Hey I am moving out of my current situation and need to find a home in Portland so if you know of something please email me alex_ansary@hotmail.com
I have to find something soon so it's kind of urgent.
Thanks!

Food crisis being felt around world Sharply rising prices have triggered food riots in recent weeks in Mexico, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Guinea, Mauritania and Yemen, and aid agencies around the world worry they may be unable to feed the poorest of the poor. In the Philippines, officials are raiding warehouses in Manila looking for unscrupulous traders hoarding rice, while in South Korea, panicked housewives recently stripped grocery-store shelves of food when the cost of ramen, an instant noodle made from wheat, suddenly rose. The shadow of "a new hunger" that has made food too expensive for millions is the result of a sudden and dramatic surge in food prices around the world. Rising prices for all the world's crucial cereal crops and growing fears of scarcity are careening through international markets, creating turmoil. Last Thursday, as world rice prices soared by as much as 30% in one day, Egypt decided to suspend rice exports for six months to meet domestic demand and to try to limit price increases. That was bad news for its main rice customers -- Turkey, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. Egypt's move was matched by Vietnam, the world's second-largest rice exporter after Thailand, which cut exports by 25% and ordered officials not to sign any more export contracts this year. India and Cambodia also rushed to curb their exports in order to have enough supplies to feed their own people. With crude oil soaring above US$100 a barrel, higher fuel prices have driven up the cost of production and increased transportation costs for all foods. Pests in Southeast Asia, a 10-year drought in Australia and a 45-day cold snap in China have combined to aggravate the situation. At the same time, millions of people in China and India have suddenly become relatively wealthy and are changing their eating habits, consuming more meat and chicken, which places a huge demand on cereal stocks. In China, per-capita meat consumption has increased 150% since the 1980s. But producing more meat requires more feed to raise more animals. Also influencing the food crisis is the move in North America and Europe to biofuel in an effort to ease global warming and reduce reliance on imported energy. A surge in demand for biofuel has resulted in a sharp decline in agricultural land planted for food crops. About 16% of U.S. agricultural land formerly planted with soybeans and wheat is now growing corn for biofuel. "For the first time in history, there is a clear link between the price of fuel and the price of food," Mr. Powell said. "If there were a miraculous 20% increase in the quantity of food production, we would not know what would go toward increased food consumption and what would go to biofuels. "Where it would go is where the prices are best." Rice is a staple food for half the world's population. But the sudden surge in prices and restrictions on exports come at a time when stockpiles of rice are at their lowest level in decades. At the moment, world rice inventories are said to stand at a mere 72 million metric tonnes -- about 17% of what the world consumes annually. The low stockpiles create a market in which any supply disruption will result in radical price swings. They also complicate delivering foreign aid to those most in need. The WPF, which feeds 73 million of the world's most destitute each year, says its costs have increased 55% since June. Unless it gets US$500-million in emergency funding, it may soon have to reduce feeding programs. Experts predict world food markets will be locked into an inflationary spiral for at least four years, but some say the crisis could linger for a decade or more. "There is pretty much a sense that what we are seeing is a step change or a structural change and not a peak to be followed by a trough," Mr. Powell said. "In other words, we are into an era of high food prices. It's not just volatility, it's a step increase." IMF Says U.S. In Worst Economic Crisis Since Great Depression The International Monetary fund has slashed odds that the world is facing a financial recession and admits that the U.S. is in its worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, as the body revised forecasts for economic slowdown. The Washington-based lender gave a 25 percent chance that global growth will drop to 3 percent or less this year or next, a figure described s equivalent to a global recession. The forecast marks the third time the IMF has reduced projections for economic growth since July, with chances of a harsh global recession becoming increasingly likely. "The financial shock that originated in the U.S. subprime mortgage market in August 2007 has spread quickly, and in unanticipated ways, to inflict extensive damage on markets and institutions at the core of the financial system,'' the statement said. "The global expansion is losing momentum in the face of what has become the largest financial crisis in the United States since the Great Depression,'' states the report. "The IMF's forecast is now below the world economy's longer- term trend so there is certainly some significance in what it is now seeing,'' said Andy Cates, a global economist at UBS in London told Bloomberg News. "The world economy is slowing quite considerably and will be very different from what we've become accustomed to.'' Roger Nightingale, global strategist at Pointon York Ltd. in London, said the IMF were behind the curve in only just beginning to discuss what is already unfolding. "The IMF only