Mount Hood

#Vote2016

By: Stephanie Blair
Editor-in-Chief

screen-shot-2016-10-08-at-9-28-34-amAfter the first presidential debate on Sept. 26, the internet has exploded with various voter registration campaigns for National Voter Registration day. A company, called HelloVote, has created a chatbot service that allows people to register to vote through text message.
On YouTube, “Register to Vote in 1:34” videos were created by the likes of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Conan O’Brien so the VoteIRL campaign could show how quick and easy registering is (an average time of one minute and 34 seconds, hence the titles). While on Twitter, hashtags such as #LoseYourVCard and #VoteHoney were smattered across dashboards to promote other campaigns, but all with the same message; 18-34 year-olds are being called to vote.
According to the US Census Bureau, over the last three presidential elections 18-34 year-olds have only made up an average 23.7 percent of the voting population while 45-64 year-olds have consistently been the largest voting demographic with an average of 38.5 percent.
The last day to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 18. To register to vote, visit vote.gov and have your driver’s license or identification card ready.

 

Your food may be getting cheaper

By: Brian Tesch
Advertising Manager

Here’s some good news for consumers, the USDA’s Economic Research Service report marks August as the ninth consecutive month of food deflation. The total 9 month decrease in food prices averaging -6 percent overall. With August being the largest decline, a whopping -1.8 percent, this food deflation anomaly does not appear to be slowing down anytime soon. What is causing such an unprecedented event? And why should we care?

Looking into the past, food deflation has been fairly market reliant. More specifically, it’s generally caused by some sort of recession. In 2009, grocery stores ran more sales in the months following, resulting in a form of food deflation. This isn’t a mystery. There were financial hardships and consumers were buying less food. You can probably guess that the biggest food deflation in U.S. history was during the great depression. Again, that shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

Considering the past, the current deflation should be puzzling. While the answer is probably more complex than we can speculate, current deflation is most likely being caused by low oil prices. With low oil prices, transporting food just got cheaper, therefore stores are able to charge less. This makes this food deflation another benefit for the U.S. economy brought to you by cheap oil.

That’s good news for college students because it’s going to be easier to find good deals at your local supermarket. But be careful, this food deflation is not benefiting everyone…

Food deflation, due to transportation costs, is actually becoming a huge problem for smaller grocery stores and food chains. Stores like Walmart that rely on transportation to move most of their food across their vast and complex distribution networks are now at a huge advantage. With the cost of transportation plummeting, stores like Walmart are able to charge less and less for their food and outsource more strategically across the country. While this is causing the national food deflation, the source of the downward pressure on pricing is not shared equally among grocery stores. This is a big problem because there is a huge difference between lowering your prices because you can, and lowering your prices because you have to.

This market environment is creating huge headaches for local mom and pop stores competing in towns with larger retailers. Even large billion-dollar retail companies such as Kroger, Whole Foods and Sprouts are starting to see their margins decrease and their stock plummet due to this change in market environment. Meanwhile, giant retailers such as Walmart and Aldi are taking over with the help of discount oil. Even Lidl, a German supermarket giant, has started to build three massive distribution plants on the east coast with the plan of opening its first U.S. stores in 2018. Amazon, being Amazon, has started AmazonFresh and is now delivering fresh groceries to your door if you live in a large city; and no, you cannot get your scup and veggies delivered via drone.

What does this mean? The longer food prices continue to decrease, the harder it will be in the future for a large local grocery store to compete with the new corporate market.

Contact the author at btesch14@wou.edu

Exploring the final frontier

By: Zoe Strickland
Managing Editor

In 2024, just 55 years after the moon landing, we could be setting foot on Mars. Despite it being a mere eight years into the future, Elon Musk, CEO of aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, is convinced that he will be able to send a rocket full of passengers to Mars.

Traveling to Mars wouldn’t be an easy feat; the process would involve creating a vessel that is reusable, while also developing a way for the vessel to refuel while in orbit.

On Sept. 27, Musk spoke at the 67th International Astronautical Conference in Guadalajara, Mexico about his long-term plans for eventually colonizing the fourth closest planet to the sun.

In a video of his speech released by Bloomberg.com, Musk spoke about the logistics of how often we would be able to send new people to Mars, “The Earth-Mars rendezvous only occurs roughly every 26 months”.

If we can only send rockets to Mars every two years, how long would it take to fully colonize the planet? “If we say the minimum threshold for a self sustaining city on Mars…would be 1,000,000 people… and you can only go every two years. If you have 100 people per ship, that’s 10,000 trips…From the point at which the first ship goes to Mars, it’s probably within 20 to 50 Mars rendezvous. It’s probably somewhere between 40 to 100 years to achieve a fully self-sustaining civilization on Mars”, Musk said in his speech.

The idea of going to Mars could soon be a reality, but achieving self-sustaining life on Mars will still be a long-term work in progress.

Despite how alluring the concept of colonizing a new planet is, SpaceX, as well as other privatized companies that are looking into creating spaceships, is hitting a major roadblock when it comes to making their plans a reality: proper funding. Receiving sufficient funding for space exploration has plagued both public and private space exploration organizations for years. According to Musk, part of curbing the funding issue is to try and find a way to allow for more than 100 people to be sent in a single rocketship. By finding a way to allow more passengers, he hopes to eventually decrease the amount that one has to pay to be sent to Mars from $10 billion, to a mere $200,000.

