Posted: 05 May 2010 05:11 AM PDT

Students from the homeschooling cooperative Homespun and Hands-on displayed science projects at ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center last week.

Jeremy Brotz, 11, of Burlington displayed his science experiment, "How Sticky is Your Tape?" He said he thought Duct tape would have won as the stickiest tape of them all but after testing its strength against Gorilla tape, packing tape, masking tape, Scotch tape and electrical tape, it came in third.

"Turns out that Gorilla tape is the strongest, packing tape is the second strongest, and electrical tape is the weakest," Brotz said.

Homeschooling cooperative Homespun and Hands-on is made up of 45 students between the ages of 8 and 14 years old who meet weekly in Chittenden County.

Executive Director Cheryl Owens of Richmond said the weekly activities enrich learning initiatives for parents and children.

"What we do is provide opportunities to get together, socialize and participate in group activities. We also have Homespun theater, a performing arts initiative."

The cooperative is in its first year and has been a success, Owens said. What began with 20 students from all over the county grew, within a matter on months, to the current 45 enrolled.

At the science fair, a few students had fun with soda. Sophia Rossi, 10, of Jericho found "fun with fizz" through the chemical reaction of putting lemons in soda, while Jen Dickinson, 14, of Colchester and Hope Swanke, 13, of Essex found a way to make soda foam through a physical reaction using different types of candy, such as Mentos.

"We wanted to determine what makes a Mentos explode in soda," Dickinson said. "We found what caused it was the size of the pores. We tried Altoids and Life Savers, and our results proved Altoids had the smallest reaction and the smallest pores. The carbonation is attracted to the pores and Mentos have the most pores."

Gael Chassereau, 12, of Burlington and Matthew Owens, 13, of Richmond displayed their science experiment, "The Lemon Cannon."

"This shoots lemons by using air pressure," Owens said. "We shot a lemon 127 feet. It was really cool. We learned a lot about air pressure and force of gravity."

Matthew Brouard, 12, of Richmond displayed his "Solar Car Project."

"I learned how the sun can power things," Brouard said. "I definitely think a real car could run on solar energy, this experiment is just a scaled down model of what is possible."

Homespun Theater students will perform "Voyage Aboard the Charming Sally" to benefit The Ronald McDonald house June 4 and 5 at Essex Memorial Hall.

"It's about the first group of actors to come from England," Cheryl Owens said. "It's a light-hearted comedy for children."

Contact Lynn Monty at 651-4826 or lynnmonty@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com.

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Nevada grad illustratescolorful children’s book

Posted: 06 May 2010 06:16 AM PDT

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You may not be familiar with the name Sami Mac, although you've probably seen her work—she was one of the artists who helped paint the Character mural in downtown Nevada.

County race a 7-person scramble

Posted: 06 May 2010 12:12 AM PDT

Experienced candidates compete to replace Jeff Cogen, who took over as county chair

By Steve Law

The Portland Tribune, May 6, 2010

Karol Collymore

Karol Collymore, at age 32, offers herself as a young energetic voice for the county board of commissioners.

"There is a want and a need for a new generation of leadership," she says. "I'm a fresh face, but I'm also experienced."

The Albuquerque, N.M., transplant moved here in 2003 – a Portland newcomer compared to the longtime residents she faces. But she's already made her mark with local nonprofit and political organizations such as the American Heart Association, NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon, Basic Rights Oregon and BlueOregon, the liberal political blog. She also earned plaudits managing several initiatives on Cogen's staff, including a new library branch in Kenton, a farmer's market in St. Johns and a menu labeling ordinance that became a model for the state.

"Watching him work helped me understand what kind of power there is to have 'county commissioner' after your name," Collymore says.

If elected, she'll take up the crusade against health disparities in the county. "More people of color die of heart disease, die of stroke, die of diabetes than white people," says Collymore, an African-American and a fitness buff.

She would like to see the county explore local cigarette and beer taxes. In the meantime, she proposes addressing the county's expected budget shortfall with across-the-board cuts, rather than eliminating entire programs.

