Good News

Amidst all the news of floods, famines, droughts, war, pestilence, and political mayhem, there's still good news out there. Even in our little local newspaper, The Astorian, there are some good news articles of late. I'll list a few here for you to read if you're feeling down about things this holiday season. The links will often include stories from outside The Astorian, since they source many articles from outside sources with whom they collaborate.

The Astorian headline "Coho salmon run breaks record" (here's a link to the original article in the East Oregonian) caught my eye, since falling salmon numbers seemed to me to be the norm of late. Numbers of coho have increased over 300% from recent numbers. Restoration of habitat along their migration route and release of hundreds of thousands of smolt in the Lostine River were cited as part of the reason for the good news. The article does caution that recent droughts may effect future coho runs, but I'll take the current news and go with it for now.

Living in sort of rural Oregon, I was intrigued with the headline "Bridging the digital divide in rural Oregon" in The Astorian recently, which actually is an article from the Blue Mountain Eagle, a local newspaper in rural eastern Oregon. It talks about Grant County CyberMill, a partnership that is bringing internet cafés, minus the food, to this very rural county. The one in the tiny town of Seneca is up and running, and giving everyone from high school students to retired farmers a place to use broadband internet. I think this is a great idea, and we should get one here in Astoria, even though broadband is available here (though only from one cable company and one DSL provider).