State Library eClips
* State plans to coordinate lead tests of water in all Oregon schools
* Court of Appeals says Portland arts tax is legal; city plans to collect back debt
* Long-awaited Portland Harbor cleanup plan relies mainly on Mother Nature
* Legislative committee hits road in support of transportation package — Guest Opinion
* 3 toes amputated from inmate forced into tight shoes, says $3 million suit
* Oregon controlled hunt tags to be set Thursday in Salem
* Wind-driven wildfire threatening about 1,200 central Oregon homes, officials say
* Task force looks at energy, water use related to marijuana production
* State to test air for heavy metals in NE Portland neighborhood
* More moss studies aim to uncover Portland’s toxic air secrets
* Derailed train cars emptied of oil, being moved from Mosier
* Razor clam digging sets record on Clatsop beaches
* Renew your license in 2014? Not a voter? You might be soon.
* Oregon officials tell schools, daycares: Test water for lead
* Oregon’s elected leaders must stop crime by illegal immigrants — Guest Opinion
* Oil removed from tankers that derailed in Columbia Gorge
* Akawana fire threatens 1,200 homes near Sisters
* Fire burning north of Sisters
* Eugene, Springfield to get specialized equipment to fight any oil train fire
* Build a better Oregon with a fair corporate tax — Guest Opinion
* Employers saluted at military breakfast
* County finds little lead poisoning after hundreds of blood tests
* EPA finally releases proposed Superfund cleanup plan, with lower cost estimates
* Temp market still hot in Portland
* Nursery industry rebounds years after recession
* Wildfire threatens Jefferson County homes
* Medical error reporting still low in Oregon
* Motor voter law hopes to add 145,000 more
* Editorial: ODOT is right to adjust speeds — Opinion
* Oregon Relies On Recommendations, More Than Requirements, In Anti-Lead Plan
* Crews Have Oregon’s First Major Wildfire Nearly Contained
* New Wildfire In Central Oregon Threatens 1,200 Homes Near Culver
* Oregon Relies On Recommendations, More Than Requirements, In Anti-Lead Plan
* Forest Service Releases Full Data Set For Moss Study
* EPA Proposes $746M Portland Harbor Superfund Cleanup
* Gov. Inslee Presses Railroad Chiefs On Oil Train Safety
* Health Care Profits ‘Not Being Passed On To Consumers’
* Multnomah DA Adopts New Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Policy For Juveniles
* ODA wont conduct on-farm food safety inspections
* Outlook is good for Oregon nurseries, food processing
* Wheat farmers awaiting million dollar rain
* BLM official: Wildfire size holds steady overnight
* Oregon races to finalize rules for marijuana, issue licenses
* Medford casino would cost other tribes
* Matthew T. Mangino: Sentencing schemes result in longer sentences for aging offenders — Guest Opinion
* Lava Beds makes play for park status
* Proposed compost facility near state line under review
* Invigorating our efforts to educate our kids — Guest Opinion
* Clinical director resigns from mental health agency
* Its just gonna be a bad day
* Astoria Dispatch selected as pilot site for new technology
* Port debates letting Oregon LNG off the hook
* Guest column: Lessons for beating the learning gap — Guest Opinion
* Guest column: Kids are a worthwhile investment — Guest Opinion
* Consumer group says Oregon insurers haven’t justified huge rate requests– Blog
* New analysis reveals Oregon hospitals’ strengths, weaknesses– Blog
* The Housing Trilemma– Blog
* This Abandoned Railroad Could Become an Epic Trail From Portland’s Burbs to the Sea
* After Decades of Decline, Cigarettes Are Back, Baby A Little, Anyway
* Murmurs: Oregon Lottery and Mark Callahan Are Dealing With Financial Setbacks
* Lawmakers, Providers Watch As Oregon DHS Prepares To Update Foster Care Rules
* State agencies to help schools reduce lead in drinking water
* Why Idaho Is Practicing What It Would Do If A Tsunami Hits Oregon And Washington
* What we know about physician-assisted death from Oregon, by the numbers
* ‘Cover Oregon’ Cover-Up — Opinion
* Goldberg Has New Role Improving Access for Oregons Native Americans
* Oregon’s price tag on a run-in with the law
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STATE PLANS TO COORDINATE LEAD TESTS OF WATER IN ALL OREGON SCHOOLS (Portland Oregonian)
State education and health officials announced Wednesday that the state plans to recommend that all public schools and day care centers test their water for lead this summer.
