These items didn’t make the cut this morning. But they are none the less details of daily life that will look large in the lens of the future.
Politics meets poultry. And the two are going to get to know one another well in coming years as more people struggle to feed families. The Salem City Council has voted 7-1 to schedule a public hearing on a proposed ordinance that would allow residents to keep up to three hens, but no roosters, in back yards. This means a household gets to keep three egg-laying hens, but only under certain conditions and with a required license. A date for the public hearing was not immediately announced.
And here’s another one: Home brewing. Currently it’s against the law to transport ones homemade beer away from ones home – unless a batch blows ones house into the next county. Accidents do happen. But returning to the case – no pun intended - before us: Democratic Senator Floyd Prozanski of Eugene is drafting – no pun intended - legislation to permit do-it-yourself brewers to once again transport their hand-crafted products beyond their homes. Earlier this summer, the state Department of Justice determined that an 80-year-old, Prohibition-era law barred consumption of homemade alcoholic beverages outside the home.
And let’s not forget the Net. Yesterday Net Neutrality gained a cadre of heavy-hitters. Four Democratic Congressmen, members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee all: Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Anna Eshoo of California, Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania and Jay Inslee of Washington put forward their own Net Neutrality rules as an antidote to the smelly mess of potage offered up by Google and Verizon – two juggernauts with vested interests in the outcome. It’s a classic ‘Public vs. Private’ showdown.
- KBOO