HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
JULY 24, 2017 DAILY CLIPS
AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES
Birds Take Backseat To Fish, Farms In The Klamath Basin
Oregon Public Broadcasting
There’s always a bird – or 20 – in sight at Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge. But really, there should be many, many more.
Low steelhead count expected in Columbia River
The Oregonian
It’s projected that fewer than 131,000 of the fish will come through Bonneville Dam this year, the Yakima Herald-Republic reports. That’s the lowest number in more than three decades and represents a fall of at least 45,000 for the third straight year.
OPINION
Editorial: Commission on voting is a sham
Democrat-herald
It is almost as certain where the work of the commission is headed: toward efforts to make it more difficult to register and vote. It’s the wrong answer to the wrong question: We should be working to modernize voting machines and safeguarding election systems against hacking. And any national effort to make it harder to register and vote runs counter to Oregon’s longstanding efforts to clear away obstacles to the franchise. It’s a shame that we’ll spend any time at all trying to restrict something so fundamental to our democracy.
Editorial: A nonexistent threat
Register-Guard
But beyond this dog and pony show lies a larger threat. While to date there has been no credible evidence of widespread voter fraud by noncitizens, there have been well-documented cases of voter suppression, actions aimed at keeping legal voters — often minorities — from casting their votes. Civil libertarians and voter rights groups have grown increasingly concerned that the voter fraud commission will be a vehicle for expanding these efforts.
Letter to the editor: Rallying behind Rep. Williamson
Jessica Haviland, Northwest Portland
I watched the House floor debate for House Bill 3391 this month, extremely proud to be a member of Rep. Jennifer Williamson’s district. She championed the truth: This bill will lead to healthier lives, healthier communities and a healthier Oregon.
LOCAL NEWS
Plan will displace hundreds of homeless near Redmond
Bend Bulletin
Hundreds of homeless people could be displaced as the result of a cleanup effort on 2,000 acres of agricultural land east of Redmond. “The goal was a plan to manage the impact on the land,” Deschutes County Property Manager James Lewis said. “It’s not just a homeless problem; it’s true land management. It will make the land safe for legal use of the land, like hiking or biking.”
NATIONAL NEWS
Jared Kushner says ‘I did not collude’ in statement before closed-door interviews
The Associated Press
“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” Kushner said in the prepared remarks in which he also insists that none of the contacts, which include meetings at Trump Tower with the Russian ambassador and a Russian lawyer, was improper.
Despite Republican appeals, Democrats not willing to deal on net neutrality legislation
Washington Examiner
Echoing Thune’s calls is his counterpart in the House, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “I again call on my Democratic colleagues, edge providers, and ISPs, and all those who make up the diverse Internet ecosystem that has flourished under light-touch regulation to come to the table and work with us on bipartisan legislation that preserves an open Internet while not discouraging the investments necessary to fully connect all Americans,” Walden said on the Day of Action. “Too much is at stake to have this issue ping-pong between different FCC commissions and various courts over the next decade.”
Wisconsin company to install rice-sized microchips in employees
USA Today
Three Square Market, a company that provides technology for break-room or micro markets, has over 50 employees who plan to have the devices implanted, KSTP-TV reported. The tiny chip, which uses RFID technology or Radio-Frequency Identification, can be implanted between the thumb and forefinger “within seconds,” according to a statement from the company. “It’s the next thing that’s inevitably going to happen, and we want to be a part of it,” Three Square Market Chief Executive Officer Todd Westby told the station.