skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Monday, May 12, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Dow soars 1,000 points after Trump team and China dramatically lower tariffs; Alabama lawmakers send grocery tax cut bill to governor; Probation, supervision after incarceration comes with a catch in NC; How immigrants can protect themselves and their data at the border.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The Pentagon begins removing transgender troops as legal battles continue. Congress works to fix a SNAP job-training penalty. Advocates raise concerns over immigrant data searches, and U.S. officials report progress in trade talks with China.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Volunteers with AmeriCorps are reeling from near elimination of the 30-year-old program, Head Start has dodged demise but funding cuts are likely, moms are the most vulnerable when extreme weather hits, and in California, bullfrogs await their 15-minutes of fame.

Portland Town Hall: Chance to Comment on Columbia River Treaty

play audio
Play

Thursday, September 6, 2018   

PORTLAND, Ore. – The U.S. State Department holds a town hall meeting in Portland Thursday on the state's Columbia River Treaty negotiations with Canada.

Conservation and tribal groups want negotiators to take the river's health into account.

The treaty focuses primarily on hydropower production and flood risk management for cities along the Columbia.

Greg Haller, executive director of the environmental group Pacific Rivers, says it's time to add "ecosystem-based function" to that list of priorities, and points to dismal salmon and steelhead returns as a sign of bad river health.

Haller says this is what many Northwesterners want.

"They expect their power to not kill salmon and drive them extinct, and we haven't achieved that yet,” he states. “And that's what we want, and that's what we're representing as a conservation community working on this issue. And the treaty offers a way to right that wrong."

Haller adds that dams in the Columbia River Basin have disrupted native fishing communities, but tribes and First Nations are not part of the negotiation process.

The town hall starts at 5:30 p.m.

The next round of negotiations between the U.S. and Canada takes place in Portland in October.

Haller says the treaty often is hailed as a gold standard for water treaty agreements.

"And it has produced a lot of benefits, but also at enormous costs to salmon and people, and fish and wildlife,” Haller states. “And so, addressing the social and cultural iniquities that have occurred and economic as a result of the treaty, I think, is an important outcome."

Haller says bringing salmon and steelhead back to the Columbia River Basin also factors into conservation groups' strategy for helping the Pacific Northwest orca population, which has suffered from a lack of food.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Many municipalities are now testing drinking water for PFAS but contamination is often widespread and difficult to remove. (show999/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A new study from Michigan State University researchers revealed lasting PFAS effects in a Michigan community's drinking water near an old paper mill l…


Environment

play sound

Supporters of the Campaign for Affordable Power are pressing state lawmakers to pass a series of reform bills aimed at big investor-owned utilities li…

Health and Wellness

play sound

At least two people have tested positive for measles in Illinois and public health officials are working to combat misinformation surrounding vaccines…


The primary reasons for evictions in Utah are lease violations and nonpayment of rent, according to the Utah Housing Coalition. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Keeping more renters in their homes is one goal of a new Utah initiative. The Utah Housing Coalition has formed a Landlord and Community Partners …

Social Issues

play sound

A new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives could make it easier for people to get job training while they're receiving federal food assistance…

AARP says currently, civil law enforcement tools, namely injunctions and monetary orders, are insufficient in stopping scam operations and getting victims' money refunded. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Fear, shame, and helplessness are feelings Minnesota fraud victims describe after losing their life savings to a scam. They're hopeful about a path …

Social Issues

play sound

The Pentagon will begin removing transgender troops from the military after the Supreme Court ruled last week that a ban could be enforced as lawsuits…

Social Issues

play sound

In Colorado, 83 workers were killed on the job in 2023, according to the AFL-CIO's latest "Death on the Job" report. The report comes after the …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021