Couple ways to keep up
Salem City Club is holding two events related to the November general election.
On Friday, October 12, they will present a debate on Measure 82/83, two measures that concern privately owned casinos in Oregon. Measure 82 amends the Oregon Constitution to allow casinos to be owned by individuals. This breaks from present law, which allows Native American tribes to possess sole rights to that industry.
On Friday October 19, another debate will involve candidates for Oregon Secretary of State. The candidates are Democratic incumbent Kate Brown, Republican challenger Dr. Knute Buehler and Bob Wolfe of the Oregon Progressive Party. The three have recently skirmished publicly over campaign spending issues
I love you and your stickers
Hate speech is alive and well in Salem bumper stickers. Is this funny or mean?
Organizing against coal trains
“The truth be told there are no economic benefits to coal trains in Oregon,” says Lucy Sedgewick, organizer for Sierra Club’s Power Past Coal alliance here in Salem. “Especially in a town like this, that will be literally bisected by 1 1/2 mile trains several times a day, that will take at least 9 minutes to pass each crossing,” if plans for shipping coal through Pacific ports go through.
To educate and involve the community, Sedgewick and Power Past Coal are presenting a Coal Hard Truth Forum on October 10th from 7-8:30 PM at the Willamette University College of Law in the Paulus Lecture Hall Room 201.
Speakers confirmed thus far are: Reverend Rick Davis of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Salem, Dr. Martin Donohoe, MD, Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health at Portland State University and senior physician at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Hospital and a speaker from Power Past Coal.
Clean is the new dirty
CFC lightbulbs are celebrated as being environmentally friendly. They use about 1/4th the power and last up to 10 times longer than conventional bulbs. But – did you know? They aren’t even manufactured in the United States because the mercury inside them violates US health regulations. They’ve got mercury in there. Bad in our landfills – and bad for the factory workers in China and India who get sick making them.
