Daily Clips

TOP STORIES

 

Trial postponed for suspended state judge who refused to marry gay people

Associated Press

Marion County Judge Julie Frantz on Monday granted a motion to move the trial from Day’s home county, where he faces charges of giving guns to a felon. The ruling, made by Frantz from the bench, was announced in a Monday release by a spokesman for the Oregon Judicial Department.

 

Dick’s Sporting Goods destroying guns it pulled from shelves

Associated Press

The retailer said Tuesday that it is in the process of destroying all the firearms it pulled from its shelves, rather than trying to return them to their manufacturers.

 

STATE GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

 

Current and Former Employees at Business Oregon Want Gov. Kate Brown to Fix the Agency’s “Bro Club” Culture

Willamette Week

Gov. Kate Brown this week pledged to launch an investigation into the state’s economic development agency, Business Oregon. The move follows a letter from a dozen current and even more former employees who describe toxic working conditions.

 

RESEARCH & COMMENTARY: States Move to Re-Impose Unnecessary Net Neutrality Rules

The Heartland Institute

On April 9, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) signed a bill that would prevent the state from doing business with internet providers that throttle internet traffic. Net neutrality proponents have argued without net neutrality laws, ISPs would be able to create tiered high-speed access lanes on the internet. They argue this would inevitably lead to the wealthiest customers getting access to the fastest connections and relegating lower-income consumers to lower-speed connections. To date, there has been no indication this doomsday scenario will take place.

 

Heard’s House Seat Declared Vacant

KQEN News Radio

The person selected will fill the seat for the rest of 2018. A few weeks ago, Douglas County Commissioner Gary Leif filed for the Republican nomination for the seat while Megan Salter filed for the Democratic nomination. The person picked by voters in the 2018 General Election will take the House seat starting in 2019.

 

ELECTIONS

 

Voter numbers surge in Jackson County

Mail Tribune

While there are record numbers of registered voters, the turnout may hit only 45 to 50 percent, Walker said. Primary elections typically have lower turnout than general elections. One of the biggest surprises this election season is the number of nonaffiliated voters, or those not registered with any party.

 

A Hyper-Partisan Race for Oregon Labor Commissioner Turns Remarkably Nasty

Willamette Week

Brad Avakian led the most aggressive and partisan Bureau of Labor and Industries this state has seen in recent memory. He is not seeking reelection, and the race to replace him is shaping up to be just as aggressive and partisan. It has also turned surprisingly nasty. Here’s what you need to know.

 

The Dialogue: What Readers Had to Say About the Candidates Campaigning to Unseat State Senator Rod Monroe

Willamette Week

“No more landlords in our Legislature!”

 

Coos County State Rep. Caddy McKeown holds town hall at Marshfield High School

The World Link

Coos County State Rep. Caddy McKeown, D-Coos Bay, spoke with citizens of Coos Bay on Tuesday night at Marshfield High School in a town hall meeting to promote her re-election.

 

HOUSING

 

Road to homeownership gets rockier this spring as rates rise

Corvallis Gazette-Times

First-time buyers already face significant hurdles to homeownership because starter homes have seen the steepest price increases as well as sharpest decline in the number of homes on the market. Higher mortgage rates only further limit what buyers can afford.

 

AGRICULTURE & ENVIRONMENT

City, DEQ deal with fuel spill on Amazon Creek

The Register-Guard

They said the fuel apparently flowed into a catch basin at the southeast corner of West 18th Avenue and Bailey Hill Road, and then traveled through a stormwater outfall pipe that empties into the creek off Bailey Hill Road.

 

Eastern Oregon Ranchers Push To Kill Pine Creek Wolves

East Oregonian

Northeast Oregon ranchers are again seeking to eradicate the entire Pine Creek wolf pack from Baker County after the apex predators attacked livestock for the third time in just over a week.

 

Oregon Grew More Cannabis Than Customers Can Smoke. Now Shops and Farmers Are Left With Mountains of Unwanted Bud

Willamette Week

In February, state officials announced that 1.1 million pounds of cannabis flower were logged in the state’s database. If a million pounds sounds like a lot of pot, that’s because it is: Last year, Oregonians smoked, vaped or otherwise consumed just under 340,000 pounds of legal bud. That means Oregon farmers have grown three times what their clientele can smoke in a year.

 

EDUCATION

 

Beaverton school official resigns after immigration retweet
The Register-Guard

A Beaverton School District deputy superintendent who retweeted a claim that immigrants in the country without legal permission “were more dangerous than assault rifles” and should be banned from the U.S. has resigned.

 

State education administrator fired after complaints

Portland Tribune

Mitch Kruska was dismissed in March after alleged bullying and harassment of colleagues and questions about his attempts to use state education money for a special program in Lake Oswego.

 

National School Walkout: Portland students planning Friday rally and march to City Hall

The Oregonian

The Portland rally is a demonstration against police brutality and for stricter gun control from either Congress or the Oregon Legislature. School shootings get a lot of attention, Mayne said, but they’re only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to gun violence.

 

OPINION

 

Editorial: Did Gov. Brown pick the right priority for a special session?

Bend Bulletin Editorial Board

Take your pick. Oregon faces many urgent challenges. Improving schools. Improving jobs. Improving health care. Passing PERS reform. Those are all big topics. Any one could fill a weeks-long special session to work toward solutions. As worthy a topic as a small-business tax break might be, though, doesn’t it seem something else might be a critically urgent problem Oregon faces?

 

District 9: McKeown

The Register-Guard

Whoever wins the Democratic primary will face Republican Teri Grier, a community college instructor who worked in politics in Arizona, in the general election. Grier, who is unopposed in the GOP primary, won the nomination last time as a write-in candidate. McKeown defeated Grier by a margin of less than four percentage points in 2016. If Democrats want to hang onto the District 9 seat, McKeown is their best chance to do so.

 

Oregon lawmaker challenged for Second Amendment claim

Statesman Journal

State Rep. E. Werner Reschke’s April 13 guest opinion criticizing current gun-control efforts, collapsed when he repeated this new, gun-rights claim: “First Amendment (rights) are completely dependent on the Second Amendment.” His guest opinion collapsed because 219 years of Constitutional history debunks the claim.

 

City needs to enforce political lawn sign regulations

Statesman Journal

Clusters of signs are growing in public right-of-ways during this special election season in Salem and as the mid-term elections this fall grow near. This is not permitted, and hence, enforcement needs to ramp up.

 

Editorial: Gloom, doom mounts on state pension woes

Corvallis Gazette-Times

The Times reporter, Mary Williams Walsh, journeyed to Southern Oregon, where governments are feeling a particularly fierce bite from rising PERS premiums and have no recourse but to deeply slice into the services they offer their constituents. The same story is playing out, to different degrees, all through the state.

 

Nations cry ‘fake news’ as a convenient excuse

The Register-Guard

President Trump pioneered the use of the term “fake news” to discredit any report he didn’t like. Now, the same allegation is being used against the United States abroad by adversaries, and against legitimate authorities at home by those credibly accused of misdeeds.

If Trump’s goal was to debase the very notion of truth, then he can truly say, “Mission accomplished.”

 

 

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