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COURT OF APPEALS SAYS PORTLAND ARTS TAX IS LEGAL; CITY PLANS TO COLLECT BACK DEBT (Portland Oregonian)
Opponents of Portland’s much-maligned arts tax have called it flawed, regressive or just plain unfair.
One thing they can’t call it: illegal.
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LONG-AWAITED PORTLAND HARBOR CLEANUP PLAN RELIES MAINLY ON MOTHER NATURE (Portland Oregonian)
The federal government on Wednesday released its long-awaited plan for cleaning up cancer-causing soil in the Lower Willamette River, settling on a “hybrid” proposal that includes doing nothing for the vast majority of the 10-mile-long contamination zone.
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LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE HITS ROAD IN SUPPORT OF TRANSPORTATION PACKAGE — GUEST OPINION (Portland Oregonian)
Right now, Oregonians are traveling on crumbling roads, outdated bridges and congested highways. As our population grows, current challenges will become more difficult and more expensive to fix. An impending Cascadia subduction zone earthquake adds urgency to our conversations about improving key infrastructure networks.
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3 TOES AMPUTATED FROM INMATE FORCED INTO TIGHT SHOES, SAYS $3 MILLION SUIT (Portland Oregonian)
A 55-year-old Oregon inmate who claims he was forced to wedge his size 15 foot into a size 9 pair of prison shoes has filed a $3 million lawsuit against the state Department of Corrections, alleging he had to have three toes amputated as a result.
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OREGON CONTROLLED HUNT TAGS TO BE SET THURSDAY IN SALEM (Portland Oregonian)
The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will pull the trigger Thursday afternoon on 135,617 proposed big-game hunting tags.
That’s the number biologists have said can be distributed for deer, elk, antelope, bighorn sheep and Rocky Mountain goats this fall.
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WIND-DRIVEN WILDFIRE THREATENING ABOUT 1,200 CENTRAL OREGON HOMES, OFFICIALS SAY (Portland Oregonian)
A wind-driven wildfire is burning about 2,100 acres and threatening about 1,200 homes in a central Oregon subdivision, prompting officials to put residents on an evacuation notice.
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TASK FORCE LOOKS AT ENERGY, WATER USE RELATED TO MARIJUANA PRODUCTION (Portland Oregonian)
A task force studying energy and water use associated with marijuana production is likely to recommend that the state do more to educate growers about existing agricultural rules and practices, as well as back a certification process that encourages Oregon’s new industry to pay closer attention how it uses natural resources.
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STATE TO TEST AIR FOR HEAVY METALS IN NE PORTLAND NEIGHBORHOOD (Portland Oregonian)
State environmental regulators announced Wednesday that they will monitor air in Northeast Portland’s Cully neighborhood after an analysis of U.S. Forest Service data indicated the area could have high levels of toxic metals in the air.
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MORE MOSS STUDIES AIM TO UNCOVER PORTLAND’S TOXIC AIR SECRETS (Portland Oregonian)
The U.S. Forest Service is planning new research on toxic metals in Portland’s air, fresh off its successful moss study that led to stricter air pollution monitoring in the city and state promises of a regulatory overhaul.
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DERAILED TRAIN CARS EMPTIED OF OIL, BEING MOVED FROM MOSIER (Portland Oregonian)
Crews have removed all the crude oil from 13 derailed Union Pacific train tankers and have begun moving the cars out of Mosier, authorities announced Wednesday.
It could take the rest of the week until all of the empty tanker cars are removed, said Greg Svelund, an Oregon Department of Environmental Quality spokesman.
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RAZOR CLAM DIGGING SETS RECORD ON CLATSOP BEACHES (Portland Oregonian)
Razor clam digging on Clatsop beaches in 2016 has set a record.
Through mid-May, harvest reached 2.1 million clams, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. A normal digging year yields about 1.3 million.
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RENEW YOUR LICENSE IN 2014? NOT A VOTER? YOU MIGHT BE SOON (Portland Oregonian)
Oregon plans to launch the second phase of the state’s automatic voter registration program Friday, signing up people who’ve done business with the DMV as early as 2014 in a move that could add more than 145,000 voters.
