Salem-News.com Poverty articles Page 17

Oregon`s Favorites: Insurance Companies and DINK`s

More favor for those who aren't suffering financially, more power to insurance companies...

(SALEM, Ore.) - As the economy worsens, more jobs are lost and more unemployment extensions are granted. But Oregon is proud to announce that the state's new insurance law saved financially sound Oregonians more money.

The law's existence in the first place however, in its initial form, by principle favors people who have more and punishes those who have less. Some of us don't think that is right.

`HATS OFF` TO Patrick O`Brien Rolleston Jr.

Today's "The Good Stuff" award goes to Patrick O'Brien Rolleston Jr. and Urban Young Life.

(CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.) - I met someone I can’t wait to tell you about. I hope you meet him one day too because his eyes are so kind and blue, words don't do them justice.

His voice has a hint of his Appalachian roots. His sandy hair and beard must be from the Patrick O'Brien side, but the Rolleston in him makes you feel as if he could wrap you up in a warm bear hug.

Commerce News: Border Farmers Wanted

Cultivating new farmers and building up a locally-focused agricultural infrastructure are key goals...

(LAS CRUCES, N.M.) - Well-established in north-central New Mexico, local growers' markets are now expanding in the southern New Mexico borderland.

Recently, representatives of four regional farmers' markets banded together to form the Southern New Mexico Farmers Marketing Group (SNFMG).

Revolt of the Underclass: Terrible Vengeance

Was the weekend shooting a sign of America's crumbling economy?

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - Tucson, gunfire in the streets, a member of congress set for public execution, the proverbial bullet to the back of the head.

Victim two, for good measure, a federal judge, his life threatened hundreds of times, dead. The collateral damage, regular people, let’s be honest, “little people” no consequence to the press, nothing special, simple “window dressing.”

The Second American Civil War

The Second American Civil War is not going to be North against South, but is going to be worker against worker; those have a little, against those who have less.

(CALGARY, Alberta) - It’s called whistling past the graveyard—something the majority of Americans are now doing. They think, hope, they can escape the imminent conflagration.

The unraveling of America has begun in earnest. According to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), 42 percent of American children live in low-income homes and about a fifth live in poverty.

Terrelle `Tattoo` Pryor and OSU Buckeyes

"My thing is, a lot of times you have to put yourself in that situation" - University of Wisconsin junior free safety Aaron Henry

(CLEVELAND) - Terrelle Pryor and five other Ohio State players are suspended by the NCAA for up to 5 games next season.

Their crime? Selling championship rings and memorabilia to help their families financially, and receiving discounts from a tattoo parlor.

Staying On Track: A Holiday Story from Salem

Celebrating the people who don’t make the headline news but should...

(SALEM, Ore.) - Sometimes positive stories become more compelling and more interesting than any negative or tragic event that we report.

This brief story resembles those email threads about unrecognized heroes that sometimes circulate. The difference is that this story is from December 2010, it is a reflection of both the terrible economy in Oregon and the decency that still lives in the heart of man.

Environmental Sustainability: The Core Issue of Our Times

Human society is but one interacting part in an intricate ecological web.

(GOLD RIVER, B.C.) - Sustain, to keep in existence, maintain. Sustainable, capable of being sustained. Sustainability, the property of being sustainable.

There is at least one clear fact about human society. It is an integral part of the environment and the environment dictates how it functions.

Pilger`s `The War You Don`t See` is a Dose of Mind Numbing Reality

Pilger is right, there is no just excuse for the types of wars the west is waging.

(SALEM, Ore.) - Coming to understand my own role in promoting the US wars overseas as a former embedded reporter, John Pilger's: The War You Don't See, shoved me right off of the cliff of ignorance, into a painful valley of understanding.

I used to think it was different for me because the only thing I've shot in a war was my television camera. I increasingly understand that I was part of the problem.

A Tax Cut That Bleeds Revenue and Penalizes Work

The fact is that the current system -- which doesn't penalize work by favoring capital gains -- is no impediment to investment and growth in our state.

(SILVERTON, Ore.) - In eras past, doctors routinely bled patients in an effort to cure them. Fortunately, the medical profession eventually recognized that bloodletting actually made patients worse.

In the field of economic policy, however, an idea akin to bloodletting retains faithful adherents.