TOP STORIES
Primary election deadlines approaching
Herald and News
The election will decide multiple county races as well as allow members of individual parties to select their candidates for the Nov. 6 general election.
IRS payment site fails on tax day, but you still have to pay
Herald and News
IRS Acting Commissioner David Kautter testified during a House Oversight Hearing Tuesday that a number of systems are down at the moment and that the agency is working to resolve the issue.
Oregon jobless rate remains at historic low for 15th straight month
The Oregonian
The state is enjoying nearly unprecedented economic strength, driven in part by nation’s long economic expansion and in part by a surge of young, educated workers migrating into the state. That, in turn, has increased demand for social service jobs, educators, construction workers and other middle-wage jobs.
STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS
Capitol roundup: Home stretch for primary election
The Bend Bulletin
The cherry blossoms on the grounds of the Capitol are blooming, signaling the true arrival of spring. This year the blossoms also signal the approaching primary election, now just a month away.
Willamette Week
The Portland Democratic Socialists of America object to naming a warship after Portland. Other groups like Portland’s Resistance, Veterans for Peace, Portland Rising Tide, and the Portland Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines have joined the DSA in protesting the ship.
The protest will take place in North Portland and demonstrators will march to the site of the commissioning ceremony on April 21.
PUBLIC SAFETY
Plea deal prevents lifetime sex offender tag
The Bend Bulletin
A young Redmond man will avoid a lifetime sex offender label in exchange for taking a plea deal.
EDUCATION
Brown to sign university funding bill at OSU-Cascades
The Bend Bulletin
The Oregon Legislature passed a bill last session giving OSU-Cascades $39 million for its second academic building, after approving just $9.5 million of the $69.5 million university leaders requested in 2017. State funding, plus a $10 million match from private donors, will pay for a new building devoted to science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
State report: Minority groups still face college barriers
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Despite a slowly rising completion rate for college students statewide, the report released Monday by the Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission identified what it called significant gaps especially along lines of race and ethnicity. Some groups in the report were as much as 40 percent less likely to graduate, and others were more likely to report financial difficulties.
Woman files bullying lawsuit against Springfield schools
Corvallis Gazette-Times
The Springfield School District is being sued in federal court by a woman who says officials at a middle school failed to protect her child from being bullied and assaulted.
NATIONAL NEWS
Supreme Court strikes down as vague part of immigration law
Associated Press
With the four other conservative justices in dissent, it was the vote of the Trump appointee that was decisive in striking down the provision at issue. Gorsuch did not join all of Kagan’s opinion, but he agreed with her that the law could not be left in place. Gorsuch wrote that “no one should be surprised that the Constitution looks unkindly on any law so vague that reasonable people cannot understand its terms and judges do not know where to begin in applying it.”
Syrian refugees admitted to US drop to just 44 in 6 months
Associated Press
The United States, which traditionally took in the largest number of refugees, has scaled back its resettlement program under the Trump administration. The U.S. has welcomed more than 20,000 Syrian refugees since 2011, including around 2,000 since President Donald Trump took office. However, since November, admissions have nearly screeched to a halt, with only 11 Syrian refugees getting in.
Trump criticizes California governor on troops at border
Mail Tribune
Trump tweeted: “Looks like Jerry Brown and California are not looking for safety and security along their very porous Border. He cannot come to terms for the National Guard to patrol and protect the Border. The high crime rate will only get higher. Much wanted Wall in San Diego already started!”
OPINION
Editorial: A pair of PERS inequities
The Register-Guard
There’s nothing anyone can do about it: Spilde and the other 2,143 retirees collecting pensions of more than $100,000 played by rules that the courts say can’t be changed. Those rules create problems that are corrosive in terms of public support for government at all levels, and in terms of generational equity.
Editorial: Governor and Legislature need to do more about PERS
The Bend Bulletin Editorial Board
Brown and voters should be embarrassed that after four years of her leadership schools and other public entities are being forced to cut services. Oregon needs a governor committed to doing more about PERS. Demand statewide candidates explain what they are going to do to reform PERS. Vote for the candidates who will deliver change in the May primary.
Editorial: Kiely the best choice for District 53 Dems
The Bend Bulletin
Both may do a respectable job, if elected. Kiely seems to have the edge. She has spent more time in Oregon than her opponent, giving her a notably better understanding of the state and its problems. That’s important in a Legislature dominated by lawmakers who represent urban areas far different from the small communities of District 53.
Letter: An explanation for GOP exodus
Corvallis Gazette-Times
Despite Trump’s unpopularity, he does have a solid base, most of the districts are gerrymandered to the GOP’s advantage, and the GOP delivered the tax cuts for the wealthy that their campaign donors insisted was do-or-die, so their prospects for re-election can’t be that bad.
Michael Gerson: Ryan will be remembered for his submission to Trump
Mail Tribune
God help us. Clearly, Paul Ryan could not. The speaker, like many others, underestimated the power of the presidency to shape and define the GOP. Trump’s influence is now pervasive — leaving many Republican legislators privately contemptuous of the president and publicly silent or supportive. Given the base’s enthusiasm for Trump, many elected Republicans now feel they must choose between hypocrisy and political suicide. There is a third choice: Leave politics entirely. I suspect Ryan is not the last Republican who will exercise this option.
Letters: Are students pawns for political groups?
Portland Tribune
I find it hard that an American can support censorship, suppression of free thoughts and human rights, yet American colleges are now openly suppressing conservative professors and students. Is this the “New America”?
Liberal echo chamber in Portland schools: Letter to the editor
The Oregonian
A teacher who dares to reprimand a black student for back talk is accused of being racist. A teacher who may have an opinion other than the ultra-left leaning rhetoric popular at the schools today is labeled a Nazi. No conversations are allowed between dissenting voices, because if you disagree you are evil, period. What is going on with our schools?