Gov. Kate Brown at a Willamette Women Democrats meeting Sept. 12 in Lake Oswego. (Sam Stites/Pamplin Media Group) SALEM – Gov. Kate Brown will not call a special session to change a controversial bill limiting the state’s death penalty before the law takes effect on Sept. 29. Senate Bill 1013,[Read More…]
POLITICS
Business group withdraws effort to refer Student Success Act to voters
Oregon educators rally at the Capitol on May 8, 2019 in support of the Student Success Act. SALEM — An Oregon trade group has announced that it will no longer push to put a landmark business tax to raise money for the state’s public schools on the ballot. Oregon Manufacturers[Read More…]
Boquist derides session-ending politics, explains his threat to police
State Sen. Brian Boquist, R-Dallas, discusses his actions in the closing days of the 2019 Legislature from his Capitol office. (Aubrey Wieber/Salem Reporter) Over the past two years, a Republican legislator once an ally of Democrats has become a one-man force waging war against his colleagues to the left. The[Read More…]
PHOTOS: Timber industry and supporters protest at Oregon Capitol
Protesters flooded the capitol Thursday in opposition of House Bill 2020. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter) Trucks parked at the Oregon State Fairgrounds early Thursday before heading to the state Capitol. (Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter) (Troy Brynelson/Salem Reporter) Many protesters carried American flags, waving them on the overcast, drizzling morning. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter) A man[Read More…]
1,000 timber workers and supporters gather to protest cap and trade, diesel standards
Logging trucks line up in front of the Oregon Capitol. (Saphara Harrell/Salem Reporter) Loggers and logging trucks made their way from the fairgrounds in Salem to the Capitol this morning to protest two bills – House Bills 2020 and 2007. A long convoy of logging trucks drove along Court Street[Read More…]
Foundation drives to limit worker dues, challenging Oregon public unions
One of the state’s largest public employee unions rallies outside the Capitol on Monday, May 20. (Claire Withycombe/Oregon Capital Bureau) SALEM — Up to 30,000 Oregon workers may no longer automatically support their union as concerted national efforts to trim the political power of unions gain steam. A change in[Read More…]
Seeking Latino representation, Oregon farmworker union throws muscle into Salem-Keizer school board races
Miguel Barrientos, a paid field organizer for Pineros y Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste, walks door-to-door in southeast Salem, canvassing for school board candidates Raul Marquez and David Salinas. (Rachel Alexander/Salem Reporter) Miguel Barrientos wore a button-down shirt and sneakers as he walked along Townsend Way in southeast Salem on a[Read More…]
GOP firebrand crashes Oregon’s polite politics
Jonathan Lockwood, spokesman for three Oregon legislators in this undated photo that he provided. Grayson Dempsey was at a Girl Scouts camp in the Columbia River Gorge with her 8-year-old daughter in August when her phone started buzzing. Social media accounts were sending notification after notification. Dempsey, the director of[Read More…]
State proposes near-record fine for union-backed group’s foul-up with voter ballots
Defend Oregon, a union-backed political action committee supporting progressive ballot measures is facing the second largest election penalty in state history for failing to deliver 97 ballots it collected from Multnomah County voters on Election Day last fall. The state Elections Division, part of Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson’s[Read More…]
While back to carpentry, Starnes wants to craft campaign spending limits
Patrick Starnes, former Independent Party of Oregon candidate for governor, isn’t giving up on his push to reform the flow of political money in the state. (Portland Tribune/Jaime Valdez) Carpenter Patrick Starnes, former candidate for governor, earns a living now renovating an 1878 house in Brownsville. In his spare time,[Read More…]
