PenAir grounds Oregon flights, Salem mayors reminisce, and Springfield hospital is on the rebound.
One upside of the smoky haze engulfing the Northwest is the glowing pink orb of a sun that has appeared daily since the inversion began last week. The vibrant, mystical-looking sphere reads as a harbinger of the eclipse, and not only because the smoke continues to cloak the sun’s rays. The planets and stars may be moving into alignment, but the atmosphere is way unsettled.
We’ve got forest fires on the mind. Oregon Live reports on blazes shuttering Crater Lake, Mt. Jefferson and other heavily recreated sites.
The astute reader will recall an award-winning article we published last year on the immigrant investor visa, a federal program that provides visas for qualified foreigners who invest $500,000 into a business endeavor that creates at least 10 permanent U.S. jobs. A story on a comparable program in Canada raises the intriguing possibility of using EB-5 visas to pay for affordable housing. Read the CBC article here.
Fly no more. The saga of small town airports is full of dreams — and dashed hopes. PenAir announced it will halt all flights to Pacific Northwest cities as of today. Regional cities affected by the closures are Klamath Falls, Redding, Eureka/Arcata and North Bend/Coos Bay. KTVL is the bearer of bad news.
Speaking of flying:
OB reporter Amy Milshtein gets Oregon executives to reveal their best airline travel stories.
The Salem-Statesman Journal has a nice article profiling past mayors who reflect on the growth of the Capital city.
For photos of the Portland Convention Center hotel groundbreaking, check out PBJ’s slideshow here.
Privately-insured patients are a financial windfall for McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center in Springfield. Blue Chip, the Eugene Register-Guard’s biz magazine, reports on the hospital’s comeback.
