A building worthy of greenery

Vancouver's in-city oasis, VanDusen Botanical Garden, hopes to go green big-time with a $23 million visitor center that could be the region's first structure to meet the most rigid sustainability standards.

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Lesson in laughter

Controversy this week over the current New Yorker cover, showing Barack and Michelle Obama in all the worst ways the paranoid right could imagine, proves two basic lessons from the history of journalism.

The first is that a medium that is in the process of being overrun by emerging new media had better understand what that involves.

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Some McClatchy papers are taking the cuts worse than others

Things are never equal in the world of corporate journalism, and the announcement of major cuts by McClatchy, owner of four dailies in Washington and two weeklies, will not have the same effects across the board.

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One College of the Environment deserves a look back at another

The man who created Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University, the nation's first such college, hasn't followed the controversies surrounding a similar college at the University of Washington, but he has some succinct advice: "Devote yourself to the science, the hard data," says C. J. (Jerry) Flora, "and don't get swept up in the fads."

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Shepherding in Bruce Shepard, new Western Washington University prez

With last-minute approval of a faculty-union contract, outgoing president Karen Morse leaves the new guy with a crisis resolved. Shepard, of Wisconsin, takes office in September.

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Historical frame of reference: 1956

Watching the primaries-concluding speeches of Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, voters of a certain age might be excused for feeling that they had in their lifetimes witnessed history.

My 21st birthday was less than a month before the 1956 general election, so I was barred from voting. The rules: age 21, registered a month before the election (in Oregon, at least).

And there were other "rules," mostly unspoken but recognized, if you wanted to be president of the United States:

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With Hispanic help, Democrats hope to win in Eastern Washington

They have a lot of faith in Vickie Ybarra, who would be the first Democrat since 1992 to be elected to the Legislature from Yakima County. Meanwhile, Democrats also have their eyes on Doc Hastings' congressional seat.

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Endangered species: Oregon Republicans

Below the radar of the hard-fought presidential primary won by Sen. Barack Obama Tuesday night, May 20, and a nail-biter of a U.S. Senate primary race, Oregon Democrats have never been as dominant as they are in 2008. Nor have Republicans looked as pathetic.

Where did they go wrong?

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Steve Novick is the one to watch in Oregon politics

The man with the "hard left hook" is a contender for the Democrat nomination to take on incumbent U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith. According to polls, the race is close, but Novick's indie appeal may win it for him.

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Barack Obama's big Oregon lead

A look at the polls suggests the Illinois senator's victory dance is warranted.

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