Oregon

A bizarre-looking rotting sea creature was found washed up on the Oregon coast. Kristine Tillotson posted a picture of the find to Reddit , where she asked for help in identifying the creature. The photo shows an animal with needle-like teeth, lying dead on a stack of rocks. Parts of its body are peeling away, as it appears to be decomposing. Tillotson told Newsweek that she came across the animal at Mill Beach in Brookings, Oregon. "I posted the photo to Reddit in a bone collecting group as well as a marine biologist group and they all agreed it is a type of eel called a monkeyface prickleback eel," Tillotson said. "I was excited and confused when I first saw it. I love walking the beach to see what washes up whether it's animals or shells. I thought it was super interesting because it didn't look like any fish I'd ever seen, it looked like one of those deep-sea creatures ." Monkeyface prickleback eels—also commonly known as monkeyface eels—are native to the Pacific … [Read more...] about Bizarre, rotting sea creature washes up on Oregon coast

Bans on transgender women in international swimming and rugby this week opened the door for track and field to consider following suit in what could turn into a wave of policy changes in Olympic sports. The announcement Sunday by swimming’s governing body, FINA, was followed quickly by a show of support from World Athletics President Sebastian Coe, who was in Hungary for the swimming world championships. He said FINA’s decision was in the best interest of swimming and that his federation, which oversees track and field and other running sports, would review its policies on transgender athletes and intersex athletes at the end of the year. “If we ever get pushed into a corner to that point where we’re making a judgment about fairness or inclusion, I will always fall down on the side of fairness,” Coe said. Experts viewed that as a signal that World Athletics officials could use the FINA precedent to block all transgender and intersex athletes — the latter referred to by clinical … [Read more...] about Caster Semenya might face new transgender rule in track

As the one year anniversary of a deadly white supremacist march in Charlottesville, Virginia, approaches, some in Oregon fear that an alt-right rally this weekend could become similarly violent. The rally is scheduled for Saturday and was organized by Patriot Prayer, a conservative group in the area founded by far-right congressional candidate Joey Gibson. The rally had been planned for months, but a last minute location announcement has Portland officials worried the demonstration could become as violent as the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville last August. Gibson posted on Facebook that the rally would convene at the Salmon Street Springs water fountain at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in Portland. The location would allow the "Freedom March" participants to carry guns, according to The Oregonian . While the city of Portland bans weapons in parks, those with a valid Oregon concealed handgun license are allowed. Portland officials are quickly looking to see if there are … [Read more...] about Charlottesville Repeat? Armed alt-right rally expected to be met by Antifa counter-protesters in Portland

SALT LAKE CITY — Firefighter groups are applauding the Biden administration’s steps to raise pay but warn that the temporary wage hikes won’t be enough to combat staffing problems, as federal agencies compete with local fire departments and big box stores in a tight labor market. “It’s an effort and an attempt to try to keep people at their jobs,” Jonathon Golden, a former federal firefighter from Park City, Utah, said of the move to raise federal firefighter pay. “But it still falls woefully short of the pay in municipal departments and other state agencies.” Wildfire season is raging throughout the western U.S. and fierce competition for workers is exacerbating challenges facing the land management agencies that employ firefighters. For years, firefighters and their advocates have decried stagnant pay and increased costs of living, arguing both are making recruitment difficult and attrition inevitable. The Biden administration announced Tuesday that infrastructure bill funds … [Read more...] about Labor shortage compounds federal firefighters’ staffing woes

A temporary halting of the federal gas tax could deprive the U.S. Highway Trust Fund of a big chunk of its annual funding. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to suspend the federal gas tax, which is about 18.4 cents per gallon, for three months through September in an effort to ease the impact of soaring gas prices on Americans. A White House fact sheet on Biden's call for a federal gas tax holiday estimated that the suspension will cost about $10 billion. The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, says the Highway Trust Fund "finances most federal government spending for highways and mass transit." Federal taxes on gasoline and diesel are the primary sources of the fund's revenue. Therefore, a three-month gas tax holiday could deprive it of a fourth of the federal gas tax funds that are collected annually. Gas prices have been rising across the nation and inflation reached a 40-year high last month, putting Biden under pressure to try to alleviate … [Read more...] about Biden’s gas tax pause will cost U.S. highways a big chunk of their funding