really forecasts these things after they've begun,'' he told Bloomberg Television. "You've got America, Italy and several other European countries and one or two Asian countries, actually in or very close to recession, and yet the IMF just now begins to talk about this phenomenon." The IMF's prediction follows a report by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, which suggests that "In the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s." A story about the dismal forecast by the London Independent entitled, USA 2008: The Great Depression, describes how getting food on the table "is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet." USA 2008: The Great Depression Food stamps are the symbol of poverty in the US. In the era of the credit crunch, a record 28 million Americans are now relying on them to survive – a sure sign the world's richest country faces economic crisis We knew things were bad on Wall Street, but on Main Street it may be worse. Startling official statistics show that as a new economic recession stalks the United States, a record number of Americans will shortly be depending on food stamps just to feed themselves and their families. Dismal projections by the Congressional Budget Office in Washington suggest that in the fiscal year starting in October, 28 million people in the US will be using government food stamps to buy essential groceries, the highest level since the food assistance programme was introduced in the 1960s. The increase – from 26.5 million in 2007 – is due partly to recent efforts to increase public awareness of the programme and also a switch from paper coupons to electronic debit cards. But above all it is the pressures being exerted on ordinary Americans by an economy that is suddenly beset by troubles. Housing foreclosures, accelerating jobs losses and fast-rising prices all add to the squeeze. Emblematic of the downturn until now has been the parades of houses seized in foreclosure all across the country, and myriad families separated from their homes. But now the crisis is starting to hit the country in its gut. Getting food on the table is a challenge many Americans are finding harder to meet. As a barometer of the country's economic health, food stamp usage may not be perfect, but can certainly tell a story. Michigan has been in its own mini-recession for years as its collapsing industrial base, particularly in the car industry, has cast more and more out of work. Now, one in eight residents of the state is on food stamps, double the level in 2000. "We have seen a dramatic increase in recent years, but we have also seen it climbing more in recent months," Maureen Sorbet, a spokeswoman for Michigan's programme, said. "It's been increasing steadily. Without the programme, some families and kids would be going without." But the trend is not restricted to the rust-belt regions. Forty states are reporting increases in applications for the stamps, actually electronic cards that are filled automatically once a month by the government and are swiped by shoppers at the till, in the 12 months from December 2006. At least six states, including Florida, Arizona and Maryland, have had a 10 per cent increase in the past year. In Rhode Island, the segment of the population on food stamps has risen by 18 per cent in two years. The food programme started 40 years ago when hunger was still a daily fact of life for many Americans. The recent switch from paper coupons to the plastic card system has helped remove some of the stigma associated with the food stamp programme. The card can be swiped as easily as a bank debit card. To qualify for the cards, Americans do not have to be exactly on the breadline. The programme is available to people whose earnings are just above the official poverty line. For Hubert Liepnieks, the card is a lifeline he could never afford to lose. Just out of prison, he sleeps in overnight shelters in Manhattan and uses the card at a Morgan Williams supermarket on East 23rd Street. Yesterday, he and his fiancée, Christine Schultz, who is in a wheelchair, shared one banana and a cup of coffee bought with the 82 cents left on it. "They should be refilling it in the next three or four days," Liepnieks says. At times, he admits, he and friends bargain with owners of the smaller grocery shops to trade the value of their cards for cash, although it is illegal. "It can be done. I get $7 back on $10." Richard Enright, the manager at this Morgan Williams, says the numbers of customers on food stamps has been steady but he expects that to rise soon. "In this location, it's still mostly old people and people who have retired from city jobs on stamps," he says. Food stamp money was designed to supplement what people could buy rather than covering all the costs of a family's groceries. But the problem now, Mr Enright says, is that soaring prices are squeezing the value of the benefits. "Last St Patrick's Day, we were selling Irish soda bread for $1.99. This year it was $2.99. Prices are just spiralling up, because of the cost of gas trucking the food into the city and because of commodity prices. People complain, but I tell them it's not my fault everything is more expensive." The US Department of Agriculture says the cost of feeding a low-income family of four has risen 6 per cent in 12 months. "The amount of food stamps per household hasn't gone up with the food costs," says Dayna Ballantyne, who runs a food bank in Des Moines, Iowa. "Our clients are finding they aren't able to purchase food like they used to." And the next monthly job numbers, to be released this Friday, are likely to show 50,000 more jobs were lost nationwide in March, and the unemployment rate is up to perhaps 5 per cent.

