Friday, August 27, 2010

Natural Gas Attack Helicopter? The Winners In Cheap Natural Gas

By Christian A. DeHaemer - Energy & Capital - Friday, August 27th, 2010

We're now at the time of year when kids start dreading going back to school, moms dream of free time during the day, and granddads pick a weekend to winterize the boat or shutter the cabin.

Us resource guys, however, think about buying natural gas for the annual winter price boost.
But this year the markets aren’t buying it.

On Wednesday, the Energy Information Agency (EIA) came out with a bearish report.
Last week, the price of natural gas fell as much as $1.36 per million Btu; after the report, prices fell to $3.77 — dipping well below $4 for the first time since May.

The government report stated:
Natural gas in storage totaled 3,052 billion cubic feet (Bcf) as of August 20, about 6 percent above the 5-year (2005-2009) average.

The implied net injection for the week was 40 Bcf, significantly below historical injections for the week.

Read Full Article

Monday, August 23, 2010

Friday, August 20, 2010

Warrenton Wal-Mart: An Update


From: Jessica Hoch - Oregon Business - August 13, 2010


Residents of the small coastal town of Warrenton, roughly 4,500 people, found out a Wal-Mart would be coming to town when it was initially reported in the fall of 2009.


Just about a year later the process hasn’t moved at all, and Oregon Business still gets comments both positive and negative, curious as to the progress of the store.


People at Wal-Mart say the Warrenton store is coming; they’re just not sure when.“It’s hard to say which store will open next because it’s just hard to know in Oregon,” said Restivo.


Jessica Hoch is an online reporter for Oregon Business.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

G.O.P. Ten Commandments Or...Regan's Unity Principle For Support Of Candidates?


GRP: So it is, you waver from this path, display any individuality from strict variance in compliance, you, as a candidate are just plain out of the game? Is this what all this hard-core Tea Party noise is about an all-out mandate to save "Reaganism"? Is that why we in the Republican Party are being presented with candidates that cause us to ask..."Is this the best we can do?"..."Newt Gingrich for God's sake?"... Have we not learned a damned thing?

Proposed RNC Resolution on Reagan’s Unity Principle for Support of Candidates

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:
(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s "stimulus" bill;
(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;
(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;
(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check; RNC RESOLUTION ON FINANCIAL SUPPORT OF CANDIDATES 2
(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;
(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;
(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;
(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;
(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and
(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership; and be further
RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee; and be further
RESOLVED, that upon the approval of this resolution the Republican National Committee shall deliver a copy of this resolution to each of Republican members of Congress, all Republican candidates for Congress, as they become known, and to each Republican state and territorial party office.
Chief Sponsor:
James Bopp, Jr. NCM IN
Sponsors:
Donna Cain NCW OR
Cindy Costa NCW SC
Demetra Demonte NCW IL
Peggy Lambert NCW TN
Carolyn McLarty NCW OK
Pete Rickets NCM NE
Steve Scheffler NCM IA
Helen Van Etten NCW KA

Monday, August 16, 2010

America: Are We Getting What We Wished For?



The New Colossus
By Emma Lazarus, 1883
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles.

From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Saturday, August 07, 2010

From The Editor: Daily Astorian - Boat Mapping Will Become A Magnet


Stephen Forrester - The Daily Astorian
Saturday, August 07, 2010
8/2/2010 12:09:00 PM

Maritime Museum, Community College and Park Service build a new venture!!!
GRP:Boatwright (plural boatwrights)
A maker of boats, especially of traditional wooden construction.
Using technology to preserve "The Art Of A Craft"?
Hoorah!, Hoorah! Hoorah!
Now, how do we perpetuate "The Craft" of Wood Boat Building itself for our future?
How many are left in our community on the Lower Columbia with this unique skill that can pass it on to others?
How do we Pool those resources to teach this skill to others to save it?


Rolf Klep was a visionary. He founded the Columbia River Maritime Museum almost a half century ago. But Klep likely would be surprised at the technology behind the three-dimensional mapping of boats that's under way at the Maritime Museum. Katie Wilson reported that story last Tuesday.


Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Astoria: "22"


The number of empty storefronts counted from 8th Street to the empty Mini-Mart at Mill Pond Village on a recent early evening drive through downtown.

Friday, July 30, 2010

What Downtown Main Street Can Learn From "The Mall"


Steve Lagerfeld - The Atlantic Online.com

A guided tour with a landscape architect and retailing specialist who believes that shopping malls -- vilify them though we might -- can offer moribund cities what they desperately need: practical lessons in the psychology of commerce

Read Full Article

Thursday, July 29, 2010

Andy Jordan? Port of Astoria Legal Counsel?


And this would be the same Andy Jordan we saw up on the Liberty Theater stage advising and doing the "Legal Guiding" of the, then, sitting Lee County Commission's initial hearings and deliberating of the proposed Bradwood Landing LNG Receiving Terminal and has been in on it since?


And now, here he and his firm are, the new, official, Legal Counsel f0r The Port of Astoria with Oregon LNG/Pipeline hearings and delibeations on the horizon with Clatsop County and City of Warrenton and we all know, contrary to how stupid the folks at PofA assume we are, that, that agency will not be immune from those discussions and with Jordan advising offers some concern in my view.
Wonder if Jordan's firm came up with the "Hearings Officer" concept for County and Warrenton to relieve the sitting members of both commissions the accountability of making another historic spontaneous and knowledgeable decision on what they were elected to do in the first place and then, who oversees the validity of the hearings officers decisions without the inevitable appeals and protracted battles especially when Clatsop County Planning Staff Recommends denial of the OLNG Pipeline project right off the top?


