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Play Your Cardigans Right

Americans look with dread toward this winter’s heating bills Skyrocketing energy costs aren’t just kicking Americans in the gas tank — they’re punching Americans right in the bills. The home-heating bills, that is. Folks are expected to spend $600 billion this year on oil purchases (including home heating oil), about $210 billion more than two […]

Gorge Push

Northwest’s Columbia River Gorge challenged by smog, acid fog Hundreds of miles north of California’s cow-poot-clogged San Joaquin Valley (yes, that was just an excuse to mention cow poots), the Columbia River Gorge along the border between Oregon and Washington is facing its own battle of the haze, with views of nearby Mount Hood often […]

Raider of the Last Parks

Proposal to change national-park rules stirring up controversy National parks are cool and all, but you know what they really need? More people on cell phones! That — along with more snowmobiling and off-roading — could happen under revisions to National Park Service policy proposed by Bush appointee Paul Hoffman, deputy assistant secretary of the […]

What are ‘price caps’

Hawaii has responded to soaring gas prices by capping wholesale prices at $2.74/gallon including taxes, starting September 1st. This would put the retail cap at about $2.86, slightly higher than the state-wide average but significantly lower than prices in Maui, which are over $3/gallon.

Africa goes cellular

One in eleven Africans is now ... a mobile phone subscriber.

Africa has an average of just one land line for every 33 people, but cellphones are enabling millions of people to skip a technological generation and bound straight from letter-writing to instant messaging.

Sound familiar?

Souter’s land courted

In a bizarre new development in the backlash from Kelo v. New London, a developer has put forth a plan to build a hotel on SCOTUS Justice Souter's land in New Hampshire. He plans to invoke -- you guessed it -- eminent domain to justify the land grab.

I heard it on NPR, as they say.

Drivers panic at the pump

Are rising gas prices driving some people to the brink? Late last week, a station attendant in Alabama was run over and killed while trying to stop a dude from stealing $52 worth of gas. (The driver just turned himself in.) And today, on my new favorite web feature "Gas Gripes," a woman reports that her credit card was stolen and used to buy not a TV or a diamond ring, but -- you guessed it -- gas.

I was going to be all delicate and say you couldn't draw a trend from such isolated events. But behold, the glory of the web. An AP story on MSNBC today bears the headline, "Rising gasoline prices spur thefts, violence." And if the AP says it, it must be true. (Right, Pat?)

Last year, sneaky drivers made off with an astonishing $237 million in stolen gas, the story says. A spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores (whose site offers tips for preventing gas theft) had this to say: "As the price of gas climbs, people's values decline."

PBDEs may pass PCBs as biggest chemical threat

Dumb headline (unless you're a Fantastic Four fan), but a serious subject. A new chemical analysis, being released today by California EPA scientists at an international scientific conference in Toronto, shows that 30 percent of Northwest moms tested had higher levels of the toxic flame retardants PBDEs in their bodies than of well-known chemical threats PCBs. This study is a follow-up to the PBDE study of Northwest women Northwest Environment Watch did last year.

The study provides pretty unambiguous evidence that PBDEs have emerged as a major toxic menace. And it suggests that, if recent trends continue, PBDEs could soon overtake PCBs as the most dominant "organohalogen" pollutant in people's bodies.

And an interesting -- and probably significant -- side note to the study was that there was no correlation between PCB and PBDE levels. This suggests that the two classes of compounds may get into people's bodies through different pathways. At this point, the principle source of PCB contamination in people is food, particularly fish. For PBDEs, nobody is sure; but a recent exposure modeling study from Canada suggests that ordinary housedust, containing minute quantities of PBDEs sloughed off from furniture and the like, may be the principle route of exposure in people. (More here.)

Seriously, now — why aren’t organics getting affordable?

So you like whole-grain bread, pesticide-free plums, and low-fat meat? Better ask for a raise. A recent study by researchers at the University of California-Davis reported that U.S. shoppers who consistently choose healthy foods spend nearly 20 percent more on groceries. The study also said the higher price of these healthier choices can consume 35 […]

Which state is full of skinny Minnies?

This just in: last year, Oregon was the only state in the U.S. where the obesity rate didn't increase. Huzzah for the Beaver State!

Though static, Oregon's 21 percent rate is not the lowest in the nation. That honor belongs to Colorado, where a mere 16.4 percent of citizens weigh in as obese. (Those looking deeper point out that it's not quite that simple. For instance, 59 percent of Oregonians are obese or overweight. "I don't think we can rest on our laurels and say we don't have a problem," said state epidemiologist Melvin Kohn.)

In both states, careful urban planning and a looove of outdoor fun are cited as contributors to good health. While some -- including the group issuing this study, the Trust for America's Health -- are calling for government intervention in the form of nutritious school lunches, smarter urban layouts, and Medicaid subsidization of fitness programs, others disagree. "I think obesity is a very personal issue," said a policy analyst from the Cato Institute. "What you eat and how often you exercise, if that comes within the government's purview, it's difficult to think of what's left that isn't."

In other words: stuff it.