HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
AUGUST 14, 2017 DAILY CLIPS
TRANSPORTATION
Report: Oregon’s $5.3 Billion Transportation Package Ignores Safety
Willamette Week
“The really bad news–which you also won’t find mentioned in the ODOT ‘performance’ report–is the fact that not only are we not making progress on Vision Zero, we’re losing ground in a big way,” Cortright writes. “Oregon is currently experiencing an epidemic of roadway deaths. Fatalities on Oregon roadways are up 58 percent since 2013. Crashes killed 495 Oregonians in 2016, up from 313 in 2013.” But the focus of the transportation package is on big highway projects, which aren’t a leading cause of fatal crashes. Instead, state figures show, a disproportionate number of deaths occur on secondary roads and city streets.
HEALTH CARE
Rural Oregonians still face Death with Dignity barriers
Bend Bulletin
The challenge is more evident in Central Oregon, where the region’s only hospital provider, St. Charles Health System, does not allow its doctors to sign for patients, citing religious objections. That leaves a small handful of doctors, most of whom don’t wish to be named, willing to sign for patients. Oregon’s historic right-to-die law is almost elusive to those in rural areas. Of the 1,127 Oregonians who died using Death with Dignity medication between 1998 and 2016, 88 lived east of the Cascade Range, including in Central and Eastern Oregon.
More time for insurers to calculate 2018 rates
New York Times News Service
The Trump administration is giving health insurance companies more time to calculate price increases for 2018 because of uncertainty caused by the president’s threat to cut off crucial subsidies paid to insurers on behalf of millions of low-income people. Federal health officials said the deadline for insurers to file their rate requests would be extended by nearly three weeks, to Sept. 5.
JOBS & THE ECONOMY
River guides face more stringent standards
Mail Tribune
Ordered to do so by the Oregon Legislature, the Marine Board proposed these changes for about 200 fishing guides who work only in Oregon rivers not deemed federally navigable, such as the upper Rogue River, according to the Marine Board.
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT
Deschutes conservation planning picks up this week
Bend Bulletin
The next phase of the nearly decade long process of creating a habitat conservation plan for the Deschutes River Basin will begin in Bend and Madras on Monday. “I think the complexity of the Deschutes Basin and the parties involved makes this a challenge,” said Mike Britton, president of the Deschutes Basin Board of Control, a collection of eight irrigation districts that operate in Central Oregon.
HOUSING
Landlords appeal ruling upholding Portland tenant protections
Portland Tribune
“Though we appreciate the time and effort the court expended on this case, we still strongly believe the ordinance will only aggravate Portland’s housing crisis. The court failed to see it for what it is — disguised rent control, which violates state statutes and the Oregon Constitution,” says attorney John DiLorenzo, who represents the landords, Phillip Owen and Michael Feves. Eudaly issued the following statement in response: “The ruling from Judge Breithaupt was clear and comprehensive. It is disappointing that DiLorenzo and the landlord lobby continue to waste time and money fighting the city in its efforts to stabilize families in their homes. Their time might be better spent helping us find additional solutions to the housing crisis instead of trying to take away the only tool we have to help vulnerable people.”
OREGON WILDFIRES
Rain offers firefighters brief reprieve
Register-Guard
“It mitigated the intensity,” Bonnie Gisler, a spokeswoman for the Department of Forestry, said Sunday of the rain’s impact on the Whitewater Fire. She said the movement of the fire had been downgraded from “aggressive” to “moderate.”
Rain Helps Firefighters Make Progress On Warm Springs Fire
The Associated Press
A fire burning in central Oregon has spread but fire officials say light rain and cooler temperatures Sunday helped slow the fire’s progress. The blaze near the Warm Springs Reservation was about 60 percent contained as of Monday morning, according to the Warm Springs Agency. The fire has burned more than 40,000 acres since it started on Aug. 8.
Wildfires rage as cooler temperatures arrive
The Oregonian
Wildfires are burning across the region, closing some wilderness areas to visitors and putting residents on alert. The cooler temperatures and rainfall have been a relief to crews battling flames on tens of thousands of acres. Nevertheless, the Bureau of Land Management said that starting Monday campfires and other flames will be banned on its acreage in the Cascades and Upper Willamette areas of Northwest Oregon. Here’s a look at some of the wildfires:
OTHER NEWS
Is Multnomah County’s Political Contribution Cap Constitutional?
Oregon Public Broadcasting
“This case could bring to life the 2006 measure that the Supreme Court so far has said is just dormant,” said Greg Chaimov, a former chief lawyer for the state Legislature who is representing several business groups challenging the Multnomah County limits.
Woman to be sentenced for DHS fraud case
KOIN6
A 28-year-old woman accused of cheating the state out of nearly $200,000 is expected to be sentenced and ordered to pay back only $75,000 in restitution.
OPINION
Guest Opinion: Bills would improve the VA for Oregon veterans
Rep. Greg Walden, R-Oregon, represents the 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House
Veterans in Oregon and across the country deserve quality care in a timely manner when they go to the VA. Unfortunately, long wait times at many facilities have resulted in delayed access to essential health services, especially in rural and underserved areas in Oregon. We can and must solve this problem, and I’ve sponsored legislation to help.
Guest Opinion: My health care is at stake
Maleta Christian of Myrtle Creek
For me, and for the people like me who cannot afford even higher premiums or to lose health care altogether, the stakes are very high. We just narrowly escaped an immediate rollback of health care coverage at the federal level. The fact we are facing similar cuts from our local politicians is incredibly disheartening and frightening. Secretary of State Richardson, Julie Parrish, and Cedric Hayden should hold themselves to the highest ethical standard in this election and be fully transparent and forthright about Richardson’s conflict of interest issues.
Guest Opinion: Crooked River Ranch needs a different solution
Robert Windlinx Jr. lives in Terrebonne
All of this can be achieved in a collaborative package if our leaders in Congress work together. I invite Walden, Wyden and Merkley to come to Central Oregon to meet with the many people in our community who are eager to see some real bipartisan action on our public lands. They might be surprised by how easily we can help them come up with a win-win solution that will protect Whychus-Deschutes while making Crooked River Ranch residents much safer than we are today.
Guest Opinion: Why marijuana isn’t just ‘cannabis’
Daniel Sweeney is a farmer who lives in Talent, Oregon.
Marijuana. Pot. Weed. Ganja. Reefer. Whacky tobacky. There are countless names for the drug that has become a cultural mainstay in America today. But the people who grow and sell it, the people who make up — and cater to — the booming industry that is “marijuana,” invariably refer to the drug as “cannabis.” Consciously or not, this is an attempt to reform the public’s view of an increasingly powerful psychoactive drug.