NATIONAL
Calif. synagogue fatal shooting: Suspect captured; security guard ‘helped disrupt the attack’
Oregonlive
A 19-year-old gunman opened fire inside a synagogue near San Diego as worshippers celebrated the last day of a major Jewish holiday, killing a woman and wounding the rabbi and two others Saturday, authorities said. President Donald Trump and other elected officials decried what they called an anti-Semitic attack exactly six months since 11 people were killed at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest assault on Jews in U.S. history. There were indications an AR-type assault weapon might have malfunctioned after the gunman, identified as John Earnest, fired numerous rounds inside the Chabad of Poway, San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said.
Suspect in deadly synagogue shooting near San Diego wrote anti-Semitic manifesto
Oregonlive
A man is being held for questioning in connection with the deadly shooting Saturday at the Chabad of Poway synagogue. A gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle walked into a suburban San Diego County synagogue and opened fire on the congregation Saturday, killing one person and injuring three in an attack that authorities believe was motivated by hate.
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Gov. Kate Brown Refuses To Comply With President Trump’s Transgender Military Policy
Oregon Public Broadcasting
President Trump’s policy excluding transgender people from the military officially went into effect earlier this month, though Gov. Kate Brown says the Oregon National Guard does not plan on participating. The Trump administration’s new policy disqualifies transgender men and women from enlisting in the military. Transgender people serving before the policy went into effect can continue to serve. “I believe that our community members should be allowed to serve and that gender identity and sexual orientation should not be a barrier,” Brown said. “I want to say thank you to our trans community that are stepping up and serving in the Oregon National Guard, and I just want the entire United States to know that we welcome you and support you here in this state.” Brown wrote a letter to the Oregon Military Department in 2017 when Trump was initially working on the policy, stating she would stand by Oregon law. “I write this letter to clarify that the Oregon National Guard will continue to employ transgender service-members,” she wrote. “That is the mandate of Oregon law and our values.”
Oregon Vaccine Bill Clears Committee, Heads To House
Oregon Public Broadcasting
A bill tightening Oregon vaccination laws will move on to a vote in the state’s House of Representatives, despite a deluge of opposing calls and e-mails to lawmakers in recent days. In a vote that largely stuck to party lines, the Legislature’s budget committee on Friday voted 13-7 to move House Bill 3063 to the full House. The vote came at the tail end of a week when hundreds of parents who opposed the bill flocked repeatedly to the Capitol, holding a raucous rally on the front steps on Tuesday and testifying for hours against the measure on Wednesday. “This issue has been one of the most emotional issues I’ve seen in all of my years in the Legislature,” said state Sen. Lee Beyer, D-Springfield, at a hearing of the Joint Ways and Means Committee. Beyer voted to send the bill to the full House, saying it should be heard by the House and Senate. But he also said he’d be a “no” vote if the bill makes it to his chamber.
Oregon Lawmakers, Family Gather To Celebrate The Life Of Norma Paulus
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Family, friends and Oregon lawmakers gathered at Willamette University in Salem on Saturday for Norma Paulus’ memorial service. Paulus was Oregon’s first female secretary of state. She died Feb. 28 at the age of 85 in a Portland care facility. Paulus was known for her politics as a moderate Republican. She worked on Oregon land-use laws and, as secretary of state, pioneered the state’s vote-by-mail system. Oregon Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose, was one of the speakers at her memorial service. Johnson’s father, Sam Johnson, served with Paulus in the Oregon House. “We desperately need more Normas in the Legislature, and I don’t mean more women,” Betsy Johnson said. “I mean more pragmatic moderates.”
