HOUSE REPUBLICAN OFFICE
STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Businessman from The Dalles appointed to Oregon Legislature
The Oregonian
In a statement, Bonham said his appointment to the Legislature is “an incredible honor.” “While I know I have big shoes to fill, I believe my desire and passion for helping people in conjunction with my business background will make me an effective leader in Salem,” he said.
Commissioners pick Bonham to fill Huffman’s House seat
KTVZ
The Dalles businessman Daniel Bonham was appointed Monday by a vote of Wasco, Jefferson, Deschutes and Wheeler county commissioners to serve out the Oregon House District 59 term of John Huffman, another The Dalles resident who recently resigned from the position. Bonham, 40, owns a stoves and spa business and and will fill the remainder of Huffman’s term in office after Huffman vacated the seat to accept a federal appointment.
Capitol Roundup: State gets new legislator as Congress debates taxes
Bend Bulletin
The Central Oregon delegation to the Legislature added a new member Monday. Republican businessman Daniel Bonham, of The Dalles, was chosen by a special panel of commissioners representing counties in the 59th House District, which includes northern Deschutes County and all of Jefferson County, as well as Wheeler and part of Wasco counties.
Oregon health agency’s money troubles double in new report
The Oregonian
Due to errors involving abortion, prison, undocumented immigrants and other factors, the state might have overpaid its contractors or owe other entities as much as $78 million, Oregon Health Authority director Patrick Allen disclosed in a letter to Gov. Kate Brown made public Friday. That’s on top of $74 million in overpayments The Oregonian/OregonLive reported last month.
ODOT director says problems at Motor Carrier Division have been fixed
Statesman Journal
Oregon Department of Transportation director Matt Garrett told a legislative committee last week that the agency has fixed problems at its Motor Carrier Division detailed in a recent internal audit, a 15-month, $180,000 Oregon Department of Justice investigation and a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit settlement.
Another Oregon State Senator Accuses Kruse Of Inappropriate Touching
KUOW
A second lawmaker filed a formal complaint on Tuesday accusing Sen. Jeff Kruse, R-Roseburg, of unwanted touching, even after she asked legislative lawyers to intervene. In her complaint, Sen. Elizabeth Steiner Hayward, D-Portland, detailed a recent conversation with Kruse in which she explained why his behavior bothers her.
Oregon Democrats Vote To Keep Party Primary Closed
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The Oregon Democratic Party won’t allow non-affiliated voters to take part in its 2018 primary. At a party meeting in Portland on Sunday, a resolution to open the Democratic primary did not get the two-thirds majority needed to pass.
Wheeler seeks 5 percent cuts in next budget
Portland Tribune
Mayor says the city needs to save money to pay for cost increases, like salary and PERS premium increases.
TRANSPORTATION
Portland tolling committee begins work
Portland Tribune
The 25-member committee is charged with recommending tolling options for Interstate 5 and Interstate 205 in the Portland metropolitan area.
Portland Region Officials Begin Work On Congestion Pricing Tolling Plan
Oregon Public Broadcasting
The advisory committee is supposed to deliver recommendations to the transportation commission by June 2018. The next step is to seek federal approval for a congestion pricing plan by the end of next year.
What Oregon’s new “Transportation Bill” means for you: Part 1
KOBI5
When House Bill 2017 goes into effect January first, the average Oregon driver will pay eight cents for each mile driven in gas tax and registration. That’s about $6 to $40 each month, and nearly $77 a year in exchange, for better roads and more reliable trips. Money from HB 2017, also known as the Transportation Bill, will fund major projects within the state.
TriMet Blames “Economic Displacement” for Decline in Portland-Area Bus Riders
Willamette Week
“Ridership loss has been driven by a diverse range of factors including changing employment levels and recession era fare increases and service cuts,” write TriMet senior planner Tom Mills and TriMet data analyst Madeline Steele. “TriMet’s analysis surfaced one driver of ridership loss that stood out among the rest: the impact of the economic displacement of low-income earners from inner city neighborhoods to first ring suburbs.”
