GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Supreme Court: Online shoppers can be forced to pay sales tax
The Register-Guard
The 5-4 ruling Thursday is a win for states, who said they were losing out on billions of dollars annually under two decades-old Supreme Court decisions that impacted online sales tax collection. “Each year the physical presence rule becomes further removed from economic reality and results in significant revenue losses to the States. These critiques underscore that the physical presence rule, both as first formulated and as applied today, is an incorrect interpretation of the Commerce Clause,” he wrote.
Oregon Gun-Storage Proposal Won’t Make November Ballot
The Associated Press
The petition had been on hold after opponents with the National Rifle Association, Oregon Firearms Federation and other groups challenged its ballot language to the Oregon Supreme Court. “We appreciate the Supreme Court acting quickly to dismiss the gun lobby’s challenge,” chief petitioner Henry Wessinger said in a statement. “However, we are disappointed the gun lobby’s efforts prevented signature gathering for a critical period of more than six weeks.”.
IMMIGRATION
Trump Retreats on Separating Families, but Thousands May Remain Apart
New York Times
“We’re going to have strong — very strong — borders, but we are going to keep the families together,” Mr. Trump said as he signed the order in the Oval Office. “I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.” But ending the practice of separating families still faces legal and practical obstacles. A federal judge could refuse to give the Trump administration the authority it wants to hold families in custody for more than 20 days, which is the current limit because of a 1997 court order.
ICE Shuts Down Its Portland Office After Protest Camp Blocks the Entrance
Willamette Week
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) fully respects the rights of all people to voice their opinion without interference. ICE remains committed to immigration enforcement consistent with federal law and agency policy. The Federal Protective Service was called to the ICE office on Macadam Avenue Tuesday afternoon due to security concerns resulting from the ongoing protests at this location. Questions regarding arrests that took place should be directed to the Federal Protective Service. ICE operations at this location have been temporarily halted due to security concerns. Normal operations will resume once security concerns have been addressed.
“Appointments scheduled for Wednesday at the ICE office on Macadam Avenue have been canceled. ICE deportation officers will touch base with individuals who had scheduled appointments at this location to reschedule. These appointments will not be reported as missed check-ins.”
Immigrants Are Showing Up for Meetings at the ICE Building – but No One Is There
Willamette Week
At least 18 individuals have shown up to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Portland for appointments today, unaware that the building is temporarily shut down. “The concern is that people who have appointments will be counted as missing a meeting,” says Liliana Luna, who showed up to protest and who has been translating for immigrants who do not know the building is closed. “There’s no way to hold ICE accountable.” ICE temporarily halted operations at its Portland office on Macadam Avenue after protesters surrounded the building and blocked its exits for days. The occupation began on June 17, and activists say it will go on at least until a rally planned for Sunday where several state legislators will speak out against federal immigration policies.
Willamette Week
“The policy being enacted by the federal government around the separation of very small children from their parents is an abomination,” Wheeler tweeted. “I want to be very clear I do not want the @PortlandPolice to be engaged or sucked into a conflict, particularly from a federal agency that I believe is on the wrong track, that has not fully lived American values of inclusion and is also an agency where the former head suggested that people who lead cities that are sanctuary cities like this one should be arrested.”
American Airlines doesn’t want its planes used for immigrant children detainees
Oregonian/OregonLive
American is one of the first major U.S. corporations to weigh in on a federal immigration policy that has become the center of national controversy over the past week. At least 2,300 children have been separated from their parents under the new zero-tolerance policy, under which every adult detained at the border is immediately taken into custody for prosecution.
EDUCATION
Guerrero lays out his ideas to address achievement gap in Portland Public Schools
The Portland Tribune
For years, Portland Public Schools superintendents have all tried and failed to erase the achievement gap between white students and their black or brown classmates. Guerrero, the former Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, Innovation and Social Justice at San Francisco United School District, points to his success with a math program that could adjust to each child’s pace. But data from 2016 shows that while 69 percent of white San Francisco students met grade level standards in math, only 12 percent of their black students did.
POPULATION
Senior population boom hits every corner of Oregon: See which counties are aging fastest
Oregonian/OregonLive
New Census numbers show the retirement-age population is growing in all corners of Oregon. No county, urban or rural, is spared. While Oregon is following the national trend, driven by the aging baby boomer generation, Oregon’s 65-and-older population is growing faster than the nation as a whole. Oregon is also older on average; the median the median age is 39.3 years, compared to 38 for the U.S. as a whole. The senior boom, though long anticipated, will put a serious strain on Oregon communities’ healthcare and housing infrastructure, and it could have serious implications for the state’s economy.
