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Monday Mailing

Year 20 • Issue 16 30 December 2013 1.

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Social Supermarkets A 'Win-Win-Win' For Europe's Poor The Secret Life of Native Bees Weapon Maker Finds Cheap Way to Desalinize Sea Water EmX Land Negotiations Underway The 13 Most Compelling Infographics Of 2013 Statesman Journal: Cycling, Pedestrian Projects Vie For Connect Oregon Dollars Gorge Tech Alliance Event-January Portlanders Love Their Urban Growth Boundary A Little Less Driving Means Big Dividends For Local Economies A look at What’s in Store For Oregon in 2014 Snowshoes and History on Mount Bachelor

1. Social Supermarkets A 'Win-Win-Win' For Europe's Poor Somewhere between a food pantry and a traditional grocery store lies an opportunity to help feed those in need.

Enter "social supermarkets," a European model that offers discounted food exclusively to those in poverty. The stores have grown in popularity across the continent, and this week, the U.K. opened its first.

Dubbed Community Shop, the store is located in an impoverished former mining town in South Yorkshire.

Quote of the Week: “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” ~Anais Nin

Oregon Fast Fact: In 1905 the largest long cabin in the world was built in Portland to honor the Lewis and Clark expedition.

Part discount grocer, part social service agency, the supermarkets are for members only. Membership is free, but it is limited to those who can prove they receive some form of welfare benefits. Members can save up to 70 percent on food that has been rejected by grocers because it might be mislabeled, have damaged packaging or be nearing an expiration date. That food is still edible, though, so instead of getting thrown away, it's donated with a waiver of liability To access the full story, click here.

2. The Secret Life of Native Bees Over the last decade biologists, citizen scientists and others have fanned out across the United States and parts of Latin America to detect the presence of native bees in the landscape. It’s an effort by the U.S. Geological Survey to get a sense of the overall health and status of native bees, some 4,000 species of which are known to inhabit the U.S. After visiting 100 parks and various wild lands (places that can serve as refuge to bees, away from the stressors that appear in cities and on farms), cataloging bees, wasps and other species they interact with, the group has evidence suggesting native species are surprisingly robust, despite the downward trend in pollinator populations on the whole.

Hardy native bees abound on public lands, while others continue to hang on in cities and farmlands altered by human activity.

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This is a bright spot amid the dire news heard recently about domesticated honeybees — the demise of hives due to an onslaught of environmental and biological threats. Though wild bees face adversity from the loss of habitat and exposure to pesticides, the phenomenon affecting domesticated bees known as colony collapse disorder does not affect native bee species.

To access the full story, click here.

3. Weapon Maker Finds Cheap Way to Desalinize Sea Water What if a company better known for making jet fighters and combat machines since the Cold War told you they could de-salinize water for pennies on the dollar? Lockheed Martin says they have a way to make clean water cheaply in a time when water shortages plague the planet. Currently, more than 780 million people lack access to clean water throughout the world. While it's primarily a humanitarian issue, the lack of water is also a political issue that poses a global security threat. It was first brought front and center to the world’s governments at a United Nations Conference in 1992, known as the Earth Summit, now, more than two decades later it is still a full-scale concern.

To access the full story, click here.

4. EmX Land Negotiations Underway Lane Transit District soon will begin property negotiations to make room for the controversial $92 million extension of EmX bus rapid transit service into west Eugene.

Its board of directors last week authorized Salem-based Universal Field Services to proceed with surveying and negotiations with both public and private property owners.

The transit agency initially estimated it would need to acquire a total of 2.5 acres across 117 tax lots along Garfield Street and Sixth, Seventh and 11th avenues for the project. LTD needs strips of property to widen the road along certain stretches of the route to accommodate the buses.

But Lisa VanWinkle, the project’s spokeswoman, said the amount of property and number of tax lots will be reduced as a result of comments from property owners and resulting tweaks to the early design. The exact amount of the reductions is not yet known.

To access the full story, click here.

5. The 13 Most Compelling Infographics Of 2013 Numbers. They can be so hard to read and make sense of. Thank God intrepid designers are constantly turning those numbers into beautifully designed maps, charts, and graphics for us to feast our eyes on. We love infographics for their ability to take the complicated concepts we're often discussing here and break them down so that they're digestible.

One age-old way to do that is a simple map, which we saw a lot of in the past year. Maps that rearrange America into new states based on how our dollar bills move or where our water comes from. Even a map of an America divided into three separate countries based on our emotional states.

(For a list of just maps, click here).

To access the full story, click here.

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6. Statesman Journal: Cycling, Pedestrian Projects Vie For Connect Oregon Dollars Improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians account for the greatest share of non-road transportation projects seeking a share of Oregon Lottery dollars in this two-year budget cycle.

The 109 projects, add up to $129 million — more than three times the $42 million that the 2013 Legislature made available from bonds for this round of Connect Oregon.

Connect Oregon was started in 2005 as a way to help pay for transportation projects other than highways and bridges, which are solely eligible under the Oregon Constitution for fuel taxes and vehicle and license fees.