Collymore says some of the county sheriff's patrol service could be contracted out to area cities, to save money. She'd also like to join former Chair Ted Wheeler and Cogen's quest to limit Portland's use of urban renewal, which keeps a large share of property off the county tax rolls.

Chuck Currie

A lot of politicians talk about using the bully pulpit of elective office to move their agenda.

The Rev. Chuck Currie figures he knows how to do that, after serving as minister of Parkrose Community United Church of Christ.

Currie says he'd use the bully pulpit to argue against current plans for a 10-lane Columbia River Crossing bridge to Vancouver.

"I think the environmental impact of this project on North and Northeast Portland would be disastrous," he says, referring to the air pollution from increased traffic on Interstate 5. "It's environmental racism."

Currie also would be a champion for the homeless, mentally ill and human service programs if elected. He has experience running shelters and leading the Multnomah County Community Action Commission. Currie's ministry also made him familiar with the oft-neglected east side of Portland, though that isn't part of the district.

Currie is an ordained minister and still does special projects for his denomination, but he doesn't have his own congregation at the moment.

Currie wants to evaluate whether the sheriff's position should be appointed instead of elected. He also supports Wheeler's effort to move the public safety budget under the county chair's authority, not the sheriff's. All too often, Currie says, past sheriffs have engaged in early release of inmates to get more money for the jails. "It's political gamesmanship at its worst," he says.

Currie supports lobbying the Legislature to enable Multnomah County to enact its own cigarette and alcohol taxes.

"I would judge a successful term in office if I could help build support in the community for new revenue sources," he says.

Gary Hansen

Gary Hansen is in a league to himself in this race when it comes to political experience. And none can match his budgeting and other nuts-and-bolts experience in local and state government.

That's because Hansen has already held the office he's seeking, having served two terms on the county board of commissioners in the 1990s. He also served four terms in the Legislature, where he was on the joint budget panel, plus two terms on the Metro Council. Hansen also served a year as president of the Oregon Association of Counties.

Since leaving the Legislature in 2007, Hansen has been doing some part-time lobbying in Salem and "homeschooling my cat," he says.

If elected, Hansen says he'll use his Salem connections to help the county.

"Multnomah County is underfunded," he says. "The first plan is to increase the revenue coming from the state."

Hansen says the county should press the state to fully reimburse the county for the cost of jailing lower-level state felons, or those at the tail end of their state prison terms. He also would urge the Legislature to share some of the fruits of a huge tobacco lawsuit settlement, by doling out some of the money to counties for mental health programs.

Hansen favors opening the empty Wapato Jail with the old model used at the Troutdale Jail, where high-security-risk inmates are screened out to enable a lower level of staffing.

Tom Markgraf

Tom Markgraf boasts of being the candidate who best understands transportation and infrastructure – and says they hold the key to job creation for the Portland area. The consultant and former Blumenauer aide says he knows how to round up the final chunk of money to rebuild the Sellwood Bridge and would use his position to push construction of a new bridge over the Columbia River.

"I spent a career working on big, tough infrastructure projects," Markgraf says. "I think that I could actually get projects for the region and deliver them, and that's going to create construction jobs."

Markgraf also has extensive experience in mental health, as the former board chair of Mental Health West and staff member of Central City Concern.

He is skeptical that beer and cigarette taxes will provide much revenue relief for the county, and favors Wheeler's approach to budget-balancing. Markgraf praises Wheeler's use of one-time money to pay down the county's longterm debt, and he would like to replicate Wheeler's pursuit of partnerships with the city of Portland, hospitals and others to share some of the funding load for human services.

Markgraf would seek to save money by contracting with neighboring cities to handle police patrols in unincorporated areas such as Dunthorpe, Sauvie Island, and the Columbia River Gorge. That should be cheaper and more efficient than dispatching sheriff's patrols from Glisan and Southeast 122nd Avenue, he says.

Markgraf won the endorsement of the Portland Business Alliance and Northwest Labor Council. He is being backed by Multnomah County Commissioner Judy Shiprack, who is close to Portland-area hard-hat unions, and presumably would be a political ally of hers if elected.

