Small businesses are struggling and this story of generosity is a reminder to not forget about our community. We need our local small businesses to survive, so please find a way – any way – to support them. Look for them online and purchase something. Stop in and say hi and let them know you care. Order take out. Every little bit helps.

From AP News

CLEVELAND (AP) — A customer left a $3,000 tip for a single beer as a restaurant voluntarily closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The man walked into Nighttown on Sunday in Cleveland, ordered the beer and asked for the check, which came to $7.02, owner Brendan Ring wrote on Facebook.

Ring said the man…

Martin Litton is someone you may not have heard of unless you are an avid Grand Canyon river enthusiasts. He is one of those legendary people who made a difference in so many ways. Pioneer Dory boat builder, explorer, river guide and conservationist, he may be the single reason the Grand Canyon is the way it is today. This film by Pete McBride honors the late Marin Litton and inspires us today to think about the efforts of those like him.

Preeminent conservationist David Brower called him his conscience: in the 1950’s when the Bureau of Reclamation proposed two dams in the Grand Canyon—one at Marble Canyon and the other at Bridge…

From The Good News Network By By McKinley Corbley

This groundbreaking new project in Germany is testing the use of salt as an ingredient for a fossil fuel-free future.

The Reuter power plant in Berlin recently launched a new system of technology that is using calcium oxide, also known as quicklime, to store heat for long periods of time.

Germany already has the renewable energy capacity to power more than half of the country, but since many green energy sources are dependent on consistent weather conditions, the nation is forced to continue using fossil fuels as backup energy sources.

Quicklime, on the other hand, generates large amounts of heat when it is simply exposed to water.

The salt technology, which was…

This is the last episode in a 6 part series from One Tree Planted.  Relevant to Oregon and all of the western U.S., as well as, California, this is a look into the many challenges facing the forest, population, and environment, and the solutions being employed to help avoid and recover from catastrophic wildfires.

Episode 06: Where Do We Go From Here? This episode focuses on the future of California, and the future of the fires that have been getting worse over the past few decades. We interview a range of experts who are involved in planning and managing a safer and more fire-resistant California. Foresters are looking at sustainable management, legislators are addressing environmental needs through policy-making, and climate…

Big news that affects Oregon rivers and wildlife.

From Oregon Live/The Oregonian By Gillian Flaccus, The Associated Press

An agreement announced Tuesday paves the way for the largest dam demolition in U.S. history, a project that promises to reopen hundreds of miles of waterway along the Oregon-California border to salmon that are critical to tribes but have dwindled to almost nothing in recent years.

If approved, the deal would revive plans to remove four massive hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, creating the foundation for the most ambitious salmon restoration effort in history. The project on California’s second-largest river would be at the vanguard of a trend toward dam demolitions in the U.S.…

This is a small story and there are other issues that certainly are bigger currently, but it reminds us to look for the positive and be grateful for the little things.

From Sports Illustrated By Greg Bishop

An unlikely tale about an Ohio mechanic who lost his cherished board on one side of the Pacific and a teacher from the Philippines who found it on the other.

In a year of a billion Zoom calls born from a global pandemic, after seven months as strange as any stretch in human history, two men—separated by thousands of miles, a language barrier and a world divided—meet one afternoon in August over video conference. Each one knows exactly how he arrived here, how…

This timely 6 part series from One Tree Planted is relevant to Oregon and all of the western U.S., as well as, California. This is a look into the many challenges facing the forest, population, and environment, and the solutions being employed to help avoid and recover from catastrophic wildfires.

Throughout this series we meet the people dedicated to ensuring forests are healthy and safe. From policymakers to academics, to the tree planters and firefighters, these people are on the frontlines of the collective effort to restore California’s and other western states landscapes and instill hope for future generations.

The 2020 California and Oregon fires have once again been record-breaking. From the first gigafire in California to hundreds of smaller…

With the passage of measure 110 Oregon will decriminalize most drugs. Legal magic mushrooms? Tolerance for heroin and meth? It’s not as crazy as it sounds.

From Reasons To Be Cheerful By Eric Krebs

Last week’s U.S. election made winners of wide swathes of people, policies and ideas. One of those winners was progressive drug policy — and not just for marijuana.

Four states — New Jersey, Montana, Arizona and North Dakota — voted by large margins to legalize marijuana. But the truly groundbreaking news came from Oregon, which decriminalized marijuana possession in 1973. Last week, voters there approved two unprecedented changes to American drug policy: the legalization of the use of psychedelic mushrooms, and the decriminalization of the possession of…

From Reasons To Be Cheerful – ‘We Are Not Divided’ Series By Lauren Kaljur

As soon as he heard the news, Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation’s Chief Paul Prosper’s heart began to race. A school bus, a grade school and a sign in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, the remote county on the east coast of Canada encircling Paqtnkek Mi’kmaw Nation’s reserve, had been tagged with anti-Black and Indigenous racist slurs. Prosper’s heartbeat was anticipating terse interactions with parents, the school board and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, not to mention the students. “You’re sort of walking into a hornet’s nest, you know, you’re bound to get stung,” he says.

But looking back now at the 2018 incident, a different detail stands out to…

From National Geographic by Paul Salopek. This story is part of journalist Paul Salopek’s multiyear, 21,000-mile walk across the world in the footsteps of our forebears.

SHEIN MA KAR MONASTERY, MYANMAR

To reach the sacred Irrawaddy River from Shwebo, a nondescript town in northern Myanmar, you must slog east on burning roads.

Sweat beads around your eyelids by dawn. An hour later, the blast-furnace sun boils all color from the world. A corner blacksmith deploys an electric hair dryer as his bellows. You carry its loud whine inside your ears for miles: The end of our universe, its incineration, will sound like this.

Without realizing it, you have tottered into the Iron Age empire of Pyu. The 2,000-year-old civilization had…