Generation Recreation

Struggling to Buy Local and Resist Factory Farming

The atrocious state of our industrialized food system, which is dominated by big agribusiness, is nothing new. But even for the well-educated consumer with the best of intentions, it’s much easier to shake our heads, rue the way things are and say to ourselves there’s no good alternative.  I’m doing my best not to bury my head in the sand, but there’s often a disconnect between what my stomach wants and what I know is good for my body and good for the earth.

From the Panhandle With Cate Huisman

Commissioners Cogitate Over Consumption by Car

The Sandpoint City Council hit a hot button last year when it proposed a temporary restriction on the construction of drive-through fast-food places. Council members wanted some time to consider how this kind of land use fit with the newly minted Comprehensive Plan, and the city had sprouted a drive-through Jack-in-the-Box while the plan was being cogitated over. Shortly thereafter, a corrugated metal farm shed turned up next to Highway 2 that turned out to be a drive-through convenience store.

After the ban was passed, certain members of the community vehemently voiced their disapproval, and one owner of a restaurant that had both drive-through and sit-down options posted a notice on the order counter suggesting that the city planning director go back to where he came from, inspiring some other community members to dine elsewhere.

Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

If U txt & drv U suk

Finally, some good news about drinking and driving.

Car and Driver magazine reported that texting while driving is more dangerous than drunken driving, thanks mostly to self-absorbed teenagers and undisciplined technodorks behind the wheel. Texting and talking on cell phones while driving resulted in almost 6,000 deaths on U.S. roads last year, according to DOT officials gathered for a “distracted driving summit” last month. Although that’s only about half the number of people killed by drunk drivers, it’s an alarming—and fast-growing—statistic. And that doesn’t even include the hundreds killed while trying to dig out a warm hunk of Dunkin Donuts sausage biscuit from deep in their crotch. (As far as the five-second rule goes, that remains a grey area. So to speak.)

Alternative Energy

Feds Grant $30 million for Central Oregon Geothermal Project

A Central Oregon geothermal project many years in the making continues to heat up following a recent announcement that nearly $30 million will go toward work near Newberry Crater.

Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley announced the Energy Department grants would be coming through for seven Oregon projects. An estimated $25 million will be designated to power-producing technology involving water injected into the earth and about $4.5 million on technology to locate geothermal reservoirs at Newberry, according to Wyden.

“This funding will literally help to bring Oregon’s geothermal energy potential to the surface,” Wyden stated in a released statement. “It will create and sustain jobs improving alternative energy technology to better tap into Oregon’s unique set of renewable energy resources.”

We’ve been covering this story on NewWest.Net for several years, and this is by far the biggest advancement in the project.

Rugged Stuff

Garth is back.  Can you swing a second mortgage?

Garth is back.

Last month, Garth Brooks announced that he was coming out of retirement.  When I initially heard the news, I was pleased.  Garth is the biggest country music act that I haven’t caught in a live performance.  So I figured I was going to get another chance at him.

The Idaho Group Blog

Economic Double Bubble, Toil and Trouble

With slow but steady improvement in the economy’s vital signs, two questions are gnawing at analysts’ brain pans.  First, is this a sustainable recovery with the power to fuel substantial job growth?  Second, what will happen when the “double bubble” ruptures and some $1.7 trillion in commercial real estate notes come due over the next few years?

Most economic prognosticators portend a sluggish recovery with continued job losses throughout 2010.  New job growth will be slow, they say.  Too many businesses are changing fast or forever gone, like GM’s Saturn Division.  We can’t expect the same jobs to reappear and be filled by the same folks who were laid off.  Plus, globalization and the Internet have changed the game.  Look for new jobs to develop in health care, education, government and within new or fast-changing industries.

As for the double bubble effect, commercial real estate values are down about 35 percent since the peak in 2007, according to Moody’s.  Unlike residential mortgages, commercial loans are much shorter term—usually five to 10 years.  The first $300 billion in commercial-backed securities will come due in 2010.  Obviously, many businesses are on their knees due to the slowdown.  So there is a shortage of cash to payoff real estate loans, especially where property values have fallen far below contract values, which would cause buyers to bring even more cash to the closing table to accomplish a refinancing.  Meantime, lenders have locked down their underwriting guidelines and all but stopped making commercial loans, despite claims that they are open for business.

internet technology

Idaho Awaiting Broadband Mapping Grant

In addition to funding broadband projects in the states, particularly in rural areas, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, also known as the stimulus package, includes funds for collection of state-level broadband data, as well as state-wide broadband mapping and planning.

Bob Wire Has a Point (It's Under His Cowboy Hat)

Enjoying the World Series in Semi-Ignorance

I am thoroughly digging this World Series, mostly as an educational event. That’s because I don’t have much of a stake in either team, beyond a mild dislike for the Yankees, and having a gonzo cartoonist/tattoo artist friend from Philadelphia. So I’m pulling for the Phillies, but when they lose a game I’m able to let it go by the time I climb out of the recliner to fetch a post-game barley pop.

As a casual baseball fan, I don’t even start to pay attention until the playoffs. Even then, I embarrass myself in conversations, with pronouncements like, “It would be kinda cool to see the Twins get back in the Series. Maybe Prince would sing the national anthem,” only to be told, “Yeaaaaaah. Um, they were swept in the divisionals two weeks ago, Mr. Baseball.”

I’m the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about our national pastime, or the crazy-ass lingo that goes with it. But I still like watching it. Up until last week, for example, I thought the “Mendoza line” was where you stood while waiting to purchase a “backdoor slider,” which I assumed was a greasy burrito. A “Baltimore chop” is not a slice of pork, I learned, and a “Texas Leaguer” is not a baseball team owner from the Bush family. I’m still being taken by surprise by these arcane, colorful terms. When I heard some announcer refer to a home run as a “dong,” I nearly spit out a mouthful of tater. So much to learn.

In Sandpoint, Progressing Toward a Less Cantakerous Council

Sandpoint’s seven city council candidates didn’t exactly duke it out in public debate last Wednesday evening; in fact they revealed that they agree on many big issues, although their approaches to those issues may vary. Most significantly, they all seem eager to implement the city’s new Comprehensive Plan, adopted last year after countless hours of debate among members of the council and the public. They only major issue on which there was a significant division of opinion was the city’s water treatment bond, with some candidates in favor of approving it and others opposed.

So how’s a responsible voter to choose?

Observers of the council over the past several years will recall some contentious and lengthy meetings, with interaction among council members not always entirely copacetic.