Monday, July 26, 2010

Astoria Ancestries


Ancestries: German (17.1%), Irish (13.9%), English (13.0%), United States (6.5%), Norwegian (5.9%), Scottish (5.8%).Read more: http://www.city-data.com/city/Astoria-Oregon.html#ixzz0unszh1Nw

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Feds Paid "Dead" People's Electric Bills With Stimulus Money From Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program !!

Jul 1, 2010 1:31 pm US/Eastern

WASHINGTON DC - (CBS4)

It was designed to help poor families heat and cool their homes, but an audit of the federal program that provided more than $100 million went to pay electric bills of thousands of applicants who were dead, in prison or living in million-dollar mansions.

GRP: "The investigation found HHS paid thousands of dollars to people who were obviously ineligible for the program.
HHS paid $3.9 million to 11,000 applicants who used the identities of dead people.
HHS paid $370,000 to 725 applicants who were in prison.
HHS paid $671,000 to about 1,100 people who made more than the maximum income to qualify for the program. New Jersey paid $3,200 to a nursing home on behalf of eight patients after the home's director applied for assistance. The patients' nursing home care was already paid by Medicaid."

Can we even fathom the potential, once "The American Doctor" gets the gist of how to work "The System, of abuse of a "National Health Plan", once implemented?

Read Full Article

Saturday, July 24, 2010

GOP Congressmen Not Rushing To Join Tea Party Caucus

New York News And Features
Daily Intel - Dan Amira - 07/20/2010 10:29AM

If the new House Tea Party Caucus held a meet-and-greet this afternoon, it would consist of Minnesota's Michele Bachmann and Indiana's Mike Pence drinking punch and making awkward small talk while frequently glancing at the door for more arrivals.

Read Full Article

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

A Look At Pre-Northern Star Bradwood Landing!

"We take the following facts from the Court of Appeals' opinion and also from the record:
"Plaintiff is a construction and development company owned by Ken Leahy and his wife. Defendant is a ship-repair company based in Portland. Ken Leahy and two partners own a tract of land adjacent to the Columbia River known as the Bradwood property. The Bradwood property consists of 270 acres of forest land and 32 acres of marine industrial land."


GRP:Who is it linked Leahy with NSNG on the property and caused all this mass and coordinated blindness in Lower Columbia River community leadership to attempt to perpetrate this scheme against its citizens?

You Read It!
Then, There's The BRADWOOD PROJECT...Read This One!

Kitzhaber: Natural Gas, Not The LNG Process, Is Our Future

7/19/2010 11:38:00 AM

By PATRICK WEBB - The Daily Astorian

John Kitzhaber believes natural gas is a much-needed transition fuel while Oregon embraces other sources, but he is wary of liquefied natural gas.

Read And Watch Full Daily Astortian Report

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

LNG Opponents Appeal Oregon LNG Skipanon Lease To DSL

7/7/2010 11:50:00 AM

LNG opponents appeal Warrenton lease renewal
By CASSANDRA PROFITA-The Daily Astorian

Two conservation groups and Warrenton resident Jim Scheller have teamed up to appeal a lease renewal for the Oregon LNG liquefied natural gas project in Warrenton.

Read Full Daily Astorian report

10 Super Foods To Eat Now!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 7:44 AM
By Robin Berkowitz - NewsMaxHealth.com
Want to feel better? Look no further than the end of your fork. While the benefits of a varied, minimally processed diet are well-known, certain foods are especially potent in alleviating and even preventing numerous ailments that afflict modern society, including cancer, heart disease, and other age-related illnesses. Here are 10 “super foods” that can boost your immune system, your brain function, even give you a youthful glow. No prescription needed, and no pesky side effects – just dig in.

Read The Details

Monday, July 05, 2010

House Minority leader Boehner Takes A Video Shot At Obama!


From: NewsMax.com

The YouTube video, titled “What About the Country, Mr. President?” is in response to Obama's speech in Racine, Wis., on Wednesday in which he ripped into Boehner for telling a newspaper that a major banking overhaul bill is like "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."

Read/Watch Full Report

Sunday, July 04, 2010

Josh Marquis: July 4th!!

Sunday, July 04, 2010

July 4

Considering she is 234 years old today and accounting for all the wrinkles and scars, the United States of America is looking pretty good for her age.

Read Full Commentary

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Sockeye Salmon Returning Past Bonneville In Record Numbers After A Decade!


by Keely Chalmers, KGW Staff
kgw.com
Posted on July 3, 2010 at 8:51 AM

PORTLAND, Ore. -- After more than a decade of dismal numbers, sockeye salmon are returning to the Columbia River in record numbers.
According to the U.S Army Corps of Engineers the number of sockeye passing the Bonneville Dam this year has already quadrupled the yearly average.
So far this year more than 300,000 sockeye have passed the dam. That's a pretty remarkable number considering back in the 90's only a handful made it up the river.
Now tens of thousands are passing through the dam on a daily basis.
"There was a remarkable day last week when more than 30 thousand sockeye came past Bonneville Dam and that’s never happened before," said Michael Milstein with the Bonneville Power Administration.
The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says the recovery is due to better ocean conditions, improved salmon habitat, and improvements made at the Columbia River dams.
The recreational sockeye salmon season on the Columbia opened June 26th and runs through July 31st.

Read And View Full KGW Report