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Pelosi: Abortion issue won't sink health care bill
NPR
11/19/2009
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday predicted that she can corral enough moderate Democrats to guarantee passage of health care overhaul legislation -- even if it doesn't contain a controversial House proposal that would expand abortion limits.
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Premature-birth rate low in Washington
Seattle Times
11/17/2009
Premature-birth rates in the Pacific Northwest are among the lowest in the nation, but the March of Dimes says that earns Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska only C's on the organization's premature-birth report card.
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Building bikes and self-esteem
Yakima Herald-Republic
11/11/2009
Don't give George Villalobos a hacksaw. The 13-year-old bike mechanic-in-training might try to use it to remove a crusty tire from the rim of a road bike. He is pitching in at Lucky 7 Bikes, a volunteer-run shop in Sunnyside, WA that functions as a recycling, youth outreach and apprenticeship center and a is a product of gang prevention efforts.
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Generation recession
The Nation
11/05/2009
When David Thyme was an even younger man, his fantasies of early adulthood did not include a 9:30 pm curfew and a bed in Covenant House, a shelter for homeless youth. They also didn't include a recession so severe that his financially strapped father would ask him to help with rent - or kick him out when he couldn't find an entry-level job to do so.
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Study: Options are key in sex ed curriculum
Washington Post
11/06/2009
Sex education programs that encourage teens to delay sexual activity but also teach them how to reduce their chances of getting pregnant or a sexually transmitted disease cut risky sexual behavior, increase condom use and lower the chances of getting the AIDS virus and other infections, an independent expert panel concluded in a report released Friday.
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From he-cession to housework?
Toronto Globe and Mail
11/05/2009
An estimated two million wives are now the sole breadwinners in families across America as more men than women have been laid off in this recession. Experts say that unemployed husbands are probably taking on more of the housework and childcare duties - for now. But they don't expect that change to stick.
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'Everything but marriage' backers smell victory
Seattle Times
11/04/2009
Supporters of gay rights were buoyed by first-day returns that showed Referendum 71 leading by a narrow margin Tuesday evening. The trends looked positive for the measure, which would expand Washington's domestic-partnership law.
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Settling the 'which Vancouver?' question
Crosscut
11/03/2009
Cascadia has two Vancouvers, which causes confusion. That's why residents of Vancouver, WA are interested in re-branding their city, distinguishing it from their better-known neighbor to the north.
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Many workers can't afford the flu
Everett Herald
11/03/2009
For millions of Americans without paid sick leave, the rule is simple: If you don't come to work, you don't get paid. That idea drives an untold numbers of carpenters, day care workers, servers, shopkeepers and small-business owners to their jobs each day. Swine flu symptoms or not.
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Where's the birth control?
The Nation
11/01/2009
Just as the prognosis for our health-care system is beginning to look sunnier, another complication emerges: so far, reform legislation has failed to require insurers to cover some basic services for womens' health, including birth control.
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Brain gains
Seattle Times
10/27/2009
Many college graduates are passing up industrial centers and former hotspots in the Southwest in favor of life in urban, high-tech meccas, new Census numbers show. Portland, Seattle, Austin, Charlotte, and Raleigh saw large jumps in residents with at least a college degree. Each offers the promise of specialized tech jobs and hip lifestyles.
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Views: Opponents of R-71 resort to distractions
Seattle Times
10/27/2009
Opponents of Referendum 71 are using more arm waving and fancy footwork than an aerobics class. Groups working against a sensible expansion of Washington's domestic-partnership law are desperate to change the subject. They are inventing distractions.
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Bellevue: Washington's most diverse city
Seattle Times
10/27/2009
Bellevue continues to have the largest percentage of foreign-born residents of any city in Washington, the latest U.S. census figures show. About 31 percent of Bellevue's population, or more than 36,000 residents, is foreign-born, and one in every three residents speaks a language other than English at home,
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Views: Saying good-bye to the closet
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
10/25/2009
The last 45 years haven't always brought out the best in America. Still, we've made strides in broadening civil rights while pushing government out of our bedrooms. Referendum 71 offers WA state - and nation - a chance to say good-bye to shadows of the closet and move into the sunlight of a relaxed and inclusive society.
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California's water wars
The Economist
10/25/2009
From Australia to Israel, parched places all over the world are now looking to California to see whether, and how, it solves one of the most intractable problems of thirsty civilisations in dry regions.
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Unemployed and uninsured in OR
Salem Statesman Journal
10/21/2009
Oregon has been hit harder than any other state in the nation in terms of people losing health insurance because of job losses, a new national report shows. A quarter of working-age Oregonians now are uninsured, up from 22 percent last year.
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Baby boomers head for the country
Oregonian
10/04/2009
Urban planners have until now assumed that retiring baby boomers will downsize to a high-rise and spend their days lapping lattes and taking the streetcar to the art museum. But new data from the US Department of Agriculture says baby boomers will head to the country in big numbers, in the Northwest changing the face of rural Oregon, Washington and Idaho.
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Health care bills tackle gender gap
USA Today
10/04/2009
From a ban on insurance companies charging women more for the same policies as men to a requirement that companies provide maternity coverage in health plans, a host of little-known provisions in the health care legislation being debated in Congresss would correct longstanding inequities and offer more coverage to women at lower costs.
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Where do Seattleites come from?
Crosscut
09/30/2009
As Seattle finishes the first decade of Century 21, there are notable differences from the Seattle at the end of the 20th. If you ask a Seattleite where they were born, you're less likely to hear "Virginia Mason hospital" or even "Mt. Vernon," and more likely to hear "Somalia."
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WA shoreline rules to get first update in 30 years
Vancouver Columbian
09/30/2009
They say that land is valuable because they aren’t making any more of it. Washington voters thought those areas abutting rivers and lakes were important enough that they passed the Shoreline Management Act by referendum in 1972. Now, local governments are set to update land-use rules for shorelines.
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Homes, not handcuffs
Crosscut
09/29/2009
Seattle isn't close to becoming one of the "meanest cities" listed in a national report, but may soon try its own take on the often-harmful "civility laws" sweeping the country.
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Kent farm gives refugees a toehold
Seattle Times
09/27/2009
The Burundi refugees took jobs washing dishes until the wee hours in hotel kitchens, if they were lucky enough to find anything. They have been weighed down by isolation and shattered visions of America. Yet they have stumbled onto a new path that takes them back to their roots. Which is how they wound up planting potatoes amid the industrial warehouses of Kent, WA.
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The end of the unemployment line?
KPLU
09/22/2009
Unless lawmakers act quickly, thousands across the Northwest will soon cash their final unemployment insurance checks. They're part of a wave of people who've exhausted their jobless benefits, but still haven't found work.
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'Wonderful' stories from the job hunt
Tri-City Herald
09/23/2009
Ken Won has read the many tales of despair from the discouraged and growing ranks of the long-term unemployed. But the laid-off marketing man has launched a website full of different stories: about successful job hunts, the kindness of strangers during periods of unemployment and the energy and passions of those with time on their hands.
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Teens lack jobs despite stimulus effort
Seattle Times
09/23/2009
More than $1.2 billion in federal stimulus money was supposed to help teenagers find jobs this summer, but the effort barely made a dent. It yielded few new opportunities for teens competing with adults for the same low-wage positions at hamburger stands and community pools.
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