HEALTHCARE
Video conferencing gives doctors a vital link to patient care
The Bend Bulletin
Telemedicine has long been touted as a cost-efficient way to provide care to people in rural areas with limited access to health professionals. But an unsung benefit of providing medical advice over a video feed is the tremendous cost-savings achieved by avoiding unnecessary air and ground ambulance rides. Ellenby said it costs at least $9,000 to transport a patient to OHSU by ground ambulance, and for those who are more than a two-hour drive away, $24,000 to transport by air. OHSU has conducted more than 2,000 video consults with patients in 14 hospitals in Oregon and southwestern Washington. Nearly half of those patients were able to stay in their community hospitals.
Gov. Brown calls on AG Sessions to protect people with pre-existing conditions
Portland Business Journal
“We are dedicated to expanding access to affordable care for the citizens of our states, and we will not remain silent as this Administration threatens to rip away health care from those who need it most. As state leaders, it is our duty to stand up and take action when federal policy threatens the health and pocketbooks of our constituents. We will take every available measure to stop this dangerous action and to protect our constituents with pre-existing conditions from losing their health coverage. Silence is not an option.”
WATER
Water bureau to begin using groundwater well Wednesday
The Portland Tribune
Due to the dry spring weather, above average temperatures, and in consideration of available long-term weather forecasts, the PWB will use the well field to supplement the supply from the Bull Run Watershed until the return of significant fall rains. “We deliver safe and reliable drinking water to almost one million customers,” PWB Director Michael Stuhr said in a Tuesday press release. “At the end of a dry spring, it’s tremendously comforting to know that we can turn to our Columbia South Shore Well Field and supply all our customers’ needs.”
Mikkelsen visits Basin: Water solutions a long way off
Herald and News
“If Judge Orrick rules against the federal government, it could shut down all irrigation in the Basin by mid-July,” Mikkelsen said. If that happens, the numerous talks he’s been having with individual stakeholders up and down the Klamath River could be for naught. Seeking the injunction to maintain lake levels is the Klamath Tribes. Tribal Chairman Don Gentry told the Herald and News that the issue is a matter of extinction for the fish. “We don’t want to come off as trying to cause harm to anyone, but we have to be focused on preventing the fish from becoming extinct. We don’t have the flexibility to provide water at the expense of our fish and feel our backs are up against the wall on this,” Gentry said.
TRANSPORTATION
MORE RIDE SERVICES, MORE CONGESTION?
Portland Tribune
When Portland city officials rolled out the red carpet to let Uber and Lyft operate here in 2015, “we thought that it would actually reduce the number of car trips,” recalls Steve Novick, then the city’s transportation commissioner. But they were wrong, Novick says. Now some wonder how much of Portland’s growing traffic congestion can be traced to Uber and Lyft, which created huge fleets of do-it-yourself taxi drivers “hailed” by passengers using smartphones. “Our roads are just clogged with Uber and Lyft vehicles,” says city Commissioner Nick Fish, who lives downtown. “There’s clearly an impact of having all these cars on the road.”
OPINION
Editorial: Tweak, don’t cancel, kicker
The Bulletin Editorial Board
Ditching the kicker does not solve the problem, and while changes to it might make sense, elimination of the program does not. It is one of the only ways Oregonians have of trying to keep state spending under control. The law could stand some tweaking. It makes sense, for example, to allow the state to keep unexpected revenues up to the magical 2 percent mark, then refund anything over that. Looking two years out, as the state now does, makes predicting revenues accurately difficult.
Editorial: Time to end the exemption
The Bulletin Editorial Board
So far, lawmakers have avoided putting real teeth into the state’s immunization requirements. Approval of the 2013 measure was by no means unanimous, and a bill that would have ended exemptions, introduced in 2015, went nowhere. That must change. Oregon lawmakers should remove exemptions for personal beliefs, philosophical or religious reasons. The only exemptions allowed should be for medical necessity.
My View: With help, suicide can be prevented
Portland Tribune
Suicide knows no demographic, age, gender or cultural background. The circumstances that lead a person to take their life may be invisible even to close family members and friends. When someone struggles with mental health, they often struggle alone, quietly and without detection. That is why we have to ask — no matter how uncomfortable the question — whether the people we love are in crisis. We must be brave and ask them to talk. Suicidal people do not want to die; they just want the pain to end. Any crisis line volunteer can tell you that sometimes a simple conversation can ease the pain.