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OREGON OFFICIALS TELL SCHOOLS, DAYCARES: TEST WATER FOR LEAD (Salem Statesman Journal)
Oregon health and education officials are urging schools and childcare programs statewide to test their drinking water for lead this summer.
The move comes as school districts around the country including in Portland and Eugene are discovering hazardous lead levels at the tap.
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OREGON’S ELECTED LEADERS MUST STOP CRIME BY ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS — GUEST OPINION (Salem Statesman Journal)
Oregonians have recently chosen major-party nominees for governor and the Legislature. Now those candidates should explain how they would take action to solve a serious state problem: crime by illegal immigrants.
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OIL REMOVED FROM TANKERS THAT DERAILED IN COLUMBIA GORGE (Salem Statesman Journal)
Crews have removed the last of the crude oil from a train that derailed Friday in the tiny Columbia River Gorge town of Mosier.
Greg Svelund with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality says the oil has been trucked to The Dalles, and crews were working Wednesday to decontaminate and move the rail cars off site.
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AKAWANA FIRE THREATENS 1,200 HOMES NEAR SISTERS (Salem Statesman Journal)
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has invoked the Emergency Conflagration Act in response to the Akawana Fire burning about 13 miles north of Sisters.
The 2,000-acre fire began at about 2 p.m. Tuesday and has quickly spread. It now is threatening about 1,200 homes in the Three Rivers subdivision near Lake Billy Chinook.
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FIRE BURNING NORTH OF SISTERS (Salem Statesman Journal)
The 2,000-acre Akawana Fire reported June 7 is burning 13 miles north of the town of Sisters in the Oregon Dept. of Forestry’s Central Oregon District on private lands.
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EUGENE, SPRINGFIELD TO GET SPECIALIZED EQUIPMENT TO FIGHT ANY OIL TRAIN FIRE (Eugene Register-Guard)
Tanker railroad cars full of crude oil regularly roll through Eugene and Springfield, local and state officials say.
And, just in case there is a derailment, Eugene Springfield Fire soon will add more specialized equipment.
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BUILD A BETTER OREGON WITH A FAIR CORPORATE TAX — GUEST OPINION (Eugene Register-Guard)
In the two decades since Measure 5, the property tax limitation approved by Oregon voters in 1990, went into effect, our schools have gone from well-funded and excellent to the bottom of the pack.
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EMPLOYERS SALUTED AT MILITARY BREAKFAST (Portland Tribune)
Honors have gone to several businesses and government agencies that have made special efforts to hire veterans or support employees when they have been called to active military duty.
They were saluted June 3 at the seventh annual Northwest Military Employer Summit, sponsored by the Pacific Northwest Defense Coalition at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas.
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COUNTY FINDS LITTLE LEAD POISONING AFTER HUNDREDS OF BLOOD TESTS (Portland Tribune)
Multnomah County health officials say only two children had elevated levels of lead in their blood during two days of testing at county pop-up clinics.
The county’s Health Department screened 519 people for lead poisoning Monday, June 6, and Tuesday, June 7.
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EPA FINALLY RELEASES PROPOSED SUPERFUND CLEANUP PLAN, WITH LOWER COST ESTIMATES (Portland Tribune)
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday proposed a seven-year plan to finally clean up the 10-mile Portland Harbor Superfund site, at an estimated cost of $746 million.
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TEMP MARKET STILL HOT IN PORTLAND (Portland Tribune)
Despite signals that the U.S. labor market is cooling, temporary hiring agencies in Portland say that the pace of hiring through their offices remains strong.
Even with layoffs at Intel Corp. and a generally flat manufacturing sector, Portland employers are hiring close to the same rate as in 2015, said Amy Vander Vliet, regional economist for the Oregon Employment Department.
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NURSERY INDUSTRY REBOUNDS YEARS AFTER RECESSION (Portland Tribune)
Gresham nurseryman Rod Park describes the 2008 economic recession as like swimming underwater in a storm growers didn’t know which direction they were headed while gasping for air.
