If the money falls into place, a few months from now Hillsdale will boast the first public school in the Northwest to install and use solar energy panels for the majority of its power. Reike Elementary hopes to convert 60 percent of its power to solar and give students a hands-on education in alternative energy.
But now the tough stuff: To actually build the panels, a corporation needs to invest in the project. Fat local, state, and federal tax credits cover most of the $800,000 cost, but the federal credits end in 2009. That means a planning and construction process that usually takes eight months to a year would have to get done between now and New Year’s.
Can it be done? According to Solar Commercial Ventures developer Sandra Walden, “It’s definitely a challenge.” SM
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Downtown convenience store owner Doug Peterson plans to address city council on Wednesday morning, July 9, about the city’s decision to evict his store from its flagship SW 10th and Morrison location next month.
Peterson told the Mercury on Tuesday that he had collected more than 3,000 signatures on a petition opposing his eviction, and that he plans to tell the city commissioners about the public comments he has gathered.
“They say things like: landmark, asset, staple, needed, part of the character of the community, vital to a livable downtown, I live in the neighborhood, feel safer waiting for the MAX, and so on,” he says.
Peterson has also dug up a TriMet study encouraging the opening of 24-hour convenience stores on the new bus mall. “The city’s own studies have indicated we’re good for downtown,” he says. “And I’ve received absolutely no response from the city commissioners on this.” Check blogtown.portlandmercury.com for updates. MD
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A security guard working for Pioneer Courthouse Square told a street kid on Monday, July 7, he was “stealing electricity from the city,” after he plugged his cell phone into a power outlet in one of the square’s flower beds.
“I just see an open outlet, somewhere I can plug my phone in,” said the kid. “It’s not posted anywhere that I can’t plug my phone in here.”
“Well, it’s posted somewhere,” said the guard. “It’s just not posted here.” Pacific Patrol Services, which is responsible for the rent-a-cops, referred the Mercury to Pioneer Courthouse Square for comment.
“It’s the same rules for everybody,” says Pioneer Square Director of Facilities Mahlin Shisler. “It isn’t directed at any one group of people.” MD
Sirs:
A citizens group in San Francisco wants to pay an ironic tribute to President George W Bush when he leaves office – by naming a sewage plant after him. BBC World News, 10 July
It’s enough to give s*** a bad name.
And, it seems homosexual behavior is common in nature, and it plays an important role in survival at least according to an article in the July 2008 Scientific Am. Next they’ll show that bigotry, hatred and religious mania are also genetic. Along with Down’s Syndrom and television evangelism. Let’s hope they find a cure.
And finally, have you heard what neo Nazi commentator Rush Limbaugh called equally fascist Bill O’Reilly in a 06 July New York Times Magazine article? According to the author, Rush Limbaugh said “somebody’s got to say it. The man is Ted Baxter.” Now let’s hope someone explains to O’Reilly, who once graced Portland’s media scene from the desk at KATU News, who Ted Baxter was.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d’Paganus-Fatuus
WHAT’S GOOD FOR PIMPS IS GOOD FOR THE U.S.
Sirs:
John R. Miller, former US State Department Ambassador, broke the news of an especially enlightened program in an OpEd piece appearing in the New York Times on July 11th, 2008.
According to Mr. Miller, the U.S. Justice Department is throwing its full weight into the fight for expand sexual slavery into all corners of our land.
According to Miller, officials at our Justice department oppose grading foreign governments on how well they combat sexual slavery and whether those governments put traffickers in jail, and including this information in the State Department’s annual report on trafficking.
Officials at our Justice department also oppose the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services streamlining the process of helping foreign trafficking victims get visas to visit the U.S. and receive the care the alledgedly require.
In addition, officials at Justice oppose Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, State and Justice Departments pooling data on human trafficking, explaining that if no one knows the extent of the problem, fewer people will complain.
Officials at our Justice department oppose the U.S. State Department giving information on American anti-trafficking phone lines to visa applicants at American consulates overseas.
This aggressive stance by Justice is especially good news for the entrepreneurs of the prostitution industry who will be protected by several special provisions of the legislation supported by the Justice Department.
The Justice Department strongly objects to a provision making it easier to prosecute pimps, the chief slaveholders in the United States, and even opposes taking away from pimps the defense that they “didn’t know a child’s age”.
Our Justice Department even opposes expanding its own efforts to combat human sexual trafficking. The reason given by officials at Justice is that enforcing sexual slavery laws is just not worth their time and energy since most of the victims are women and children from other parts of the world
And, no, I’m not making this up. For more information on the Justice Departments position on sexual slavery, please go to http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/opinion/11miller.html
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d’Paganus-Fatuus
Sirs:
Harumph. I know what goes around comes around, and, that hair styles, too, come and go out of style.
The current style, though, the Kewpie Doll, makes me wonder what’s going on.
This is a style originated in 1905 by Rose O’Neill in a series of drawings for the Ladies Home Journal. The drawings were of a little imp or elf with the hair combed up in a peak on top of the head. Sort of a poor man’s Mohawk.
Do all of you with said hairstyle know the source of this style, that you look like a children’s doll from 1905?
Not that it matters, really.
I remain your humble servant,
Jacomus d’Paganus-Fatuss