2012 conventions 2012 election 2013 session 2013 special election arts arts and culture author ballot measures basketball bomb books boy scouts budget bullying business charlie hales children clackamas climate change coal college courts crime culture culture club democrats drugs economy education environment family film fluoride food gay rights guns handguns health health care health insurance high school history housing immigration international internet kitzhaber law legislature lgbt literary arts living marijuana marriage media medicine mental health military minor parties mohamed mohamud movies music native americans news newspaper obama olympics oregon our town parenting pers photography police politcs politics port portland portland business journal president prevention public safety religion republicans rnc romney rural salem sam adams sandy hook schools science shooting sports suicide supreme court taxes television terrorism theater third parties transportation union university of oregon washington wildfire women

I can see all the downsides of the current health care reform plan, at least the one coming from the Senate Finance Committee.  It's too bad people inside the Beltway can't seem to get behind Senator Wyden's plan.  But in answer to the day's question, in general, I'd rather be "forced" to pay for my own family's health insurance than to be paying for the families of the uninsured, which is what happens now.   In other words, I'd rather pay for their insurance directly through increased taxes and subsidies than indirectly through increased insurance premiums (which also give more profit to the insurance companies). 

 Patricia Oldham

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
view in context

I agree with Ms Brown that we need local and regional news sources.  We subscribe to the daily Oregonian for local and state-wise news, including that from the legislature in Salem.  We also pick up one of the weekly papers from time to time to get a different point of view.  Most of the national and world news in the Oregonian comes from other news sources - the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, AP, etc., but is often reported in more detail than TV or radio news. 

I would read the newspaper on line (I look through the NY Times and read their editorials every day), but I don't waste a lot of time with blogs for hard news.  It's too hard to tell who is reporting facts and who is giving his or her opinion.

If local and regional newspapers can't raise enough money from local advertisers to function, they can't give away their product on the web.  It will be instructive to watch how the Seattle paper does with its web-only news.

I'm looking forward to this discussion... 

Patricia Oldham

posted 3 years, 7 months ago
view in context

I'm a mom who struggled with motivating our kids to get good grades and was going to say I didn't think a financial incentive would be a good idea.  Then I remembered that when our older son wanted to get a car, we told him we would buy his insurance only if he maintained a B average to get the insuance company's "good student" price break.  And you know?  It worked.  Now I'm only sorry we didn't set the bar a littler higher to see how well he might have done...

By the time kids get to high school, they either think learning is fun or they don't, so whatever will help keep them interested and involved in school is a good idea.  And isn't money what we're using to get our kids to go on to college, with all those statistics about how much more money people with higher degrees can make and scholarships dangling in front of kids with the best grades? 

By the way, both our kids did graduate from college, not with an eye toward making lots of money, but because they found something else that really inspired them.  As they matured, they figured out, as many people do, why education is important, but at 13 they sure didn't understand it.

posted 3 years, 9 months ago
view in context

I would really miss the daily Oregonian which I can read while curling up on my comfy sofa - much nicer that my computer chair.  That said, I read the NY Times on-line and really enjoy that, too.  It's easy and very informative to browse though the news.  I think we get pretty much the whole paper so investigative articles and full editorials are available.  I also like being able to follow links provided to other stories and resources, something not possible, at least conveniently, on the printed page. My fear is that newpapers are cutting newsroom staff in an effort to cut costs.  If going on-line with save those jobs, it will be worth getting a new computer chair.  It's important to keep many sources and viewpoints on a news event and not just re-publish the same wire service stories. We do need daily newspapers of one sort or another to keep an informed electorate.  While newspapers are not without bias, they are accountable and generally do at least minimal fact-checking, something I'm not sure about of internet bloggers.   I'm also not sure that increasing use of photos and sound-bites is a good thing.  In some ways we are already too reliant on visual stimulation and don't take the time to digest the words that go with the story.  Like headlines, photos can be misleading.
Dave - I like the look of the new website.  Good job!

posted 4 years, 3 months ago
view in context

It might be OK to make small home improvements such as a short fence or small, on-the-ground deck without a permit. That said, we recently added 350 square feet to the second story of our house, including new plumbing and a new electrical panel for less that $35,000 We did some of the work ourselves, and I was glad to have a knowledgeable inspector come to to assure us that everything was safe and up to code. And when we sell the house, the new owner will be sure of it, too... Would you want to buy a house without knowing how safe it was?

posted 4 years, 6 months ago
view in context

I agree with one aspect of the Mannix-Parks idea that the criminal justice segment of our budget needs strengthening. But that's something we Oregonians should be paying for in a more progressing way - maybe by those much maligned income taxes. By depending on lottery funds, we move the responsibility to those who choose to gamble, often the folks on the low end of the income scale. (The same is true for education funding, but we can't put that egg back together). The bottom line we should not be living on the hope that all those people who spend their money on lottery tickets will never get wake up from the dream of winning the big one. Too bad those smart fellows (Mannix and Park) don't spend their energy on finding truly equitable forms of funding for all the very important things our state government does for us.

posted 4 years, 8 months ago
view in context

There is lots of in-migration, and it probably doesn't really matter much where it's coming from. In what parts of the state are these people settling, and is there a difference in their demographic? Are older people moving to Central and Southern Oregon and younger ones to the Portland Metro area?

posted 5 years, 4 months ago
view in context