Oregon House Daily Clips

HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE

AUGUST 25, 2017 DAILY CLIPS

 

STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

 

Gov. Brown taking a road trip to Bend

Bend Bulletin

McLane confirmed late Wednesday that he was mulling over overtures from conservative Republican activist to get into the governor’s primary against Buehler. Conservative activists who opposed having Buehler, a pro-choice Republican, as the party’s candidate in 2018 approached McLane about running as an alternative to Buehler in the May 2018 primary. McLane was in Gleneden Beach on Thursday, where he spoke to the annual convention of the The Oregon State Building and Construction Trades Council. The group represents more than 25,000 construction workers around the state. McLane said good public policy would only come when Democrats allowed Republicans their rightful place at the bargaining table. “All too often in Oregon, the only negotiations going on are between the left wing and the really, really left wing,” McLane told the convention, according to a statement from the House Republican leadership office.

 

Investigation of rumors Oregon lawmaker made hottest-lobbyists list ‘ongoing,’ officials say

The Oregonian

State officials are wrapping up a wide-ranging investigation into allegations that a lawmaker ranked female lobbyists by their looks. They also are checking the lawmaker’s claim that Salem insiders who spread rumors of a “hottest lobbyists list” violated his civil rights. A fact-finding inquiry into allegations surrounding Rep. Diego Hernandez is “ongoing,” Dexter Johnson, head attorney at the Legislature, said Thursday.

 

AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES

 

Two More Gray Wolves to Be Killed, Intensifying Debate Over Oregon’s Policy

Willamette Week

“ODFW has said that 90% of the cattle have been moved from the pasture, and the rest are being moved right now, yet they are going to kill wolves anyway,” said Amaroq Weiss, West Coast wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity. “That doesn’t sound like a decision to conserve wolves or protect livestock. That just sounds like revenge.”

 

Oregon Officials Authorizing Wolf Killing, Saying Non-Lethal Efforts Failed

Oregon Public Broadcasting

The rancher had requested the entire pack’s elimination. Instead, the state will start with the removal of two wolves and monitor the situation. More will be killed if depredations continue. Officials also plan to stop killing wolves once grazing cattle have left the pasture where depredations have occurred. “While it’s disheartening for some people to see ODFW killing wolves, our agency is called to manage wildlife in a manner consistent with other land uses, and to protect the social and economic interests of all Oregonians while it conserves gray wolves,” ODFW Director Curt Melcher said in a statement. “It’s important that we address and limit wolf-livestock problems while also ensuring a healthy wolf population. Lethal control is identified in the Oregon Wolf Plan as a needed tool we use when non-lethal measures alone are unsuccessful in resolving conflict.”

 

EDUCATION

 

With School Starting, PPS Students Still Can’t Drink From Water Fountains

Oregon Public Broadcasting

Portland Public School students will still not be able to use campus water fountains when the new academic year starts next week.  “The hope is — and what all the indications are — is that the fixture replacement alone will take care of the lead problem,” said Dave Northfield, PPS’ director of media relations.

 

OREGON WILDFIRES

 

Chetco Bar Fire Promises More Fear And Uncertainty For Southwest Oregon

Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Chetco Bar Fire is the nation’s top priority wildfire and has burned more than 100,000 acres since its start last month. It’s also forced about 4,000 people from their homes under mandatory evacuation orders.

 

Chetco Bar fire near doorstep in Brookings as residents prepare to leave

The Oregonian

“The city has been actively engaged in getting prepared for more than a week,” Milliman said Friday morning. That preparation has included “getting our water system ready, making sure the water storage capacity is maintained at the highest possible level,” Milliman said. “We are encouraging citizens to conserve water and to take note that there is a threat.” The growing Chetco Bar wildfire prompted officials to issue a Level 1 warning for Brookings, a city of about 6,500 residents, at about 5:30 p.m. Thursday. Level 1 means people should be prepared to leave their homes.

 

Brookings Bracing For Predicted Weather Which Could Impact Fire

KDRV

Oregon State Representative David Brock Smith says, “The growth of the fire and marine layer that came in Monday, we weren’t able to get air assets in of any significance until yesterday, so our air personnel have been waiting, we need to have the best resources to fight this fire.” The fire’s estimated containment date is in October, which is why the community is sticking together for the long road ahead. Oregon State Representative David Brock Smith says, “I worked with Commissioner Boyce to get the fairgrounds in Curry County and Del Norte County open for livestock. The AG Community has been fantastic, in working together and treating neighbors and strangers alike and making sure their horses, and cows, and pigs, and sheep have a place to go.”

