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TOL Our Town
- A tumblr site dedicated to the people and places that make up Oregon and Southwest Washington.
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cfbednarek's comments:
on Intervention in Libya
Libya contributes less than 2% to the world's oil supply. Most of Libya's oil goes to Italy and central Europe.
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Strategic Default
What does Mr. Dupras plan on doing once his credit is completely trashed? Someone please address the consequences of walking away from a financial agreement like a mortgage. Is default better than filing for bankruptcy?
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Food Access
Jeff Cogan needs to take some classes in market economics. The desire for a business to succeed does not equal success. Property taxes are probably the smallest operating cost for a business.
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Peace Corps Turns Fifty
Read Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux to gain an interesting perspective on the widespread corruption, apathy and failure of NGOs in Eastern Africa.
posted 2 years, 2 months ago
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on Live from Salem
How does the legislation for illegal immigrants to get instate tuition prevent out of state students from declaring themselves illegal immigrants and gaining in state tuition? Any out of state student could state they are in the country illegally and then only have to pay in state tuition. What is the cost in terms of lost tuition costs to the state?
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Live from Salem
Instead of cutting programming, maybe OPB could cut staff. I never hear any discussion of wage and benefit packages for OPB employees during pledge drive. I would guess wages are the highest cost for OPB, not programs. Maybe TOL could do a show that highlights the 30 top earning employees of OPB and their wage/benefit packages. I think donors would find such a show very enlightening. How is every dollar spent at OPB?
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Creating Sustainable Jobs
A little off subject.How did the double decker bus/business skirt the American with Disabilities Act? Does running a power cord from an electric meter to a business for power meet Portland electric code? Are these methods to achieve sustainability?
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Closing & Consolidating Schools
Closing 3 of 9 schools allows the district to spend money more efficiently. Obviously 3 schools are underutilized. You can't always have the luxury of walking to your child's school. Considering the size of Lake Oswego I can't imagine the next nearest school is more than 5 minutes away. Lake Oswego provides some of the best public school education in the state, if not the Pacific Northwest.
posted 2 years, 3 months ago
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on Toxic Water?
The Bend water had .78 parts chromium-6 per billion parts of water. What volume of water has 1 billion molecules of H2O?
posted 2 years, 4 months ago
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on The 2010 Election Divide
I suspect liberals are optimistic because they rely beliefs and hope not facts and reality. a good example is the recent revelation that Al Gore pushed for ethanol to be a efficient energy source but had no hard proof. He hoped it was, he believed it was, but there were no facts or science to support his hopes. Baseless optimism. And he stood to gain a look of money and political support from corn growers and ethanol producers.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Somali Communities
I don't understand why people think the actions of one person represents an entire group. Where is the persecution of all Hondurans after the attack on Gert Boyle by 3 Hondurans.
These Somali individuals on today's show are very articulate and have an excellent command of the English language. Where did they learn English? Did they learn as part of The Portland Public Schools ELL program? I commend them for wanting to live the American Dream and recognizing the importance of speaking and understanding English.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Public Transit
Does Carlotta Collette use Trimet on a regular basis? If not, why not?
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Public Transit
Mr. Hansen, please discuss the failures of WES. If $167 million had been spent on improving bus service on the entire West side of Portland what level of improved service would the entire West side of Portland have experienced. Instead Trimet is operating a very expensive train that serves a minor portion of the commuting population.
Mrs. Collette, why does the Oregon Zoo rent parking spaces a mile away from the zoo for its employees? Why are these employees then shuttled in a van to the zoo? The Oregon Zoo sits on top of a major Trimet station. Shouldn't all zoo employees be required to use mass transit? Is Trimet capable of serving the commuting needs of most zoo employees?
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bomb Plot in Portland
Any halfway motivated, 19 year old, engineering student could fashion a fully functioning bomb on his own. I don't think he would have lost interest.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bomb Plot in Portland
If only these 'out of control agencies' could have stopped the Woodburn bombers. Then a family would still have their father and husband, and a man would still have all his limbs.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on Bomb Plot in Portland
Mohamud had ample opportunities to back out of this plot. He could have backed out at anytime during the plotting of this bombing. He wasn't entrapped. I believe he wanted to hurt as many Portlanders as possible last Friday.
Any time during this plot Mohamud could have gone to any law enforcement and turned himself and his co-conspirators. But he didn't.
If Mohamud had not connected with the undercover agents, he would have found another way to commit an act of terrorism. He admitted his devotion to violent jihad and his desire to hurt Americans.
I do not understand any sympathy for this man.
posted 2 years, 5 months ago
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on A Mighty Wind in Union County
Considering the conditions on the Oregon coast, I can not imagine an energy generating device capable of withstand steady winds of 20-30 mph gusting to 70 mph or more. Winter storms bring gusts over 100 mph. The swell at Newport 2 days ago was 18-24 feet. Producing breaking waves up to 40'. How will a tower withstand these harsh conditions? I think it is folly to expect them to last. It is not unusual for several NOAA buoys to break free of their moorings each winter. What happens when a 300 foot tall tower or a giant hydraulic wave energy buoy breaks loose washes up on the shore?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on A Mighty Wind in Union County
Governor Kulongoski directed the Oregon Energy Department to declare that hydroelectric power is not renewable. It does not count toward toward future renewable goals.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on A Mighty Wind in Union County
Would someone please address the life span of a wind farm. What happens after 10 or 15 years? Are the turbines constantly rebuilt? If cheaper alternatives to wind come on line are the towers abandoned? Or are bonds posted to pay for the removal of obsolete technology. Google 'abandoned wind farms' to see some disturbing images of thousands of turbines left derelict in California and Hawaii. Will rural Oregon counties be stuck with the expensive removal of these towers 10 or 20 years from now?
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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on A Mighty Wind in Union County
Ignorance among the general population is the largest obstacle to nuclear power. Most people associate nuclear power with Chernobyl or Three mile Mile Island. They have no idea that modern nuclear power plants bear no resemblance to those dinosaurs. People fail to realize that places like Hanford are relics of the Cold War when nuclear wastes were poorly understood and disposal was unregulated.
With out a massive education campaign nuclear energy will never be accepted in the U.S.
posted 2 years, 6 months ago
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