11-05-2024  10:48 am   •   PDX and SEA Weather

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NORTHWEST NEWS

African American Alliance On Homeownership Turns 25, Honors The Skanner Cofounder Bernie Foster

AAAH's executive director Cheryl Roberts recalls how the efforts of Bernie Foster led to an organization that now offers one-on-one counseling for prospective home buyers, homebuyer education, foreclosure prevention services, estate planning, assistance with down payments and more.

Police Say Fires Set at Ballot Boxes in Oregon and Washington Are Connected; ‘Suspect Vehicle’ ID'd

Surveillance images captured a Volvo stopping at a drop box in Portland, just before security personnel nearby discovered a fire inside the box. That fire damaged three ballots inside, while officials say a fire at a drop box in nearby Vancouver, Washington, early Monday destroyed hundreds of ballots.

Two Major Affordable Housing Developments Reach Milestones in Portland

Both will provide culturally specific supportive services to residents. 

Washington State AG and Ex-Sheriff Face off in Governor's Race

Former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert is trying to become Washington’s first GOP governor in 40 years. But he faces a difficult hurdle in the Democratic stronghold against longtime Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a darling of liberals for his many lawsuits against the Trump administration. 

NEWS BRIEFS

Merkley Statement on the Passing of Bob Sallinger

“Bob was a trusted voice, advising me on ways to safeguard the state’s natural wonders and wildlife and fighting against climate...

Troutdale Library Now Renovation Complete

Library provides refreshed experience for patrons with new, comfortable seating and carpeting ...

AG Rosenblum Releases Election Guidance to Law Enforcement and Message to Registered Oregon Voters

Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum: Haven’t received your ballot? Contact your county elections office! ...

Oregon Begins Rollout of New Housing Benefits for Eligible OHP Members With Health Conditions

The housing benefits include rent assistance for up to six months, utility set-up and payments for up to six months, home...

Oregon Department of Education Releases Cell Phone Policy Guidance

ODE recommends creating policies to limit or reduce cell phone use during the school day. ...

First-term Democrat tries to hold on in Washington state district won by Trump in 2020

SEATTLE (AP) — Among the nation’s most closely watched races is a rematch in southwestern Washington’s 3rd Congressional District, where first-term Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is defending her seat against Republican Joe Kent, a former Green Beret who has called for the...

The top US House races in Oregon garnering national attention

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — One of the most competitive U.S. House races in the country is playing out in Oregon, where the state’s GOP-held 5th Congressional District is among just over two dozen seats nationwide that are considered toss ups. Two other House races in the state’s 4th...

Haggerty scores 22 of 25 after break to rally Memphis past Missouri 83-75 in opener

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — PJ Haggerty scored 22 of his 25 points in the second half when Memphis took over en route to an 83-75 win over Missouri in the season opener for both teams on Monday night. The Tigers trailed by 10 at halftime but shot 58% in the second half, while going 17-20...

Memphis hosts Missouri to start season

Missouri Tigers at Memphis Tigers Memphis, Tennessee; Monday, 8 p.m. EST BETMGM SPORTSBOOK LINE: Tigers -4.5; over/under is 154.5 BOTTOM LINE: Memphis opens the season at home against Missouri. Memphis went 22-10 overall with a 13-2 record at...

OPINION

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. ...

Black Retirees Growing Older and Poorer: 2025 Social Security COLA lowest in 10 years

As Americans live longer, the ability to remain financially independent is an ongoing struggle. Especially for Black and other people of color whose lifetime incomes are often lower than that of other contemporaries, finding money to save for ‘old age’ is...

The Skanner Endorsements: Oregon State and Local Ballot Measures

Ballots are now being mailed out for this very important election. Election Day is November 5. Ballots must be received or mailed with a valid postmark by 8 p.m. Election Day. View The Skanner's ballot measure endorsements. ...

AFRICAN AMERICANS IN THE NEWS

Democratic-backed justices look to defend control of Michigan's Supreme Court

DETROIT (AP) — Michigan Democrats and their allies were defending their majority on the state's Supreme Court on Tuesday after a campaign marked by exorbitant spending. Court races are nonpartisan but candidates are nominated at party conventions. Democratic-backed justices...

Figures and Dobson are in a heated battle for a redrawn Alabama House district

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama voters will decide who will represent a congressional district that was redrawn after a lengthy legal battle that drew national attention and could provide a rare opportunity for Democrats to flip a seat in the Deep South. Democrat Shomari Figures, a...

Here's what to watch on Election Day in the US

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's Election Day. Polls opened Tuesday across the nation and Americans cast ballots in the 2024 presidential election. In a deeply divided nation, the election is a true toss-up between Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump. We know there are seven...

ENTERTAINMENT

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 3-9

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Nov. 3-9 Nov. 3: Actor Lois Smith is 94. Actor-radio personality Shadoe Stevens (“Dave’s World”) is 78. Singer Lulu is 76. Actor-comedian Roseanne Barr is 72. Actor Kate Capshaw (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom”) is 71. Actor Kathy...

Fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland is set for release July 2026

Tom Holland is getting ready to don his Spidey suit again. The fourth installment of the blockbuster series has been set for a July 2026 release, Sony Pictures said Friday. Daniel Destin Cretton, best known for helming Marvel's “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings," has also...

Teri Garr, the offbeat comic actor of 'Young Frankenstein' and 'Tootsie,' has died

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Teri Garr, the quirky comedy actor who rose from background dancer in Elvis Presley movies to co-star of such favorites as "Young Frankenstein" and "Tootsie," has died. She was 79. Garr died Tuesday of multiple sclerosis “surrounded by family and friends,”...

U.S. & WORLD NEWS

Federal agencies say Russia and Iran are ramping up influence campaigns targeting US voters

WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation’s federal law enforcement and election security agencies debunked two new...

Puerto Rico holds general election that promises to be historic

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico is holding elections that will be historic regardless of which of the...

Abortion is on the ballot in nine states and motivating voters across the US

WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters in nine states are deciding whether their state constitutions should guarantee a right...

Brazilian police official chosen as the next head of Interpol

LONDON (AP) — Brazilian police official Valdecy Urquiza will be the next chief of Interpol, the global police...

Middle East latest: Dozens killed in Gaza as Israel says it targeted a weapons facility

Israeli strikes killed at least 30 people in Gaza, including on a home where displaced families were sheltering,...

Ukrainian troops have engaged with North Korean units for the 1st time in Russia, an official says

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian troops have for the first time engaged with North Korean units that were recently...

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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