News
NYT Politics
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Biden Fades Out of the Picture in Talks With World Leaders
As he made his final appearance at global gatherings, including at the Group of 20 summit in Brazil, President Biden lobbied for his foreign policy goals even as leaders shifted attention away from him.
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Trump Picks Dr. Oz to Oversee Medicare and Medicaid
The celebrity physician would oversee federal health insurance programs that cover more than 100 million Americans.
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For Russia, Nuclear Weapons Are the Ultimate Bargaining Chip
The Ukraine war has not only shattered millions of lives and shaken Europe. It also has inured Washington to the use of nuclear threats as leverage.
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Richard V. Allen, Reagan’s First National Security Adviser, Dies at 88
His tenure was short: He was forced to resign after $1,000 in cash was found in a safe in his former office, even though the Justice Department cleared him of wrongdoing.
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Portland Business News
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Portland-area software maker sold to Monotype Imaging
Tigard font management software maker Extensis has been acquired by a Boston-area company that designs and licenses some of the world’s best known fonts.
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Columbian Newspaper
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Multiple election offices report receiving mailed ballots misdirected from other states
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Terry Thompson had an election to run for voters in Cascade County, Montana. Why then, she thought, was her office in Great Falls being sent mailed ballots completed by voters in places such as Vancouver; Wasilla, Alaska; and Tampa, Florida? |
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Trump chooses TV doctor Mehmet Oz to lead Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump says he is nominating Dr. Mehmet Oz, who hosted a long-running television talk show, to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. |
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Texas board advances plan to allow Bible material in elemetary school lessons
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas’ education board on Tuesday advanced a new Bible-infused curriculum that would be optional for schools to incorporate in kindergarten through fifth grades, one of the latest Republican-led efforts in the U.S. to incorporate more religious teaching into classrooms. |
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The Osprey’s safety issues spiked over five years and caused deaths. Pilots still want to fly it
CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AP) — Over a New Mexico training range named the Hornet, two Osprey aircraft speed 100 feet off the ground, banking hard over valleys and hills as they close in on a dusty landing zone. |
The Chronicle - Centralia
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Centralia City Council to consider construction for five Yelm bridges needing repairs
The process to improve five Yelm bridges owned by the City of Centralia across the Centralia Canal is moving forward and backward at the same time. After the Centralia City Council approved amending a contract with an engineering firm to evaluate the bridges in August, the city is unsure of how to pay for the nearly $1 million in repairs, but it does have a plan. Yelm residents expressed concerns about the quality of the bridges after they were told fire engines, emergency services and other important vehicles would be too heavy to cross the bridges following a recent weight capacity load rating. Sargent Engineers, the engineering firm that completed the load ratings, provided the city with three potential engineering options, including adding more girders to the bridges, installing new bridges and modifying the current bridges. The city determined that adding girders wouldn’t remove the load ratings, and installing new bridges may not be fully necessary. Instead, it chose to modify the bridges similarly to what the city did with one of the six total Yelm bridges Centralia owns this summer. The Lindsay Spooner Bridge, located off of Cook Road Southeast, received four I-beams to support the center of the bridge. “This is similar to the option that Sargent has outlined for the other five bridges that we are concerned about at this time,” Centralia Interim City Manager Amy Buckler said during a Tuesday, Nov. 12, council meeting. “That option would also replace the decking and the railings on the bridge, and it would solve the problem with the load ratings. So we have asked Sargent to proceed with the next step in the contract, which is to prepare construction plans in accordance with this type of option.” The estimated cost per bridge is approximately $180,000, which nears $1 million for the five bridges, but Buckler said how the project gets funded has not been determined at this time. The matter will return to the City Council in early 2025 for more discussion. “I also mentioned that the timing for the bridge improvements would be impacted by whether or not federal permits would be required for this work,” Buckler said. “We have had some preliminary conversations with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees the hydroproject and the bridges, and they are indicating that this work would likely require federal permits. That is unfortunate for the timeline because it would likely extend it.” Centralia Mayor Kelly Smith Johnston empathized with residents affected by the bridges’ load ratings and those anxiously awaiting progress from the city. “I’m grateful that as a council we were able to take very quick action to get a contract with Sargent in place to start to explore this and that we continue to do what we can as quickly as we can,” she said. “For those of you impacted by this, know that we are doing whatever we can within our purview and that we are concerned for you as well.” |