 

TRANSPORTATION

 

Traffic jams undermine essential bus service

Portland Tribune

TriMet is hopeful such corridor improvements can improve bus service, despite the growing congestion. “Based on experience in our region and around the world, TriMet believes that the types of transit priority treatments noted in the presentation can make a significant difference in travel speed and reliability, though the effectiveness and applicability of these treatments are context-sensitive,” said TriMet spokesman Tommy Moore. Bertelsen said costs will likely vary between the corridors, with some only requiring work on bottlenecks and others needing the complete “toolbox” of options. “It’s too soon to tell what the costs might be,” she said.

 

PUBLIC SAFETY

Oregon cops band together to push for more state oversight

The Oregonian

Swanson is now spearheading a small group of mostly police officers who are working to make sure derelict cops like Green don’t get a pass. The public call to reform the profession from within stands out in a national climate where police often close ranks around officers accused of wrongdoing. “We’re not trying to get cops in trouble,” said George Dominy, a retired Lebanon police officer who serves as the group’s spokesman. “We’re just trying to bring our profession back up to where it needs to be.”

 

Multnomah County gets serious about selling long-empty Wapato Jail

The Oregonian

After spending $58 million to construct the never-used Wapato Jail and another $300,000 a year to maintain it, Multnomah County is looking to recoup at least some of its costs by selling the North Portland property. To that end, the county announced Thursday that it has hired the commercial real estate firm CBRE to market the property. The county has already received multiple unsolicited offers, one of which – $10 million in cash from a Santa Monica developer – is still on the table.

 

NATIONAL MONUMENT

 

Cascade-Siskiyou on Zinke’s downsizing list

Mail Tribune

The Washington Post reported today that multiple sources familiar with Zinke’s draft report said it identified the recently expanded Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument for downsizing, but the Post report did not include any specifics about what areas would be chopped.

 

Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument would shrink under Trump administration plan

The Oregonian

Zinke had been expected to release a detailed report Thursday outlining his recommendations for the roughly two dozen federal monuments included in the review, but a report never materialized. Instead, the agency issued an eight-paragraph statement that contained no specifics about what the recommendations meant for the protected areas. Bryan Hockaday, Gov. Kate Brown’s spokesman, said the Interior Department had not shared the report with Oregon’s top officials. “It seems like the DC media is the best source of information for us,” Hockaday said in an interview.

 

OTHER NEWS

Cylvia Hayes’ latest advice: ‘Don’t do what I did!’

The Oregonian

Oregon’s former first lady Cylvia Hayes is out with new advice for people who hope to avoid jeopardizing their reputations: “Don’t do what I did!” In an essay on the website of a Monrovia, California crisis management firm, Hayes traces her public relations problems back to an October, 2014 article in Willamette Week that reported Hayes used her public position for personal gain.

 

LOCAL NEWS

 

Portland Council, At Odds With DA, Solidifies Police Shooting Overhaul

Oregon Public Broadcasting

The council unanimously supported an ordinance that requires officers to give statements within 48 hours of a shooting, unless they are physically incapacitated. The compelled statements would be used to evaluate whether an officer violated his training and should be disciplined or fired. For Mayor Ted Wheeler, who has tried to position himself as a reformer on policing issues, the unanimous vote was a significant political victory. “With regard to the 48-hour rule, ending it has been part of my policing agenda since the day I decided to run,” he said at the outset of the council’s deliberations.

 

OPINION

 

Editorial: Sign petition if you don’t like gun bill

Bend Bulletin

The bill, which was signed into law by Gov. Kate Brown on Aug. 16, aims to make it easier to take a deadly weapon away from someone believed to be suicidal. While its aim is surely good, the law itself is too far from perfect to remain on the books. Perhaps the law’s major flaw is the way it tramples on the rights of the person who would be targeted by the law.

 

Editorial: Wilderness doesn’t mix with civilization

Bend Bulletin

As Bend residents suffer under a pall of smoke this week, they should give some thought to their neighbors to the north at Crooked River Ranch. The ranch lies next to the Deschutes Canyon-Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area. As the Chetco Bar Fire near Brookings on the Oregon Coast has shown, wilderness and civilization do not mix.

 

OREGONIANS IN CONGRESS

 

Greg Walden on Bundy-led standoffs: Protesters ‘need not be armed’

The Oregonian

The congressman — Oregon’s only Republican in the delegation — visited Intel’s Hillsboro facilities with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Wednesday for tax reform talks. During a press conference, The Oregonian/OregonLive asked Walden what, if anything, Congress should do to deter future would-be insurrections on federal property. Here’s Walden’s full response:

 

NATIONAL NEWS

RNC votes to condemn white supremacists over groans of some

The Associated Press

Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, the RNC approved a raft of resolutions, including one asserting “Nazis, the KKK, white supremacists and others are repulsive, evil and have no fruitful place in the United States.”

 

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