Lascher at Large » Places

Along for the Ride: Streetcar Music Festival

Bill — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:17:01 +0000

Guitars, cellos, saxophones, toy pianos and more, the Streetcar Mobile Music Fest featured musicians performing aboard various streetcars throughout the night. Click the link to listen to and see what it was like when I went along for the ride. [...]

Along for the Ride: Max Blue Line 1 — Hillsboro

Bill — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:03:11 +0000

This week's installment of Along for the Ride, my series of weekly chronicles of Portland, OR-area transit lines. is an audio postcard from a rush hour trip aboard the MAX Blue Line to Hillsboro. In a future edition, I'll explore the rest of the line, from Downtown Portland, East to Gresham. [...]

Along for the Ride: Island Time Aboard the 85

Bill — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 16:03:07 +0000

Welcome to the second week of Along for the Ride, my series of weekly chronicles of Portland, OR-area transit lines. If you haven’t already, check out the first edition and if you like the series, please spread the word, or even cover my bus fare.

This week, I woke early Wednesday morning intending to [...]

Along for the Ride: Going Live on the 75

Bill — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 16:37:31 +0000

Today marks the public launch of “Along for the ride,”* a new series of mass transit adventure chronicles on Lascher at Large.

Watch an Audio Slideshow | Explore the Map | See the Photo Gallery

The concept: explore Portland as seen from the metropolitan region’s transit lines. Each week, through a highly [...]

New rankings beg question: what makes Portland sustainable?

Bill — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 17:56:11 +0000

Portland-based Sustainable Business Oregon reported yesterday that Stumptown once again won silver in Site Selection Magazine‘s Rankings of the nation’s most sustainable metroplitan communities.

Once again coming in second to the Bay Area (Site Selection‘s lede about San Francisco’s ban on unsolicited Yellow Pages was cornily fantastic), Portland ranked high alongside Oregon, which came [...]

Research shakes up seismic knowledge near Northwest nuclear plant

Bill — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 01:20:36 +0000

Letters sent as part of the licensing process reveal the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had multiple questions for Energy Northwest about the assumptions it used to develop its response plan for potential accidents. Among the questions: Why did Energy Northwest continue to use 15-year-old studies as the basis for earthquake preparations at the Columbia Generating Station -- the Northwest's only commercial nuclear reactor -- when much more up-to-date information about the region's seismic profile were available from the USGS and Hanford itself? [...]

Plutonium pride on the Mid-Columbia

Bill — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:14:35 +0000

This update originally appeared April 15 on the blog for the Spot.us story I’m working on about seismic risks at Eastern Washington’s nuclear power facilities. Later updates — including news of a petition by environmental groups to stop the NRC from nuclear plant licensing and other proceedings until it completes a review of the [...]

Heart of the Monster: Journey to SEJ 2010, Part 3

Bill — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 21:11:01 +0000

I admit that the story – and this entire series, delayed as it may be – has meandered from its path. Nevertheless, I'm also wrestling with how to respond honestly to my experiences, with what happened in my brain on the journey and whether it's self-indulgent to serve this soup of thought (it's a little too stagnant to call it a stream) to you, instead of a straightforward report of the who and the what I saw where and when. Which approach provides the real, honest reporting? [...]

Uncertainty, seismic risks and nuclear regulation

Bill — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:30:09 +0000

This is a copy of a blog post I wrote today at spot.us to update supporters about my work on a story exploring the seismic dangers that could face the Columbia Generating Station near Richland, Washington. Click here to read more about that story and how you can help make it happen.

In more than [...]

Day two, part 1: Deer at dawn

Bill — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 04:20:17 +0000

Before the second day of my trip from Portland to Missoula for the 2010 Society of Environmental Journalists conference I'd hoped to visit Hell's Canyon. That morning - if I could really call it that - I realized I didn't want to make the solo trip down a gravel road from Imnaha after a freeze, not the way I felt. Lonesomeness had crept in a little, too, and I didn't want to experience the gorge alone, knowing then that there was a traveling companion not there with whom I'd want to share the marvel. Anyhow, I didn't know exactly yet how much time I had to linger. Still, this was my time on the road, my time made uniquely possible by a few key people. I didn't want to miss this world, knowing how remote this landscape was for me, and how rare my opportunities to visit might be. Though fatigued, it was important to me to let my spirit move me, even if it moved me slowly, even if it moved me differently than I'd expected or hoped. [...]