11-18-2024  12:00 pm   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

More Logging Is Proposed to Help Curb Wildfires in the US Pacific Northwest

Officials say worsening wildfires due to climate change mean that forests must be more actively managed to increase their resiliency.

Democrat Janelle Bynum Flips Oregon’s 5th District, Will Be State’s First Black Member of Congress

The U.S. House race was one of the country’s most competitive and viewed by The Cook Political Report as a toss up, meaning either party had a good chance of winning.

Trump Was Elected; What Now? Black Community Organizers on What’s Next

The Skanner spoke with two seasoned community leaders about how local activism can counter national panic. 

Family of Security Guard Shot and Killed at Portland Hospital Sues Facility for $35M

The family of Bobby Smallwood argue that Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center failed to enforce its policies against violence and weapons in the workplace by not responding to staff reports of threats in the days before the shooting.

NEWS BRIEFS

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library of Oregon Announces New State Director and Community Engagement Coordinator

“This is an exciting milestone for Oregon,” said DELC Director Alyssa Chatterjee. “These positions will play critical roles in...

Multnomah County Library Breaks Ground on Expanded St. Johns Library

Groundbreaking marks milestone in library transformations ...

Janelle Bynum Statement on Her Victory in Oregon’s 5th Congressional District

"I am proud to be the first – but not the last – Black Member of Congress from Oregon" ...

Veterans Day, Monday, Nov. 11: Honoring a Legacy of Loyalty and Service and Expanding Benefits for Washington Veterans

Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) is pleased to share the Veterans Day Proclamation and highlight the various...

More logging is proposed to help curb wildfires in the US Pacific Northwest

U.S. officials would allow increased logging on federal lands across the Pacific Northwest in the name of fighting wildfires and boosting rural economies under proposed changes to a sweeping forest management plan that’s been in place for three decades. The U.S. Forest Service...

AP Top 25: Oregon is the unanimous No. 1 team again; Georgia is back in top 10 and LSU out of Top 25

Oregon remained the unanimous No. 1 team in The Associated Press Top 25 college football poll Sunday after its close call at Wisconsin, Notre Dame and Alabama each jumped up two spots and Georgia returned to the top 10. LSU is unranked for the first time in two years. The unbeaten...

Cal Poly visits Eastern Washington after Cook's 24-point game

Cal Poly Mustangs (2-2) at Eastern Washington Eagles (1-2) Cheney, Washington; Sunday, 7 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Eagles -6.5; over/under is 157.5 BOTTOM LINE: Eastern Washington hosts Cal Poly after Andrew Cook scored 24 points in Eastern...

Sellers throws career-high 5 TD passes, No. 23 South Carolina beats No. 24 Missouri 34-30

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina coach Shane Beamer got a text recently from an SEC rival coach impressed with freshman quarterback LaNorris Sellers. “You've got ‘Superman’ back there,” the message read, Beamer said. Sellers may not be the “Man of...

OPINION

America’s Healing Can Start with Family Around the Holidays

With the holiday season approaching, it seems that our country could not be more divided. That division has been perhaps the main overarching topic of our national conversation in recent years. And it has taken root within many of our own families. ...

Donald Trump Rides Patriarchy Back to the White House

White male supremacy, which Trump ran on, continues to play an outsized role in exacerbating the divide that afflicts our nation. ...

Why Not Voting Could Deprioritize Black Communities

President Biden’s Justice40 initiative ensures that 40% of federal investment benefits flow to disadvantaged communities, addressing deep-seated inequities. ...

The Skanner News 2024 Presidential Endorsement

It will come as no surprise that we strongly endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

New Zealand's founding treaty is at a flashpoint. Why are thousands protesting for Māori rights?

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A proposed law that would redefine New Zealand’s founding treaty between the British Crown and Māori chiefs has triggered political turmoil and a march by thousands of people the length of the country to Parliament to protest it. The bill is never...

Testimony resumes in the trial of the man accused of killing Georgia student Laken Riley

ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — Testimony resumed Monday in the trial of the man accused of killing Georgia nursing student Laken Riley with police officers describing searching the man's apartment and questioning him and others who lived there. Jose Ibarra who entered the U.S. illegally two...

'Interior Chinatown': Its cast has faced Hollywood struggles uncannily like its characters

Jimmy O. Yang once played “Chinese Teenager #1.” He's now No. 1 on the call sheet in “Interior Chinatown” — despite playing downtrodden background actor Willis Wu in the new Hulu series. There’s no escaping the layers of meta around “Interior Chinatown,” an adaptation...

ENTERTAINMENT

Q&A: ‘Love, Actually’ filmmaker Richard Curtis on charity, the Oscars and the state of rom-coms

Richard Curtis may be widely known for his contributions to romantic comedies with “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill” and “Love, Actually.” But writing and directing some of modern cinema’s most quotable scenes only occupy a portion of his professional life. ...

Tyson-Paul fight gives Netflix opportunity to show it can handle big events with NFL, WWE on horizon

Jake Paul and Mike Tyson aren't the only ones who have high stakes when they meet in the boxing ring on Friday night. For Netflix, it is their biggest live sports event to date, and an opportunity to make sure it can handle audience demand with the NFL and WWE on the horizon. ...

Music Review: Gwen Stefani's 'Bouquet' is a romantic return to mellow rock — with an ageless voice

Words and phrases like “nostalgia” or “back to her roots” come to mind when listening to Gwen Stefani’s fifth studio album, “Bouquet” — and it is in no way negative. Across 10-tracks, the powerhouse singer leans into the mellow rock of her youth — think Hall &...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

As China cracks down on bookstores at home, Chinese-language booksellers are flourishing overseas

WASHINGTON (AP) — Yu Miao smiles as he stands among the 10,000 books crowded on rows of bamboo shelves in his...

