Template:News

News

Sunday | February 13, 2011

For decades, Amtrak has mastered the art of low-speed rail.

America Is Number One In Low-Speed & No-Speed Rail
Whether political inertia, public inattention, corporate malfeasance, natural "events," or just plain stupidity, nothing stops American Rail from delivering decent, reliable and effective passenger service, with one exception: everything. This time a mudslide north of Vancouver shut down Amtrak train service between Portland and Seattle. The tracks -- which are owned by BNSF railroad -- were passable, but BNSF protocol was "not to have any live passengers shipped through the area" at the time.

Go to story: Mudslide Halts Amtrak Service Yet Again

Go to story: Mudslide halts Portland-Seattle Amtrak service

Saturday | February 12, 2011

"Care you can have faith in."

Faith-Based Health Care: Minus The "Health" Or The "Care"
Birgilio Marin-Fuentes, 61, died early Friday in Portland Adventist Medical Center's parking garage, just 100 feet from the hospital's emergency room's entrance. Police who arrived at the scene said no one from the staff of Portland Adventist Medical Center helped as officers tried to revive him. In fact, the only medical help the officers received was from an ambulance crew after hospital staff members told an officer to call 911. CEO Tom Russell released a statement filled with the usual bland we're-doing-our-best-but-we'll-do-better-next-time boilerplate dished out whenever a large organization gets caught "fornicating with the donkey." The key takeaway: "We have followed this practice (of calling 911 rather than taking care of the medical emergency) many times in the past year, as we did this past Thursday and will continue to do in the future." Now that's care you can have faith in!

Go to story: Man Dies Yards From Emergency Room Door

Go to story: Portland Adventist tells police to call an ambulance for man stricken in hospital's parking lot

Go to statement: "Care you can have faith in."

Friday | February 11, 2011

Liberty is beautiful to behold.

Can You Walk Like An Egyptian?
A decaying, rabidly immoral kleptocracy of rapacious plutocrats, tyrannical corporate charlatans, and criminally insane financial swindlers. An expanding archipelago of prisons, detention camps and torture centers. Whorish and corrupt legislators who bend servile knee to suckle at the rancid tip of their paymasters. The giant sucking sound of a nation's wealth gushing into the black hole of a privatized aristocracy. Violent religious extremists who run amok to terrorize ordinary people and kill at will. A mass media whose exquisite mastery of propaganda, disinformation and psychological warfare would have George Orwell stammering with horror and amazement. A largely apathetic, distracted, ignorant and psychically numb population. Sadly, this is the poisonous social milieu that Portlandians and other Americans still swim in. Thank God our Egyptian friends are, after suffering years of tyranny and with much struggle, beginning to shake off the terrible thugs who've brutalized them for so long. So what's stopping us?

Go to story: When Democracy Weakens

Go to story: Egypt's Revolution: Triumph as Mubarak quits

Thursday | February 10, 2011

Hawthorne Bridge has frequent bus service, as well as bike, pedestrian, and car access.

Portland ranked #1 in public transportation
According to U.S. News, Portland offers the best public transportation in the US. The rankings were based on public investment, ridership, and safety. Citing Portland's buses, light rail, commuter rail, streetcars, and aerial tram, as well as Fareless Square (recently demoted from offering free service to bus and rail lines to just rail lines), U.S. News ranked Portland above Salt Lake City (#2), New York City (#3), and Boston (#4). Our big sister to the north, Seattle, ranked at #11 due to its poor safety record.

Go to story: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/08/10-best-cities-for-public-transportation

Wednesday | February 9, 2011

Greendrinks Are For Sustainers

Drink, Flirt, & Build "Sustainable Communities: Together"
Do you mix well with others? Can you at least mix a stiff drink? Do you enjoy greenwashing whatever activity you're involved in as much as the next urban ecosexual? Well your golden, uh, emerald moment draws near! Tomorrow evening (Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm) you're invited to participate in "Net Impact Mixer - Help Us Build Sustainable Communities: Together." Think of it as a "green mixer." Everyone else does. Join the festivities at Upright Brewing, 240 North Broadway (yup! that's North, NOT Northeast), Suite 2 Leftbank Project Portland , OR 97227.

Go to event: Net Impact Mixer - Help Us Build Sustainable Communities: Together

Tuesday | February 8, 2011

Rumor consumer or tumor bloomer?

Proposed bill would require warning labels for cell phones
Amid growing controversy over the long-term health effects of cell phone radiation, Oregon state senator Chip Shields and 5 other Oregon lawmakers have introduced a bill (SB 679) that would require cell phones in Oregon to have labels warning of their radio-frequency radiation. Long-term studies have thus far been inconclusive about possible harmful effects of cell phones, such as brain cancer. If passed, Oregon would be the first to require labels on cell phones for radio-frequency radiation. Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and the CTIA wireless trade group have already hired lobbyists to fight the bill.

Go to story: Oregon considers cellphone radiation label

Monday | February 7, 2011

The Free & Open Internet: Never had it; never will.

The "Internet Kill Switch" And You
Last month, PortlandWikiNews brought you a preview of Portland's (then) upcoming Strategic BroadBand Plan kick-off event. That report also highlighted concerns many in our community have about the "gatekeeper" roles large corporations increasingly exert over public access to the Internet, once widely considered a public utility. (See "The Internet: Just Another Cable TV Box?"; Wednesday | January 26, 2011.) These same corporations (in Portland, they're primarily Qwest and Comcast) continue to impose fierce political and economic pressure to assure their increased control over the Internet, and to defeat any genuine guarantee of "net neutrality" (allowing unimpeded access and delivery of all Internet traffic). But the Egyptian government's decision to hit the "kill switch"--shutting off that country's Internet traffic during most of that country's ongoing pro-democracy revolt--has alarmed pro-democracy advocates all over the globe. It has also exposed some of the more sinister motives underlying efforts by governments and large businesses to put control of the global network into the hands of a handful of corporate and state actors. Were you aware that "almost all of the industrialized 'first world' Internet" traffic, including in the United States, "is moderately to pervasively censored by government authorities"?

Go to story: Infographics: Internet Censorship Is Rampant Around the World

Go to info graphic: So you still think the Internet is free.

Go to kill switch: How Egypt did (and your government could) shut down the Internet

(Go to older news stories >>>)