Monday’s revelation of a leaked draft opinion overruling Roe vs. Wade was shocking on many levels. It portends the end of a constitutional right that millions of Americans have relied upon for nearly half a century. It threatens dramatic political repercussions for the Supreme Court and elected officials. And it represents a stunning breach of the court’s protocol. But the most shocking aspect of the leaked opinion is something else entirely: the glaring historical mistakes that pervade its supposedly originalist analysis. Contrary to the draft’s conclusion, for as long as America has existed, so too have abortions — in most cases free of any form of criminal punishment. At the heart of the opinion’s legal reasoning is a settled test. The 14 th Amendment, the draft recognizes, protects unenumerated rights that are “deeply rooted in this Nation’s history and tradition.” Applying that test, the opinion concludes that “the right to abortion does not fall within this category” … [Read more...] about Op-Ed: The Supreme Court flunks abortion history

During the industrial age, when high school was the gateway to the American dream, public-school systems covered the costs of earning a diploma. Today, however, as associate’s degrees have replaced high-school diplomas as the indispensable ticket into the middle class, families are forced to cover the costs of tuition and more. If the information-age economy demands a workforce with additional training, we need to begin cutting students and families the same deal: Anyone willing to work hard and earn the degree should be able to attend community college—for free. With that basic bargain in mind, a small band of mayors and governors has begun working to spark a quiet revolution in American education. We believe that associate’s degrees should be as accessible for the next 80 years as high-school diplomas have been for the past 80. So the City of Chicago has joined Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee in experimenting with ways to make community college free. Three years in, we’re … [Read more...] about A Simple Proposal to Revive the American Dream

Of all the effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on our lives, one thing that the virus taught was the importance of taking care of our health. While working from home during the lockdown, people experienced mental fatigue and realised the importance of mental health. Every other luxury of this world will have no use if our health – physical or mental is not good. Now, addressing the issue of mental health wellbeing, shoe and apparel giant Nike has given a one-week paid break to its employees at the head office in Oregon. Nike’s senior Manager of Global Marketing Science, Matt Marrazzo shared a LinkedIn post making the announcement. He said that company wanted to give a clear message to it employees urging them to take time off with their loved one as they distress and unwind the fatigue of work. Marrazzo noted that the step had become necessary considering the fact that we all lived through a traumatic event. Marrazzo added that the past year had been a traumatic period for … [Read more...] about Nike Gives One Week Paid Leave to its Head Office Staff to ‘Prioritise Mental Health’

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 3 WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is launching a formal partnership with 11 East Coast governors to boost the growing offshore wind industry, a key element of President Joe Biden's plan for climate change. At a White House meeting on Thursday, Biden administration officials will meet with governors and labor leaders to announce commitments to expand important parts of the offshore industry, including manufacturing facilities, ports and workforce training and development. The partnership comprises governors of both parties from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. In working with states and the private sector, the White House said it will “provide Americans with cleaner and cheaper energy, create good-paying jobs and invest billions in new American energy supply chains,'' … [Read more...] about Offshore wind boosted as Biden, East Coast governors team up

Monkeypox has now been found in 23 U.S. states in an outbreak that has seen over 3,300 confirmed cases worldwide across 42 countries, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) Monkeypox, a virus usually seen in Central and West Africa, is currently spreading across non-endemic countries, including Europe and North America. It is a zoonotic virus originally transmitted from animals to humans , with symptoms similar but less clinically severe as those experienced by smallpox patients in the past. While some earlier cases have been associated with gay and bisexual me n—with many stemming from a single conference event —anyone of any sexuality can contract the disease, as it is transmitted from one person to another by physical contact with lesions, body fluids, respiratory droplets and contaminated materials. There is no currently conclusive evidence that monkeypox is classifiable as a sexually transmitted disease ( STD ). Symptoms may … [Read more...] about Monkeypox cases have now been found in these 23 states