French farmers escalate protests against an EU-Mercosur trade deal and fear unfair competition

BEAUVAIS, France (AP) — French farmers escalated protests Monday against the European Union-Mercosur trade...

Trump names Brendan Carr, senior GOP leader at FCC, to lead the agency

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday named Brendan Carr, the senior Republican on...

45 pro-democracy activists face sentencing in Hong Kong. Here's who some of them are

HONG KONG (AP) — Dozens of prominent Hong Kong pro-democracy activists are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in...

New Zealand's founding treaty is at a flashpoint. Why are thousands protesting for Māori rights?

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — A proposed law that would redefine New Zealand’s founding treaty between the...

Teenage Buddhist lama celebrates last birthday in the U.S. before joining monastery in the Himalayas

ISANTI, Minn. (AP) — The young Buddhist lama sat on a throne near an altar decorated with flowers, fruits and...

Jonah Most New America Media

MUIR BEACH, Calif. — At 7:00 AM Cyrina King often starts her workday taking the temperature of the compost pile. A recent graduate from Bard College, King is working as a summer counselor at Slide Ranch, a Marin-based organization that teaches farm skills and environmental science to children.

The pay may be minimal, but the position comes with perks that staff say far exceed those offered in corporate offices, including tent lodging, unlimited goat cheese, great views and a fantastic community.

Choosing to pursue work outdoors, some young adults today in Northern California are defying expectations of a generation thought to be too obsessed with technology to have interest in the great outdoors.

The average adolescent spends 7.5 hours per day consuming entertainment media, leaving little time for much else. Youth obesity rates are at record highs and attendance levels at US national forests and state parks have been declining for several decades.

But, while addiction to screens keeps many indoors, some young adults are rejecting this trend and are declining to spend their time tuned-in, logged-on or otherwise zoned out.

Employment is one area where young adults' interest in the outdoors is most visible. For recent graduates, choosing a career is often the most important decision they have ever made and some are rejecting the notion that a college degree is a license to sit in front of a computer 8 hours per day.

King said that she believes this is characteristic of her generation's unique position as the last to grow up before the proliferation of portable electronic devises. Personally witnessing the rise of electronic media, she said she feels she has a responsibility to sustain interest in the outdoors.

This sentiment is reflective of Richard Louv's book The Last Child In the Woods, published in 2005, in which Louv writes about psychological and behavioral problems associated with diminished time spent outdoors in childhood.

"I was encouraged to find that many people now of college age — those who belong to the first generation to grow up in a largely de-natured environment — have tasted just enough nature to intuitively understand what they have missed," Louv writes in the introduction of his book.

"This yearning is a source of power. These young people resist the rapid slide from the real to the virtual, from the mountains to the Matrix. They do not intend to be the last children in the woods," he writes.

Various staff members at Slide Ranch say that working in an office setting simply does not appeal to them. King said that she has instead found learning farm skills empowering. Other opportunities for recent graduates, such as working for a large established company, "are really limited and really fake," she said.

Maya Havusha, who works with King, said that spending long hours indoors conducting research for her thesis convinced her to pursue a career that involved working outdoors.

Her job at the ranch involves working with children, milking goats and attending to a variety of other farm chores.

Havusha said she was also motivated to work at the ranch because she feels responsible for teaching future generations about the environment. She said that teaching is one way she feels that she can make a real impact.

"Our kids probably won't know anyone who doesn't know what the Internet is," she said. What we're teaching the kids is just the bare minimum. "It's basic level stuff, this is a goat, not a cow."

At UC Berkeley, the student career office has seen a growing interest in the environmental field in recent years. The career office has begun offering a specialized green career jobs fair, which showcases opportunities in industry, sciences and community non-profits, including opportunities that would bring students outdoors.

"I think there are a number of students for whom the idea of working 9-5 at a desk sounds very limiting and a little dreary," said Suzanne Helbig, Assistant Director of the Career Center at UC Berkeley in a phone interview. "It's not something they're used to. Especially being college students, they're out walking about from building to building, from topic to topic so a lot of this desire comes from wanting variety in their jobs," she said.

While there are enticing opportunities for those seeking work outdoors, there is also stiff competition.

The East Bay Regional Park District, which offers paid student internships in natural sciences and environmental education, receives typically 200 applications for just 10-12 internship positions. Among applicants, about 60 percent indicate that they would prefer a position outdoors as opposed to a desk job.

"People have grown up going to our parks and to hear that there is actually a paid internship available at the park district is almost unbelievable," said Sonja Stanchina, a human resources officer for the agency, characterizing the response of applicants.

Positions for the National Park Service's approximately 10,000 seasonal positions are often competitive as well but the perks have no comparison in office work, said Park Service Spokesperson Kathy Kupper. "Park rangers get paid in sunsets," she said, adding that staff at the park service have the opportunity to be "working in places where people travel to and spend money just to go on vacation."

There has been about a 10 percent increase in applications for seasonal positions at the park service, according to Kupper.

Many popular outdoor careers, such as botanists, foresters, landscape architects and wildlife biologists have higher than average pay but are projected to grow at slightly slower rates than the overall workforce, according the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But, the summer already half over, in early-July King and Havusha were searching again for jobs.

For this, they must return inside to their computers. It felt ironic, Havusha said. "I was emailing [potential employers] saying that I want to spend my life with kids outside."

For others, working at a park for the summer is just a way to soak in some sunlight before beginning an indoor career, which some believe to be an inevitable reality. Kupper said that she finds about 20 percent of seasonal employees intend to later pursue careers in completely unrelated fields, such as in law or accounting. These employees figure "I've got a couple summers to live the dream, to work with my hands," she said.

Jobs outdoors offer these individuals "an opportunity to work outside before they're looking at it from the inside out," she said.

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