Environmental Groups Oppose New Gas Project At Oregon Mega-Dairy
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Environmental groups are asking Oregon regulators to deny the air pollution permit for a project that would turn cow manure into renewable natural gas. Oregon’s largest dairy operation is already collecting the manure from more than 30,000 cows and turning it into biogas in a digester. Right now, Threemile Canyon Farms in Boardman is using that gas to generate electricity. The company has applied for a permit to produce renewable natural gas instead. That way, it can go into a natural gas pipeline while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from normal dairy operations. Tarah Heinzen with Food & Water Watch said she doesn’t see that gas being clean or renewable.
LOCAL
Salem-Keizer candidates accept donations from Oregon Right to Life, Planned Parenthood
Statesman Journal
Salem-Keizer School Board candidates Marty Heyen, Satya Chandragiri and Danielle Bethell have each accepted contributions from an Oregon Right to Life political action committee, organized by the Keizer-based anti-abortion group. Each candidate was given an in-kind donation worth $2,666 from the PAC for literature, brochures, printing and postage, according to campaign finance records. On the other side of the debate, Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon gave David Salinas — opponent to Chandragiri in Zone 4 — about $161 for canvassing support. Abortion also was a factor in the 2017 election.
PacifiCorp study says it is cheaper to close some coal plants
Oregonlive
PacifiCorp ratepayers could save nearly $250 million if the utility shut four coal-fired units in Wyoming by 2022 and replaced them with other resources, including solar, battery storage, a natural gas-fired plant and wholesale market purchases, according to a new study of the company’s coal fleet. PacifiCorp is Oregon’s second largest electric utility and still meets about 60 percent of its customers’ energy needs with electricity generated at coal-fired plants spread across the west, though none are in Oregon. Those plants are growing more and more uneconomical due to increasingly costly coal, expensive environmental upgrades required to meet haze reduction rules, and the availability of cheaper renewable and natural gas-fired power.
Portland Police to increase patrol near Jewish synagogues
Oregonlive
Portland police announced late Saturday that officers will conduct extra patrols near Jewish synagogues in the aftermath of a deadly shooting in California. Police say they have no specific information about threats in Portland but are increasing patrols as a proactive measure. The declaration, released at 11:18 p.m. Saturday, came about 12 hours after a gunman opened fire at a synagogue in the San Diego suburb of Poway.
Even as ridership dips, TriMet gets favorable ratings across region
Oregonlive
Portland-area residents overwhelmingly have positive opinions about TriMet, even if they don’t ride buses or light rail, according to a recent survey. Some 75% of those polled either strongly or somewhat approved of the tri-county transit agency overall, according to TriMet’s annual Attitude & Awareness Survey. And both riders and nonriders gave the system high marks for reliability and safety.
The Willamette River’s Struggling Fish Are Raising Environmentalists’ Concerns
Oregon Public Broadcasting
April’s record rains and snowmelt sent torrents of water down the Willamette River’s tributaries and into its main stem. With reservoirs full behind the basin’s dams, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the literal floodgates. As the water rushed downstream, fish that usually migrated upstream — spring chinook salmon and endangered winter steelhead — vanished. It wasn’t clear if they were unwilling or unable to navigate the high waters, if the floods had harmed the fish, or if the run had simply ended sooner than expected.
OPINION
Opinion: Politicians try to gut Measure 11 crime-success story
Oregonlive
Oregonians are on the verge of having one of the most successful state government programs of the last 25 years dismantled by misleading and deceptive tactics. In 1994, Oregon was the 25th most violent state in the country with several criminal cases at the time demonstrating the inadequacy of our justice system. A young man was attacked by three juveniles while walking with his girlfriend at the Lloyd Center and brain damaged for life. A judge refused to try two of the offenders in adult court and they served inconsequential sentences. A juvenile offender who mowed down and killed a young girl in Lake Oswego was serving a sentence of less than three years for the crime. A juvenile offender who had killed a rival gang member a few years earlier – while on probation for forcible rape – was already out of custody thanks to a judge who refused to let his case be prosecuted in adult court. And a juvenile offender who served little time for killing two small children years earlier was back in the headlines for soliciting a person to murder her fiance’s former girlfriend.