents ate simple, home-grown, home-prepared food. Not the overly preserved, packaged stuff that dazzles the eye in modern supermarkets and big box stores. Continue reading