February 12, 2008 - 11:00am - by Patricia Davis

We set out, East on the 26 toward Mount Hood with a goal to hike in
the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness via Wildwood that we found through
searching on the internet. We had an overpriced, topographic map from
Joe's ($9.95)- where someone had told us of a hiking trail along
><www.rivers.gov/wsr-salmon...html>Salmon River that has
multiple waterfalls. So, we had the intent of getting more trail
details from the Mt. Hood Information Center that is located nearby
our destination. The GPS system wasn't much help at this point
since we kind of knew where we were going, and it just served to
scare us with a loud voice periodically shouting at us. It could
serve some useful purpose however, and we speculated on the uses of
knowing longitude and latitude while navigating using a map, and a
solar powering device for the GPS itself.

We had passed by the entrance to Wildwood Recreation Site which appeared to be closed.
Once at the Info center, Alex found a very useful topographic map
that has a larger region covered than the map from Joe's and some
trails defined on it. We told the lady we wanted to hike nearby the
Salmon River, and she sent us to find a trail that is off op Salmon
River Rd, though, apparently there are multiple trails along the
river. Unfortunately, this road was covered in snow, and though we
were near to the trail-head - it was much too snowy to continue, so
we used someone's driveway to try to turn around. We got stuck in
the snow!!! We had to search the trunk for digging devices,
unfortunately we had not found the hand shovel that morning, but in
the trunk we had a large walking stick and a flat wooden board that
we used to scrape away at the snow walls from the front and back of
the car, and especially the muffler area. The car died a few times
due to snow choking the muffler as we maneuvered back around to
where we could only drive in reverse the entire way that we had
come. This, funny as it may be, was apparently no laughing matter
to the woman that lived down the driveway we were blocking for a few
moments. Our situation was almost dimmed a bit by her anger, but
she finally got a shovel for us even though her temper was not
calmed to make the task any easier or more humorous as she drove on
to complain to the information center for their trail recommendation.
So, with a slightly open agenda, we came across a Ranger Station
that we decided to check out. As we walked around, we realized that
it was more of a small village, almost as if a separate entity from
the world at large, but it wasn't the place for us. So we went back
to the Wildwood Recreation entrance with hope. There was actually a
parking spot, though the gate was closed. After a brief look at the
kiosk map, we set off into the woods with a backpack of supplies and
a couple feet of snow to deal with.

Just then, we came across the beautiful Salmon River, we tested out
a MSR water filter from an area of the river with vast
rapids and rocks. It was very tasty, and we appreciated the natural
mineral content while contemplating the possibility of
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giardia_lamblia Giardia and the
appearance of cleanliness. We decided that it's good to take
chances sometimes, and at least when intuition is guiding.
Careful to remember our path, Alex pointed out many signs so we'd
find our way back, and we documented some areas with our phone
cameras, as well as some animal prints in the snow.
The trail began to narrow and grow very steep as we were going up

www.summitpost.org/mountain...tain.html

Boulder Ridge Trail near Mountian
www.summitpost.org/mountain...tain.html

We began to reassess our situation as we weren't all that
prepared for a dangerous, overnight experience in the snow on a
cliff. So, just as we were reaching more waterfalls flowing down
the hillside, we headed back down the slope.
On our way back, we appreciated the beauty of some boulders covered
in fern, fallen tree hideouts, and large redwood stumps. We also
unknowingly picked up a hitchhiker.
We came across another trail that was actually an expansive bridge
winding out into the swampy woods, called the Wildwood Wetland
Boardwalk Trail

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild...ation_Site

This was a very scenic path that had five lookout areas appreciating different
processes of the natural habitat. We took notice of the cattails
growing in the depths of the water, the droplets of rain as it began
to mist creating ripples, and small fish underneath the
surface. The shadows of the trees in the water, and the haze from
the surrounding coolness gave a nightly feel to the day that was
already approaching dusk.

We never did see the bear whose prints seemed to be everyone, or the
dogs and other hikers while we were out in those woods, nor did we
see the deer, raccoons, squirrels, and other creatures that we
presumed were lurking just around the trees or stalking a few yards
away like a cougar; all we saw were the fish and birds, and finally
the hitchhiker -