HEALTH CARE
Knute Buehler talks safe opioid prescribing practices
Portland Business Journal
“This is becoming a huge political issue,” Buehler, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, told about 100 doctors assembled at the Salishan Conference Center in Gleneden Beach. “We have a full-blown public health crisis in this country. It’s becoming increasingly devastating and personal.”
JOBS & THE ECONOMY
Lane County unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in October, virtually unchanged from September
Register-Guard
The county’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 4.6 percent in October compared with 4.7 percent in September, according to the Employment Department.
AGRICULTURE & NATURAL RESOURCES
Deer and elk disease comes to Central Oregon
Bend Bulletin
Oregon saw its first confirmed case of a fatal and easily spread disease that affects deer and elk earlier this month, thanks to a Madras hunter.
OPINION
Editorial: Time for Sen. Kruse to resign
The Oregonian
So do the elected officials in the Capitol who have wasted time in recent years carefully choosing how they navigate the halls and where they sit to avoid unwanted contact. Please vacate your seat, Senator, and make room for someone who will respect their colleagues and can actually get the work done.
Editorial: Kruse should resign
Register-Guard
If Kruse were to resign, it would not be the first time: He quit a House seat in 2004 to run for the position he now holds in the Senate. But his resignation came 125 days after he moved out of his House district — throughout that period, Kruse was in violation of the constitutional requirement that legislators live among the people they represent. Kruse appears willing to ignore the rules when it suits his purposes. The people of District 1 deserve full representation, particularly when the Legislature convenes in February. Kruse’s problems aren’t likely to be cleared up before then. He can serve his constituents best by resigning.
Editorial: Ethics panel shows it has a little bite
Democrat-herald
Kitzhaber said he was surprised by the reaction of the commissioners, and added that he’s not as worried about the level of the fine as he is in “clarifying how the Commission believes I may have violated Oregon ethics laws, having an opportunity to respond to the Commission’s allegations, and then assuming responsibility for any infractions I may have committed.” And, indeed, all of that would be good — and it has the potential to bring this matter to a more satisfying conclusion than a $1,000 fine could have supplied. But if the commission wants to reach that endpoint (and, in the process, leave a clear message for other Oregon public servants to heed), it will need to remember that it has a bite to go along with its bark.
Daily Astorian
Continuing that theme, Kate Brown said that a small state such as Oregon can have a global impact by being a petri dish for innovation. We hope that she returned from COP 23 energized to confront climate change in concrete ways that help the state’s economy — especially in rural Oregon — as well as the environment.
Editorial: Don’t use speech to deny the speech of others
Bend Bulletin
Schill and the UO administration should stand their ground. Protest is a time-honored tradition on university campuses. But that doesn’t mean anyone should be able to use their speech as a weapon to deny others the right to be heard.
Guest: Gun control laws do make a difference
Paul Kemp is a gun owner and a founding member of Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership and an advisory member of the Giffords Oregon Coalition
There is no denying that gun violence is a complex problem. But as a founding board member of Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership, I know there are some evidence-based steps that Oregon’s leaders can take to help the roughly 450 Oregonians who die every year from gun violence.
Guest: Gov. Brown calls cybersecurity top priority
Alex Z. Pettit is the state’s chief information officer
The people of Oregon entrust public and private institutions with their most sensitive personal and financial information. Oregonians’ expectations of privacy shouldn’t hinge on the agency or business with whom they are transacting. However, increasingly sophisticated and coordinated cyber attacks put this information at ever-greater risk. Individual and isolated interventions are no longer sufficient to defend our businesses, our communities or our people.
Editorial: Protecting elephants
Register-Guard
If the U.S. wants to help preserve a threatened species — which happens to be the emblem of the Republican Party — and support economic growth in African countries, a better alternative is to support ecotourism. This type of tourism attracts far more visitors to an area — and more money and jobs for the local population — than trophy hunts for a small number of the financial elite.
OREGONIANS IN CONGRESS
As net neutrality heads for repeal, Oregon’s Walden and Wyden lead opposite ends of the debate
The Oregonian
The Federal Communications Commission moved Tuesday to begin repealing regulations established during the Obama administration that seek to ensure “net neutrality.” It’s a hot-button issue that has long divided two of Oregon’s most powerful politicians.