HUZZAH for the cutest of Oregon’s natives – the beaver! Considered by scientists to be “nature’s engineers,” they move things around and basically rework the wetlands into beautiful oases that can withstand wildfires. This fact led Jakob Shockey and Sarah Koenigsberg to work with the Beaver Coalition with the aim of getting everyone to see the native rodents for the beneficial little buggers they are. Leading Oregonians far and wide to call for Smokey the Beaver to, like, be a thing. [ALSO they’re much better than ducks, am I right?]
CHEERS for teams playing sports… because the women’s volleyball team at LBCC won the top spot for the Northwest Athlete Conference tourney… the OSU men’s soccer team won the Pac-12 championship and will be given the No. 1 spot in the NCAA tourney… the OSU football team became Bowl Eligible [yes, that’s a thing] for the first time in eight years… and OSU women’s soccer phenom McKenna Martinez was named to the Pac-12 Second Team and the All-Freshman team after scoring 12 goals… Go Benton County!
JEERS to scammers scamming scamable folks at Christmas. With supply chains taking a long, sad nap at sea, many are sending the little bits of plastic that usually say “I didn’t try that hard to think of a gift” but now say “I didn’t try that hard and all the good stuff wasn’t in stock.” If you are buying gift cards for your loved ones [or even just liked ones], then make sure you get them from a reputable place. Our Evil Twins over at The G-T warn about five-digit level fraud reports [about 35,000 in actual-number numbers] related to those little suckers so far in 2021, and we still have a Thanksgiving and December to get through. So be careful out there!
CHEERS for unemployment rates going down, down, down [and the flames went higher… wait, that’s The Ring of Fire song…] in Oregon as whole – the rate is now at 4.4% with the state adding 4,700 jobs. BETTER CHEERS for Corvallis, where the unemployment rate hit a remarkably low 3.3% in September [… and it burns burns burns… moving on… ]
DOUBLEPLUS BIG OLE CHEERS for local amber expert George Poinar Jr. In case you didn’t already know, Poinar is the guy behind the real world science behind the literary and movie world of Jurassic Park. He once taught at OSU, and post-retirement has continued to make news with discoveries that boggle the mind. His latest: fossil evidence that a 40-million-year-old pine cone encased in Baltic amber has embryonic stems emerging. We strongly recommend that you take a few minutes to read the press release from OSU about this. [Plus, there’s a picture… strongly!]
SAD SIGHS over the fact that Mayor Biff Traber will no longer be Mayor after the 2022 election. Traber is stepping down after serving the city he and we and [hopefully] all of you love. We’ll admit it here, we’re bummed about this. He’s been a local official who is always dealing with the media in a fair and productive manner; he’s the guy who always has the right numbers and can explain why they’re the right numbers; and he’s got the name of a superhero smacking down a bad guy [Biff!]. And, of course, we worry about who is coming in, because after the recent school board elections across the state, we are unsure of what to expect. They don’t make’em like Biff Traber anymore, and we’re lucky to have him for another [albeit last] year.
CHEERS for the general idea of zero-emission big rigs, and more CHEERS specifically for the fact that Oregon may soon require makers of shipping trucks, delivery vans, buses, and garbage trucks to increase the number of the zero-emission variety of those puppies by 2024. The goal is to increase sales of these non-polluters by 2030. Then increase them again by 2035. [Then probably even more as subsequent years go by.]
NARCISSISTIC CHEERS for The Advocate and our very own [well, once our own] Cara Nixon. More than a year ago [Oct. 1, 2021 to be precise], Nixon found and wrote a story about hemp being used at OSU as livestock feed. It was a good story, well researched, and encouraging about better ways to be sustainable. On Nov. 16, 2021, OPB published a story about the same darned thing – same faculty interviewed and everything. Our sincere thanks to Ms. Nixon for helping us be in front of the curve. [Managing Editor’s Note: Cara rocks!!]
Do you have a story for The Advocate? Email editor@corvallisadvocate.com