December 2, 2018 Daily Clips

TOP STORIES


State Senator Says Culture At The Oregon Capitol Hasn’t Improved
OPB
For months, a group of lawyers, former lawmakers, judges, lobbyists and other stakeholders have been working to address culture change at the Salem statehouse. The Oregon State Capitol Workplace Harassment work group is nearing the end of its task and is expected to submit final recommendations to the state Legislature in the next couple of weeks. Former Republican lawmaker Vicki Berger told Gelser that she feels the group’s key charge is to shift attitudes. “We have to change the culture,” Berger said.

Brown, business leaders to talk taxes, spending Monday
Portland Tribune
One of Oregon’s oldest and most respected business organizations says the 2019 Oregon Legislature should raise personal and corporate taxes — if lawmakers also rein in the cost of benefits to public employees.

George H.W. Bush: Oregon’s reps on Capitol Hill commemorate the 41st president
The Oregonian/OregonLive

George Herbert Walker Bush, the nation’s 41st president and the commander-in-chief whose administration gave Portland the nickname “Little Beirut,” died Friday at 94. Rep. Greg Walden, who represents Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District, is the state’s sole elected Republican in Washington, D.C. Walden said Bush was “a towering figure of kindness and dignity, the kind of which we may never see again.”


GOVERNMENT & POLITICS

Oregon’s business lobby undermined by divisions, electoral setbacks and scandal
The Oregonian/OregonLive
Oregon businesses are thriving amid the strongest regional economy in a generation. Politically, however, the business community is a wreck.

College presidents bemoan budget limbo under Gov. Brown’s new plan
The Oregonian/OregonLive
The presidents of Oregon’s seven public universities said they will have to implement double-digit tuition hikes and cut certain programs if lawmakers approve Gov. Kate Brown’s recommended budget for the coming two years.

Top takeaways from Gov. Kate Brown’s $23.6 billion budget proposal
The Oregonian/OregonLive
The governor wants lawmakers to pass a large tax increase — $2 billion —primarily to pay for a longer K-12 school year, smaller class sizes in kindergarten through third grade and an expansion of career and technical education in high schools. The governor didn’t address how elementary schools would find space for additional classes. Brown also wants the Legislature to give schools $200 million more than budget analysts said is needed for them to maintain the status quo; she would get some of that money by cutting higher education.

Kate Brown’s win opens up Oregon’s 2022 governor’s race
The Oregonian/OregonLIve
It’s been just three weeks since Gov. Kate Brown won re-election, but already potential candidates to succeed her are laying groundwork for possible bids. With Brown unable to run again in 2022, the Democratic field is wide open for the first time since 2010.

Washington Gov. Inslee Forms PAC In Move Toward Possible Presidential Run
OPB
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has formed a federal political action committee and started soliciting contributions, signaling an important next step as he decides whether to run for president in 2020, the public radio Northwest News Network and The Seattle Times have learned.


LOCAL

Many vacancies atop Portland bureaus at key time
The Oregonian/OregonLive

Six Portland bureaus have acting or fill-in directors, an unusually high number of vacancies atop the city government amid efforts to modernize and set long-term plans during a period of rapid growth.

Rural highway fatalities increase after speed limit hike
East Oregonian
For the first time in decades, the state was raising speed limits on some of eastern and central Oregon’s most traveled highways. The Eastern Oregon section of Interstate 84 and Interstate 82 were now 70 miles per hour. Nearly the entire length of Highway 97 and several other segments of highway in the region were bumped up to 65 miles per hour.

Five days later, the first person died on one of the affected roads.

Rural Oregon kids hospitalized in cold medicine overdoses
Portland Tribune
Four local youths were hospitalized recently as a result of overdosing on over-the-counter cold medicine and law enforcement and Jefferson County Juvenile Department staff are aware of several other cases.

NATIONAL

Trump praises George H.W. Bush and his legacy, putting aside past feud with family
The Washington Post
President Trump hailed George H.W. Bush on Saturday as a “truly wonderful man” and announced plans to attend his Washington funeral, setting aside years of animosity with the Bush political dynasty that he toppled in his takeover of the Republican Party.

US, China reach 90-day ceasefire on tariffs in trade dispute that has rattled markets
The Oregonian/OregonLive
The United States and China reached a 90-day ceasefire in a trade dispute that has rattled financial markets and threatened world economic growth. The breakthrough came after a dinner meeting Saturday between President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping at the Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires.

OPINION

The extraordinary life and times of George H.W. Bush
The Washington Post
George H.W. Bush was caught between worlds. As president, he could be himself at last.He was, by then, an Eisenhower Republican, whose prudence was displayed first when the Berlin Wall came down, next when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and Bush, when expelling him, stopped short of invading Iraq. Presiding over the orderly end of the Cold War and the vast coalition for Desert Storm, Bush earned the lasting admiration of a discerning posterity, a judgment more important than the one rendered by the undiscerning electorate that in 1992 limited him to one term.

Brown’s answer to fire and smoke an embarrassment
Mail Tribune
This is leadership? With a summer of choking smoke still fresh in local residents’ minds, Gov. Kate Brown’s solution is to create a committee to study the state’s wildfire response. She’s allocated $400,000 for said study in her proposed budget that totals $83.5 billion. That’s billion with a B. If that news has smoke coming out of your ears, you’re not alone.

Skepticism a reasonable response to climate report
The Oklahoman
The German government’s aggressive efforts to transition to green power have not prompted rioting (yet), but they have raised living costs substantially, burdening the poor. And, even though renewables make up about 40 percent of Germany’s electricity supply, that nation’s greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.

The “Tax the Rich” Delusion of the Democratic Left
The Daily Beast
When confronted with how to pay for their extraordinarily expensive policy agenda, the answer of liberal lawmakers, analysts, and advocates is nearly always the same: tax the rich. The “just tax the rich” rhetoric remains empty because the numbers simply do not add up. Wealthy families and corporations are not a bottomless ATM available to finance a socialist utopia.

Conflicting New Estimates of Illegal Immigration
National Review
The spectacle at the border as those seeking to enter illegally, or to do so on bogus claims of seeking asylum — which will lead to their immediate release — has refocused the country on the question of illegal immigration. The Yale study makes it clear that whatever one may think of Trump — or if caravans from Honduras constitute an “invasion” — the conventional wisdom about illegal immigration may be wrong. If the Yale scholars are anywhere close to being right, the problem needs to be looked at as being far more serious than even many conservatives assumed.

 

 

 

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