March 16, 2009

College Hoops Continue

Category: Sports, Uncategorized — admin @ 1:02 am

The Vikings and the Beavers’ seasons aren’t over yet.  Two of the state’s top teams have earned a shot to play in the post season.  PSU gets to take on Xavier in the first round of the NCAA tournament (announced Sunday) while Oregon State heads to the CBI (opponent not known at the time of this posting).

New building healing hearts in Clack Co

Category: Health — admin @ 1:00 am

Ellen Spitaleri - The Clackamas Review

Ellen Spitaleri - The Clackamas Review

There’s a great piece in the Clackamas Review this week about a brand new heart facility at the Sunnyside Medical Center.  The $300 Million project finally brings full heart services to the area including some amazing state of the art technology.

 

 

Teams are opening the doors to patients in a month.  They plan to start with some low risk operations to make sure everything goes smoothly before opening up for the real tricky procedures.

They think of EVERYTHING

Category: Money Saver — admin @ 1:00 am

Light BulbThese days it seems like companies and the government is trying to come up with ways to take some of the stress off of every expense we have.  Restaurants offering discount meals.  The state extending unemployment benefits.  Now we find out that even UTILITY bills are getting in on the act.

The Register Guard reports that EWEB customers can get help covering pricey winter bills.  Even better, similar assistance programs are available all over the state.  For more info check out Monday’s paper.

March 13, 2009

GoodNewsPDX Now on NewsRadio 750 KXL-AM!

Category: GoodNewsPDX — admin @ 1:00 pm

That’s right.  In a world dampened by doom and gloom, we are bringing the power of GOOD NEWS to the best darn radio station in town: Newsradio 750 KXL.  

 

Tune in Monday morning for the first installment of the Good News Update during Portland’s Morning News from 5A-9A.

 

And if you have a story you would like to see featured here or on the Good News Update, send us an e-mail:  news@goodnewspdx.com

March 12, 2009

Changes afoot

Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:52 am

We will be doing some maintenance on the site this week in order to debut the BRAND NEW GoodNewsPDX on Monday March 16th (with a few other big announcements as well).  

 

We’ll do our best to avoid any interruptions of the best stories from the Portland area and we appreciate your patience.  

 

–GNPDX

The little things

Category: Community — admin @ 8:48 am

 

Jonathan House - The Beaverton Valley Times

Jonathan House - The Beaverton Valley Times

Sometimes we run across a story with so much “good” to it . . . we don’t really know where to begin.  Consider this:

 

College kids, volunteering their weekend to help a disabled family.

Local contractors donating their time and supplies to help local families dealing with disabilities.

A family, hit by tragedy nearly a year ago finally getting some normalcy back in their day.

See?  Where do you start?

The story which you can read in this week’s Beaverton valley Times goes like this:

A year ago, Sam Taha was hit by a stroke and now can’t move around without a wheelchair and help from his wife Fafi.  Hard enough in an open, flat surface but you can forget negotiating the couple’s two-story Beaverton home.

Enter ReFit.  ReFit is a group of local contractors who have spent the last decade, donating their spare time and supplies to families dealing with a disability.  The crews do everything from widening a door to fit a wheelchair to completely rebuilding entire rooms.  

For the Taha project, ReFit needed some extra labor which prompted a group of students at PCC to pitch in over two days.

All told, the group built and installed ramps for the Taha’s.  The couple says they are thrilled by the gesture, the kids say they were thrilled by the experience and Refit was thrilled by the opportunity.

How’s THAT for Good News?

March 9, 2009

Home safe and sound

Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 5:29 pm

 

Courtesy of the Oregon Military Department

Courtesy of the Oregon Military Department

After a five month stint northwest of Baghdad, 27 men and women are home safely and officially off duty.  The two dozen members of the Oregon Air National Guard 116th Air Control Squadron came home on Saturday and got a hearty pat on the back from local Big Whigs like the Governor.  Several also walked away with hardware as numerous medals were dished out on the day.

 

The team spent its time providing support for the Balad airbase.

 

Welcome home Boys and Girls!

Good signs on a Monday

Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:58 am

So far, this Monday morning is off to a pretty decent start:

The Dow, the S and P and the Nasdaq are all up this morning thanks to word of the big Merck merger.

Despite snowfall in Eugene, the Ducks baseball team got TWO wins over Santa Clara at PK Park (The double header wasn’t scheduled . . . the teams had to cap off Saturday’s game that was called due to darkness).  The Ducks now sit at 6-6 on the season.

And despite this morning’s snowfall, it’s going to be a great week weather-wise.  Mid 50s and Sunny.

March 3, 2009

Solar School

Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:24 am

Thanks to some generous partners, the German American School of Portland is now *cue bad back-up karaoke version of Katrina and the Waves classic 80’s smash* “Runnin’ on Sunshine!”

The school unveiled a massive solar panel system that will suck enough juice out of the sun to power three homes.

The new and improved, self-capturing criminal!

Category: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:20 am

 

4 Pounds of Marijuana

4 Pounds of Marijuana

Recently, we’ve seen a rash of really stupid criminals.  Crooks, thieves, drug dealers and parole violators who, on their path to getting away scot free, couldn’t help but break the law right in front of watching police eyes. But now, the nogoodniks are taking steps to make it even EASIER for cops to take them downtown.

Consider Jon Burmeister.  Heading north on I-5, he (allegedly) decided he needed to pull a U-Turn and head south (maybe he left the oven on).  Problem is, Burmeister (allegedly) didn’t wait for an overpass or an onramp . . . he just took off through the center median and then drove against traffic in the southbound lanes.  

When a trooper caught up to Burmeister, they found four pounds of pot and determined that he was (allegedly) driving under the influence.