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Posts published in “Day: August 19, 2007”

An Alternate Energy view

August 19, 2007
Don Gillispie

Don Gillispie

We've made, on occasion or two, skeptical comments about the proposal to build a private nuclear power plant at Bruneau. Leaving aside the wisdom of the idea (which we haven't much gotten into), we've simply been doubtful that it's an idea likely to see fruition, possibly ever and almost certainly not in the next decade.

And Alternate Energy Holdings, which is aiming toward such a project, says it intends to build a good deal sooner than that. (Our take is that any private nuclear project that can get federal approvals is less than a decade from inception will have worked a miracle in modern times.)

That said, we found interesting this commentary, enclosed in an email (through a public relations firm) from Don Gillispie, the CEO of Alternate Energy. Consider it an alternative view for your Sunday reading.

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Same as, maybe less so

August 19, 2007

About time some journalist documented this: Whether immigrants here illegally are, as alleged, filling up the nation's jails. What they are actually doing is about what you'd expect: Keeping pace, in terms of jail space and type of offenses, with our native population.

Today's Oregonian story on the subject focuses, naturally, on Oregon and secondarily Washington, but the results implicitly ought to apply similarly elsewhere. From the story: "In Oregon state prisons and Portland metro-area jails, presumed illegal immigrants make up a small percentage of those behind bars, and their crime rates are on par with the general population, statistics show. The types of crimes that send them to prison also compares with the general inmate population, according to a review of state records."

It's about what you might expect from a population that, on one hand, wants to keep its collective head low and avoid encounters with the authorities, but that also has little money, sometimes desperate living conditions and may have limited understanding of the place they've reached.

Which is not to say there isn't a problem here. But it does give some useful parameters within which to rationally, rather than emotionally, come to grips with it. A highly recommended read.