Maria Rubio

Maria Rubio has a long résumé in public safety, including stints at the state police training academy, crime prevention for Washington County, the U.S. Justice Department and running the Community Policing Institute at Western Oregon University.

Rubio says she'll use that expertise to explore consolidation of county public safety functions to save money. She'd like the county to contract with city police departments to handle sheriff's patrols on the west side of the county, arguing the current system isn't cost-effective. Rubio also would like to explore consolidating some county functions with the city of Portland, to jointly handle training, human resources, fleet management and emergency management.

She'd make a priority of pushing such government streamlining and efficiency moves.

Rubio is the lone Hispanic candidate in the race and won endorsements of two former Latina county commissioners, Maria Rojo de Steffey and Serena Cruz. She says promoting civil rights and equal treatment will be a major priority if elected. That's an important consideration during these times of economic insecurity and political instability, Rubio says. "We're going back into dangerous political times, where people are looking for scapegoats."

Rubio also says she'll reach out to segments of the county population that often fail to connect with the county or seek services when they need them.

Loretta Smith

Loretta Smith knows her way around government and nonprofit services in the county, after serving two decades helping Wyden's constituents with their problems.

"I'll be a champion for seniors, and I'll be a champion for youth, and I'll be a champion for small business," Smith says.

Smith would like to see bridge maintenance parceled off to a regional entity, freeing the county to perform what she sees as its core mission in the areas of human services and public safety.

"If we stick to those services, we could maintain our budget," she says.

Smith would like to see more after-school programs, known as SUN schools, located in low-income schools without such services. Those provide needed diversions for at-risk youth, she says. "From 3 to 6 p.m., that's when juvenile delinquency is at its highest."

A single mom, Smith says her son wouldn't have made it into the University of Washington without benefiting from Self Enhancement Inc. and the Boys and Girls Clubs, which both offer after-school programs.

She would like to explore using the Wapato Jail as a one-stop center for mental health services, both residential and outpatient.

Paul van Orden

Paul van Orden promises to bring a public safety focus to the county board of commissioners. He's the city of Portland's noise control officer, where for the past 14 years he's sought to resolve sticky conflicts among and between businesses, residents and others. Earlier, he spent five years enforcing environmental laws in New Jersey.

Van Orden, who ran a write-in campaign for county sheriff in 2006, argues the county sheriff post should become an appointed rather than elected position, and that the sheriff's budget should be managed like the rest of county spending, under the authority of the county chair.

The county's empty Wapato Jail should be redefined for alternative internment, rich with built-in social services and treatment programs, to prevent the revolving door among inmates, van Orden suggests.

Van Orden speaks highly of the work of Cogen, implying he'd be a political ally of the newly appointed county chair.

He does not view county cigarette or beer taxes as a viable way to boost county revenues, because they won't raise enough money. Plus, a beer tax is unlikely to overcome strong opposition from business, he says.

"I'm not going to take us down that road," van Orden says.

As an alternative, van Orden favors a tax on electric utility bills, which he says have the advantage of encouraging energy conservation.

He'd favor a regional bridge authority or handing off the county's bridge-maintenance burden to an existing regional government, freeing Multnomah County to focus on human services and public safety.

Van Orden is an avid birder and has promoted community gardens and urban chickens as a board member of the group Growing Gardens. He won endorsements from several leading environmental activists.

-stevelaw@portlandtribune.com

WHO THEY ARE AND WHO SUPPORTS THEM

• Karol Collymore

Personal: Unmarried; lives in Sullivan's Gulch; earned BA, political science, University of New Mexico

Background: Staff assistant to Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen; formerly Cogen's communications and project manager, (since 2007); NARAL Pro-Choice Oregon (2004-05); American Heart Association (2003-04).

Major endorsements: Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Stand for Children, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen, state Rep. Tina Kotek, D-Portland, House Majority Leader Mary Nolan, D-Portland

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Homeschooling

Thursday, May 6, 2010

“Vermont homeschoolers explore science” plus 2 more