New SE Portland education center, housing development for Native American foster care children moves forward

A program to provide stable housing and a positive learning environment for Native American children in foster care reached a turning point this week. City, state and county officials – plus others, including an architecture firm, the Native American Youth and Family Center and the Lents neighborhood – signed a “Declaration of Cooperation” Monday during a … Read more

Portland Funds Study Of Columbia River Levee Repairs

Portland city council members authorized  $1.4 million in bonds to pay for a study of the levees along the south bank of the Columbia River on Wednesday. The study will focus on an 11-mile stretch of levees that protects industrial land and neighborhoods in North Portland…

Startup ‘evangelist’ tapped to lead RAIN

Last fall, Joe Maruschak was among the skeptics concerning RAIN, the state-backed Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network that wants to help create startups and jobs in the southern Willamette Valley. Back then, he and others at the Fertilab Thinkubator business incubator he co-founded in Eugene “were shadow boxing a ghost,” he said. They wondered, “What … Read more

RAIN board gets expertise from all corners of business

The 10-member board overseeing RAIN, the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network, in the south Willamette Valley pulls expertise from private industry, as well as from local government and universities. The majority of votes on the board will be held by the people with business experience. The so-called “ex-officio” directors, chosen because of their positions, include … Read more

Help for businesses takes new approach

RAIN, the Regional Accelerator and Innovation Network that aims to help businesses start, grow and create jobs in the southern Willamette Valley, is gaining traction and hopes soon to start tapping the $3.75 million the Oregon Legislature approved for the project nearly a year ago. Its executives and board are in place. It has filed … Read more

When The Levee Breaks…Us

Water is Portland’s secret problem. Not the Bull Run Reservoir water that runs out of your tap nor the contentious May ballot measure that will determine who controls it. No, the next big whack to taxpayers will, in fact, come in the fight against floodwaters, the kind that have inundated the city every few decades … Read more

Oregon’s juniper team nabs big victory

Oregon’s juniper advocates chalked up a sizable win that validates efforts to cultivate hardwoods from the invasive Eastern Oregon plants. The Oregon State Weed Board has crafted a policy backing “efforts to thin juniper to levels that are historically more in balance with protecting and restoring watershed function.”…

Signing marks new stage for community forest

Representatives of a wide range of local, state and federal government agencies, private organizations and local businesses and residents gathered at the Jim Riggs Community Center Monday, March 10, to send the South Santiam Community Forest project forward to its next chapter. They signed a declaration of cooperation on the project, which essentially states the … Read more

South Santiam Community Forest Corridor members formalize land deal

SWEET HOME — Speaking in Chinuk wawa, the native language of the Grand Ronde tribe, Michael Karnosh said Monday afternoon that “his heart was very happy to be standing here today.” Karnosh was one of several dozen stakeholders who formalized their commitment to the South Santiam Community Forest Corridor concept by signing a declaration of … Read more

Commissioners OK support for All Lands Collaborative project

The Linn County Board of Commissioners will sign a letter supporting the Sweet Home All Lands Collaborative project underway in east Linn County, but not without reservations by chairman Roger Nyquist. Nyquist and Will Tucker were present at Wednesday’s board meeting, but commissioner John Lindsey was not. On March 10, representatives of more than 40 … Read more