HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
OCTOBER 2, 2017 DAILY CLIPS
LAS VEGAS SHOOTING
Las Vegas shooting death toll rises to 58, no apparent connection to international terror
ABC News
At least 58 people were killed and 515 were injured in Las Vegas Sunday night when a gunman opened fire on a music festival crowd from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino. It was the deadliest shooting in modern U.S. history.
In wake of Las Vegas massacre, Oregon congressman calls for gun control
The Oregonian
The Portland Democrat said statements from some Republicans and conservatives that nothing could have been done to stop the mass shooting are “just wrong.” He said the Republican-led Congress should consider his plan for reducing gun violence, which he first released in 2015.
“From Orlando to Roseburg, and now Las Vegas, the carnage has only continued. ‘Thoughts and prayers’ will not stop future tragedy. Enough is enough. My hope is that sanity will prevail, and Republican leadership in Congress will muster up the courage to act.”
HEALTH CARE
New Group Wants Oregonians to Fix Woeful Record of Treating Addictions
Willamette Week
Oregon Recovers, a program of Portland’s Alano Club, is a new coalition led by people in recovery and their supporters. Tomorrow they will be joined by a bipartisan group of legislators, non-profits, and health organizations to share stories of recovery, call for legislative change, and honor those who have been lost to addiction. The “Rally for Recovery” will include state Rep. and GOP gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler (R-Bend), as well as Sen. Lew Frederick (D-Portland) and Rep. Tawna Sanchez (D-Portland) as guest speakers. Oregon Recovers wants to prove a graphic illustration of the damage addiction is doing in this state.
Portland rally begins drive to improve Oregon’s addiction treatment
KTVZ
The shoes will be dumped in lawmakers’ offices in Salem near the start of the legislative session. The campaign is designed to dramatically improve access to addiction, treatment and recovery services in Oregon, according to the group’s organizers. Buehler told the crowd, “It’s time to turn it around. It’s time to stop the suffering. And by this event today, we are taking the first step to Oregon recovering.”
EDUCATION
Some Medford schools are bulging at the seams
Mail Tribune
With the exception of a sixth-grade class at Jacksonville Elementary School, all the red-zoned classes were left at the bigger size at the schools’ request, Superintendent Brian Shumate said. “First is that we don’t have enough space. Two is that the kids settle in pretty quick, and we don’t like to move them,” Shumate told the School Board on Sept. 25. “So we could fix all that red by adding another teacher, but this is what the teachers wanted and requested. The reason why it’s still red is because that’s what the teachers want — to keep the kids intact.”
WILDFIRES
Gov. Brown listens to fire-hit business owners
My Columbia Basin
“While the firefighting is not finished, we have turned a corner and it is now time to focus on recovery,” Brown said. “Not only did fires destroy property and uproot families, wildfire smoke also impacted communities and businesses across the state.” Brown said that there are no concrete plans on how to help the businesses at this point, adding that’s what the listening sessions will help the office determine. She has also directed state agencies to assess local recovery needs and deploy all available resources to support recovery efforts. In addition Brown’s office states she has been “actively engaging” federal agencies and working with Oregon’s congressional delegation to seek federal assistance. The state has already received a $1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation to repair damaged roads.
COURTS & PUBLIC SAFETY
Trump’s Ninth Circuit Court Nominee Stalled, as Feinstein Says Wyden, Merkley Objections Should Rule
Willamette Week
On Sept. 7, Trump nominated Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds to replace O’Scannlain, a move that Wyden and Merkley opposed. The senators, both Democrats, took issue with the process that led to Bounds’ nomination,saying that the Trump administration had ignored a longstanding tradition of senators leading a process that would result in their providing the White House with candidates acceptable to them. “We have a long a long history of organizing a committee charged with thoroughly vetting applicants from the Oregon legal community,” the senators wrote in a Sept. 7 letter to White House counsel Donald McGahn.
Portland’s new police chief starts her first day on the job
The Oregonian
Outlaw will take command of a bureau that has struggled with a staffing shortage, problems complying with a federal settlement agreement over excessive use of force against people with mental illness, ongoing controversies about the police handling of large protests and a breakdown in trust with community members. She has said she expected to spend her first months here trying to learn the culture of the Police Bureau. She’s only the third outsider to lead the Portland Police Bureau as chief.
Judge rejects state’s request to dismiss oysterman’s lawsuit
The Associated Press
A judge has rejected a request by Oregon officials to dismiss a lawsuit contending the state is allowing pollution from dairies to harm oyster harvests in Tillamook Bay. Hayes in his complaint said he’s prohibited from harvesting oysters from 250 acres and often has to shut down another 350 acres. His lawsuit contends that amounts to an unjust taking of his property and that the state environmental agency is responsible because of weak pollution regulations.
Oregon argues that inadequate regulation isn’t recognized as a government seizure of his property. “The government is not responsible for inaction,” said Christina Beatty-Walters, the state agency’s attorney. “That’s not a situation the government is responsible for.”
ELECTIONS
Devlin files for re-election to state Senate
Portland Tribune
“I filed to return to the Senate because I’m focused on the priorities that make a difference for our future,” the Tualatin Democrat said Friday evening. “We need to deliver more investment in public education, protect services for Oregonians in need and maintain a fiscally responsible government.”
OPINION
Editorial: Pitting school against school not the answer
The Oregonian Editorial Board
thousands of students in Portland’s poorest neighborhoods have had to settle for fewer class offerings and elective options. Why haven’t they been pushing past school boards to address the inequity of providing kids in better-off areas with dozens of elective options, including jazz band, Arabic, ceramics, shop, drama or guitar? Instead, they delivered messages that could end up pitting one school against another.
Editorial: Endangering the safety net
Mail Tribune
This isn’t the first time Title III dollars have been spent for questionable purposes, but every time it happens it gives Congress another excuse not to reauthorize the program. And that could hurt every timber county in Oregon.
Editorial: Distracted-driving law is well-timed
Democrat-herald
Nationally, the number of fatal car wrecks is on the rise, and that trend also is true in Oregon. No one knows for sure the reasons for the increase, but everyone has a pretty good guess: It’s because we’re distracted as never before when we buckle ourselves into the driver’s seat. So the timing seems just right for Oregon’s new distracted-driving law, which went into effect on Sunday.
Horror in Las Vegas and a diminished president’s response: Washington Post opinion
The Washington Post
Most Republicans will finger-wag, admonishing Democrats not to “politicize” the incident, which itself is a preemptive attempt to cut off discussion about gun legislation. One fears that reasoned discussion about a holistic approach that might, for example, include restrictions on numbers of guns that can be purchased, mental-health resources and public-safety measures is beyond our capacity. Our political leaders and their hyper-partisans seem utterly incapable of rational problem-solving that goes beyond thread bare talking points. If the shootings of children (in Newton, Connecticut), nightclub-goers (in Orlando) and a congressman (in Alexandria, Virginia) did not provoke sober debate and concrete results, we doubt the result here will be any different.
Guest: Rep. DeFazio is wrong on flood insurance
Jared Margolis is senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity in Eugene
Whatever the legal outcome, there’s no justification for DeFazio’s wrongheaded legislation, which would harm hundreds of imperiled species nationwide in our rivers and coastal areas. Oregon can and must balance development with its endangered species.