Though SpaceX’s plans put them at the forefront of innovative space technology, they would not have made such significant strides without the work done by public aeronautical agencies, such as NASA, who have provided contracts and funding to SpaceX.

NASA’s continuous efforts to further space exploration take form in the information gathered by Spirit and Opportunity, the two Mars rovers that were sent to explore the planet. The two rovers have provided information that has been integral in deciding if Mars would be a habitable planet; the Mars rovers have discovered water, as well as gathered information regarding the atmospheric make-up of the planet.

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu.

Didn’t Watch the Olympics? No Problem!

By: Paige Scofield
Campus Life Editor

 

If you didn’t have time to watch the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio, we’ve got you covered.

So, just how many medals did team USA win this year? NBC News reported: 46 gold, 37 silver and 38 bronze medals, for a total of 121 medals. American swimmers won a total 33 of those medals, our track and field athletes won 32 and our gymnasts won 12.

The USA won a few medals in every other sport, but the majority of medals were in these events. Team USA has always done well in the Olympics, buscreen-shot-2016-09-28-at-7-11-51-pmt this year we had a few record breaking wins in the mix. The amazing Simone Biles from the women’s gymnastics team, a member of, “The Final Five,” was the first gymnast ever to win four gold medals. She placed first in vault, team all-around, floor exercise and individual all-around. Biles even has a move named after her, aptly named, “The Biles,” because she was the first to successfully execute it in competition. Biles is currently the only gymnast in the world able to do this.

Simone Manuel of the women’s swimming team was the first African-American women to win a gold medal in an individual swimming event. Katie Ledecky (also of the women’s swimming team), beat four world records, two of which were her own from the previous Olympic Games.

Overall, the 2016 Summer Olympic Games was a good year for team USA.

Contact the author at journalcampuslife@wou.edu

Obama implements new FAFSA changes

By: Zoe Strickland
Managing Editor

Last year, President Barack Obama announced that there would be changes made to the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. According to the FAFSA website, there are two changes that students should be aware of.

Starting this year, the FAFSA will be available to fill out starting Oct. 1. However, the completion deadline of June 30 has remained the same.

In addition to the new opening date, President Obama has announced that students and families will report earlier income information. In the past, students have been required to report their tax information for the current school year as a part of the FAFSA application process. Starting this year, students will report their tax information from the previous year.This means that for the 2017-18 FAFSA application, applicants use their tax information from 2015.

According to the FAFSA website, these changes have been implemented so that “more students and families will be able to complete their FAFSA using income information imported electronically from the IRS […] rather than submitting applications with income estimates that may need correcting, or […] waiting until the previous year’s tax return has been filed.”

Western will be hosting FAFSA completion workshops in room 108 of Hamersly Library from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Oct. 3-6. If you’re interested in attending one of the workshops, bring your FAFSA username and password, as well as your 2015 tax information.

To begin your FAFSA application independently, visit fafsa.ed.gov.

More information about the changes to the FAFSA can be found at studentaid.ed.gov/sa.

Contact the author at journalmanaging@wou.edu

Summertime news (or lack thereof)

We at The Western Journal wanted to let you know that we’re out of the office from now until New Student Week begins on September 18. Thank you for your readership and support throughout the last year. If you think that this year was a big one for you, we cannot wait to show you what’s in store for next year. We can’t divulge anything yet, but we’re excited to share it all with you starting in the fall. Until then, have a great summer.

Love,

The Western Journal Staff

Homeward Bound buses people out of town

By: Alvin Wilson
Staff Writer

A new program that was recently approved by the city of Portland is trying to help solve the city’s homeless crisis.

The program’s name is Homeward Bound, and its mission is to provide free bus tickets to homeless who meet the qualifications.

According to the Oregonian, it was approved by Portland in mid-March, and will receive at least $30,000 from the city. The program began, and the first bus tickets were issued, earlier this month. On its first day of operation, 40 people had signed up.

The city of Portland doesn’t want to simply move its homeless problem to another area. KGW reports that the bus tickets only go to individuals who will have somewhere to stay at their destination, and who are prepared to have follow-up meetings with their caseworkers three months after their placement.

Marc Jolin, the initiative director of A Home For Everyone, another organization trying to address homelessness, told KGW this about the program:

“We had homeless people in the community who had other permanent housing options, but didn’t know to ask for the support. They wound up being stuck here for long periods of time, weeks or months.”

According to the program’s advocates, it will only serve to help people who are stuck in an area with no family or support.

However, Portland’s homeless crisis may have in-part been caused by similar programs across the country.

An investigation by KGW in 2013 found that participants in similar programs claimed to have a place to stay in Portland, but they ended up back in the streets.

With Portland’s Homeward Bound program requiring follow-up meetings with caseworkers, the city hopes it won’t have the same results as other programs. If a participant is found homeless during their three-month check-up, the program will help the participant find similar organizations.

You can learn more about Portland’s Homeward Bound program by dialing 2-1-1.

Contact the author at awilson15@wou.edu or on Twitter @awilsonjournal.

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