04.23.13: Your Morning Buzz

The High Five

5 Sustainable Infrastructure Projects Other Cities Might Want to Copy – BRT-Lite in Lagos, zero-carbon in Masdar, recycling in Curitiba, and more.
K Street’s bounce proves elusive – What K Street had hoped would be a boom year is starting out as a bust. Revenue was either down or flat at many of Washington’s leading lobby firms at the start of 2013 despite the arrival of a new Congress and a fresh legislative agenda from President Obama.
What will George W. Bush’s legacy be? The former president’s approval rating is up as he prepares to open his presidential library in Dallas, an event likely to trigger fresh public debate about his eight fateful years in office.
Why Politics and Economics Are a Toxic Cocktail – Macroeconomics has not fared well in recent years. The failure of standard macroeconomic models during the financial crisis provided the first big blow to the profession, and the recent discovery of the errors and questionable assumptions in the work of Reinhart and Rogoff further undermined the faith that people have in our models and empirical methods.
Who Is Defending Austerity Now? The Excel error heard ’round the world has deficit-cutters backpedaling.

4-1-1 on E-L-G-L

Newest ELGL Member:

Daniel Hauser, Oregon State University, Master of Public Policy

Mark Grabow, Portland State University MPA, Student

Next ELGL Forum:

May 1: Resume Review With Heather Gantz, Waldron HR

May 8: OPB President Steve Bass

Weekly Reader – Top 5 Blog Posts of the Week

I’m Just a Bill

FTA report gives new cost picture of CRC – The Columbia River Crossing has put a new price tag on its controversial megaproject in an estimate to federal officials, knocking the initial cost down to $2.8 billion.

The Easy Case for Online Sales Taxes – The Senate will soon vote on a bill called the Marketplace Fairness Act that would require online merchants to collect taxes on sales in the 45 states that impose them, effectively raising taxes on many online shoppers who have skirted sales taxes up till now.

Earmark Woes Resurface – Transportation chiefs in Congress were a bit stymied over the last two years when they crafted a surface transportation bill that didn’t have earmarks. House Republicans were resolute in their determination to get rid of the legislative goodies that have given elected officials a bad name.

OR Lege: Votes to watch, bills that died and Julie Parrish melts down – Last week saw the deadline for chamber of origin work sessions–meaning bills that didn’t have a work session died in committee. This naturally sent Julie Parrish into a complete meltdown on Facebook, which frankly appears to be the entire reason for which she uses the platform.

Hey Governor and Oregon Business Association, Read the Paper! Governor John Kitzhaber and Oregon Business Association leaders should have read last Friday’s edition of the Portland Business Journalbefore claiming to the Senate Committee on Finance and Revenue this week that Oregon’s income tax on investment gains — capital gains — discourages investment in Oregon.

Fiscal Cliff

Corvallis set to unveil budget amid sea of unknowns – The budget challenges this cycle are arduous — from declining revenues to unfunded liabilities to community clamoring for more services.

In Tax Fight, Amazon Hands Baton to eBay – For more than a decade, Amazon led a ferocious lobbying campaign in Washington against a law to require online merchants to collect state and municipal sales tax from their customers.

Camas seeks revenue in forest – Ten miles outside of Camas, nestled within two watersheds that provide the city with part of its drinking water, stands of Douglas fir trees rise to the heavens.

City eyes tightening tax break rules -It looks as if Eugene apartment developers in the future may have to do more to get property tax breaks from the city.

Flights Delayed Across Country Amid Budget-Cut Furloughs of Air Controllers – Pilots, gate agents and others blamed budget cuts, but the F.A.A. said it was too soon to assign blame for delays of up to two hours.

Inside Portlandia

TriMet’s westside plans include more service to job centers in Hillsboro, as ‘solar system’ evolves -A glance at TriMet’s bus service map shows Hillsboro, the state’s fifth-largest city, is under served by the regional transit agency. It’s a situation that both city and TriMet officials agree needs addressing.

Green and Growing: Gresham leaders pursue ideas to fuel resurgence – Like most communities, Gresham is still digging out from the worst economic downturn most of its residents have experienced. And, certainly, the city, with 107,000 residents, must cope with the kinds of crime and poverty familiar to cities of its size.

Webtrends plans move to ‘Big Pink’ in downtown Portland – Webtrends, which employs about 225 on four floors of its current offices in the Pacific First Center on Southwest 6th Ave., will move into one floor of its new home in February.

Outside Portlandia

Survey helps answer who is our region’s next daily transit rider, walker or cyclist – A recently-released travel and awareness survey conducted by Metro Regional Travel Options (RTO) program reflects a growing trend in Portland area residents’ willingness to seek out and use a variety of travel options to get to work or school or run errands.

Council to recommend Link route – The debate concerning where to extend Tacoma’s Link light rail system may come to an end of sorts today, as the Tacoma City Council is expected to tentatively choose a route to eventually recommend to Sound Transit.

City council backs proposed parks deal – majority of the Vancouver City Council on Monday expressed support for a proposed new agreement with Clark County that more accurately describes what goes on behind the scenes at the Vancouver-Clark Parks & Recreation department.

County puts off consideration of call center offer – The Lane County Board of Commissioners was set to vote today on a $50,000 incentive to help lure a call center to Cottage Grov

Berkeley says ‘sorry’ for mistaken breach of city employee privacy – A Berkeley city staffer mistakenly turned over the social security numbers of everyone who works for the city while responding to a public records request, and the city has sent a letter to staff to apologize.

Career Center

The Power of Listening and Observing – Click and Clack, hosts of Car Talk on NPR, have an uncanny knack for translating odd, funny noises made by vehicles into credible car repair recommendations.

5 Reasons To Follow Up In Your Job Search – Many job seekers miss the one step that can land them an interview and the job they’re applying for. Sure, they send in their resume or application – they may even send the additional information requested – but many of the unemployed simply fail to follow up with the employers to whom they apply.

12 Basic Shortcuts That Will Make You An Excel Pro And Add Hours To Your Life – It takes years to become an Excel expert, but if you’re trying to justify putting it on your resume you should at least know these 12 shortcuts.

Social Network

Text Messages as Public Records – A city manager sends and receives the following text messages from a city resident on the manager’s personal smartphone.

Boston Police Schooled Us All on Social Media – Those of us who spent the weekend simultaneously glued to televisions, police scanners and Twitter as the search for “Suspect #2” unfolded will walk away with some lessons in how information moves these days.

What Happens When You Really Disconnect – I woke up one morning about four weeks ago and realized in a flash that I’d hit a wall. Most days I can’t wait to get to work. On this day, I struggled to get myself out of the house.