Among past projects funded was the Keizer transit center, which opened earlier this year.

In each of the first three rounds, lawmakers set aside $100 million from bonds, but in 2011-13, the amount dropped to $40 million.

The staff of the Oregon Department of Transportation will conduct an initial review of the applications before they go through three more levels.

Experts in airports, bicycle and pedestrian paths, ports, railroads and transit will review projects before they go to regional panels, including the Mid-Willamette Valley Area Commission on Transportation.

To access the full story, click here.

7. Gorge Tech Alliance Event-January There are a lot of great events happening in and out of the Gorge for our tech businesses! Visit the links below for more information.

Jan. 9: OEN PubTalk: Will My Fundraising Efforts Get Me in Trouble with the SEC? 5:15pm, Portland, $30.

Jan. 10: Two workshops offered by GTA Member Catalyst- Performance Consulting: Interviewing and Selection or Delivering Performance Feedback. More info here.

Jan. 15: Gorge Innoventure Brown Bag on Sococo Virtual Office Demo. Noon, Hood River.

Jan. 21: GTA Geek Lunch, SCRUM Basics. Noon, China Gorge in Hood River.

Jan. 22: Gorge Innoventure Brown Bag on 9 Ways to Organize Your Business for 2014. Noon, Hood River.

Jan. 28: GTA Featured Event on Business Opportunities in the Electric Vehicle Industry. 6:30pm, White Buffalo Wine Bar, Hood River. $10 for non-GTA members.

Jan. 29-30: ITAR Summit in Portland. "Navigating the Challenges of ITAR Compliance."

Jan. 30: TAO Annual Member Party, 5pm, Portland, $95.

8. Portlanders Love Their Urban Growth Boundary For all the angst Portland's urban growth boundary can cause developers or economic development boosters seeking developable land, the tightly managed band enjoys broad support in the region.

Seventy percent of residents in the region say new development should happen in cities, preserving farmland for agricultural uses, according to DHM's 2013 Oregon Values & Beliefs Survey. Just 23 Page 3 of 5

percent of respondents believe development should happen outside the UGB and a meager 19 percent said laws should be changed to allow more development.

The survey was sponsored by Oregon Health and Science University, Oregon Public Broadcasting, the Oregon Community Foundation and Oregon State University. The results were summed up in this Metro News article following a presentation to the Metro Council.

To access the full story, click here.

9. A Little Less Driving Means Big Dividends For Local Economies Driving is expensive. Running a sedan for a year costs $9,122 on average, according to the American Automobile Association, with gas prices contributing a big part of that sum. The average U.S. household spent $4,000 on fuel in 2012.

Helping people to drive less could lead to big savings, as a new analysis by CEOs for Cities shows. If everyone in the 51 largest metro areas reduced driving by one mile per day on average, the U.S. as a whole could save $31 billion a year. And here's the thing: that money would likely go to more productive use than it does today being tied up in the fossil fuel economy.

To access the full story, click here.

10. A look at What’s in Store For Oregon in 2014 A November ballot crowded with hot-button issues for both liberals and conservatives is likely to dominate Oregon’s statewide political landscape in 2014.

Oregon voters could get to weigh in on marijuana legalization, privatizating the state’s liquor business, gay marriage, so-called “right-to-work” legislation for public employees, tax increases on big business and high earners, and renewable-energy requirements for utilities.

The Legislature-approved driver’s licenses for illegal immigrants already has been referred to voters.

The groups proposing other measures will need to submit enough valid signatures by July to qualify for the November ballot.

With few key issues to be hashed out in the short February state legislative session and what he sees as a lack of strong challengers so far running in races for statewide elected offices, Pacific University political scientist Jim Moore sees 2014 as “a year that’s going to driven by the ballot measures.”

Moore said he believes the outlook is strong at this stage for efforts to overturn Oregon’s constitutional ban on gay marriage and to legalize marijuana.

To access the full story, click here.

11. Snowshoes and History on Mount Bachelor U. S. Forest Service volunteers began the season’s free Mount Bachelor snowshoe tours this weekend, taking six visitors through ice-covered snow Sunday.

Three Forest Service volunteers led the hikers on a crunchy one-mile hike to a vantage point looking toward Broken Top and South Sister. The continuous crash of falling ice hitting snow underlined the guides’ warning to avoid standing too close to trees, which were shedding what remained of an ice storm earlier in the weekend. Despite the conditions and the occasional tumble, everyone made it back to the base unscathed with an enhanced appreciation of the region’s flora, fauna, geology and public lands law.

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“Giving the tours never gets old; every group’s so different,” said volunteer Ginny Elliott, 61, a selfdescribed “recovering teacher” who taught middle school science. “To be able to talk about and experience the wilderness regularly is really such a great opportunity. I used to teach six sessions of the same class every day, so doing this every Sunday is easy.”

After discussing the difference between the Hemlock pines on the mountain and the ponderosa pines down in Bend, as well as the scurrying of voles and mice down between the snow and ground — an area called the subnivean zone — the guides placed the day’s hike in political context.

To access the full story, click here.

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