A PSU population forecast released last week shows the city holding onto its middle class but at the expense of families with school-aged kids. That's bad for Portland Public Schools, whose enrollment will slip 15 percent in the next decade, leading to wrenching decisions about school closures. Fuming homebuilders vow they'll take their case to the Legislature. The poster bird for old-growth forests, the northern spotted owl, continues along the path of the dodo. In a fun little bit of bio-bureauspeak, the scientists brag that the rate of decline has slowed.
Problem is, the rate is still three times higher than predicted.