The Salem Statesman-Journal ran a pretty good piece on the E-waste bill today.
Here’s an interesting sidebar they ran just dealing with Marion County alone; the story mentioned that they DON’T currently accept TVs, so these figures are WITHOUT the biggest components of the toxic waste stream (and which also means that they are going into [...]

With all the energy devoted to the bottle bill, don’t forget to make mention of the far more important toxic e-waste bill whenever you talk to a legislator.
There’s lots of arguments about how best to deal with empty pop bottles–there’s no argument about the need to keep toxics and heavy metals out of the environment! [...]

The Achievement Gap is real and important. Our schools must address this issue in a positive and assertive fashion that allows for the educational growth of all students. Eugene School District 4j, where I taught for 33 years, seems to support the adopting of a one-size-fits-all reading and writing curriculum. Under this program. [...]

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps
Last autumn, there was a military coup in Thailand. The leaders of the coup took a number of steps, rather systematically, as if they had a shopping list. In a sense, they did. Within a matter of days, democracy had been closed down: the coup leaders declared martial law, sent [...]

Dubya Doesn’t Believe Climate Change, But Look Who Does.
From EB comes this interesting bit. Click on the link to read the entire article.
WASHINGTON, D.C. (April 16, 2007) Global climate change presents a serious national security threat that could affect Americans at home, impact U.S. military operations and heighten global tensions, according to a study [...]

If you look at the “Action Center” link up there, it takes you to an important page where you can find links for taking “action” on various subjects—all marked urgent! (These days, taking action is pretty much defined as communicating with your elected employees in Salem.)
One suspects that Onward Oregon readers don’t suffer from [...]

Someone posted this as a comment to a post on the Portland Bicycle Transportation Alliance blog:
Frustrated with yet again trying to use Google Maps and Mapquest to figure out a bike route to someplace I’ve never been, I had a sudden realization–these folks are missing a HUGE business opportunity. One that you can help them [...]

Now bring it to Oregon! In Salem, house bill 2761 (HB 2761) passed out of committee with 6-1, and is now circling the house floor, trying to squeeze out the last few “yea” votes — for a bill that makes absolutely nobody do nothing they don’t want to.
That’s right–all HB 2761 does is give [...]

(This affects you no matter what substantive issues you are most interested in. Driving out small publishers will do to our discourse what Sprawl-Mart does to Main Street businesses in Oregon.)
POST OFFICE TO END 215 YEARS OF SUPPORT OF A FREE PRESS
BOB MCCHESNEY - The U.S. Post Office is in the process of [...]

STUDY: HEALTH RISK FROM ETHANOL
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - A new study out of Stanford says pollution from ethanol could end up creating a worse health hazard than gasoline, especially for people with asthma and other respiratory diseases. “Ethanol is being promoted as a clean and renewable fuel that will reduce global warming and air pollution,” [...]