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WILDFIRE THREATENS JEFFERSON COUNTY HOMES (Bend Bulletin)
-Governor invokes Emergency Conflagration Act for Akawana Fire-
A wildfire sparked by lightning 13 miles north of Sisters in Akawana Butte grew to about 2,100 acres Wednesday, threatened about 1,200 homes in a subdivision near Lake Billy Chinook and triggered a preliminary evacuation notice.
The fire prompted Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday afternoon to invoke the Emergency Conflagration Act, which allows the state to help local agencies battle the blaze.
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MEDICAL ERROR REPORTING STILL LOW IN OREGON (Bend Bulletin)
-Fewer than 13 percent of facilities voluntarily reported in 2015-
Only 12.6 percent of eligible Oregon facilities reported mistakes to a patient safety program in 2015, up slightly from 11 percent in 2014.
While all 59 Oregon hospitals submitted reports in 2015, the number of reporting pharmacies remains low. Seven out of more than 700 eligible pharmacies in Oregon reported adverse events to the Oregon Patient Safety Commission last year, or fewer than 1 percent.
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MOTOR VOTER LAW HOPES TO ADD 145,000 MORE (Bend Bulletin)
With the Oregon primary in the rearview mirror and ballot results soon going into official state record, election officials are now freed up to potentially handle a wave of new registrations under the states motor voter law after they touch base with another 145,000 Oregonians this week.
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EDITORIAL: ODOT IS RIGHT TO ADJUST SPEEDS — OPINION (Bend Bulletin)
When Oregon lawmakers were asked last year to raise speed limits on major highways east of the Cascades, they voted overwhelmingly to do so. Now, the Oregon Department of Transportation has stepped in and temporarily lowered the limit on three sections of road in Central Oregon and one stretch near the Idaho border.
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OREGON RELIES ON RECOMMENDATIONS, MORE THAN REQUIREMENTS, IN ANTI-LEAD PLAN (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Oregon officials announced plans Wednesday aimed at finding and reducing lead in drinking water at schools and day care centers. It has more recommendations than requirements.
The plan begins by recommending that public schools as well as privately-run preschools and day care centers test their water and use certified labs to do it. But the plan doesn’t require the tests.
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CREWS HAVE OREGON’S FIRST MAJOR WILDFIRE NEARLY CONTAINED (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Fire crews in eastern Oregon said Wednesday they have mostly contained the states first major wildfire of the season.
The Owyhee Canyon Fire ignited over the weekend and has burned nearly 23,000 acres in Malheur County.
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NEW WILDFIRE IN CENTRAL OREGON THREATENS 1,200 HOMES NEAR CULVER (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
A fire in central Oregon is currently threatening 1,200 homes in a subdivision near Lake Billy Chinook.
The Oregon Department of Forestry expects the 2,000 acre Akawana fire, which is burning near Culver about 13 miles northeast of Sisters, to grow due to windy conditions.
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OREGON RELIES ON RECOMMENDATIONS, MORE THAN REQUIREMENTS, IN ANTI-LEAD PLAN (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Oregon officials announced plans Wednesday aimed at finding and reducing lead in drinking water at schools and day care centers. It has more recommendations than requirements.
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FOREST SERVICE RELEASES FULL DATA SET FOR MOSS STUDY (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
The U.S. Forest Service has released the data that kicked off concerns about Oregon’s system of monitoring air quality and air toxics in Portland. Hundreds of readings gathered all around the city are expressed on an interactive map that shows readings taken in 2013.
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EPA PROPOSES $746M PORTLAND HARBOR SUPERFUND CLEANUP (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it will take 30 years and around $746 million to clean up a 10-mile stretch of the Willamette River known as the Portland Harbor Superfund Site.
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GOV. INSLEE PRESSES RAILROAD CHIEFS ON OIL TRAIN SAFETY (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee wants oil trains to slow down and safety improvements to speed up. Inslee said Wednesday that he personally delivered that message to the CEO of Union Pacific and the executive chairman of BNSF over the last 48 hours.
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HEALTH CARE PROFITS ‘NOT BEING PASSED ON TO CONSUMERS’ (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
The Affordable Care Act has meant big profits for hospitals and health systems, and thats because the vast majority of patients now have insurance.
You might expect rates to drop as a result. But this year, some companies want to hike rates by more than 30 percent.
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MULTNOMAH DA ADOPTS NEW MANDATORY MINIMUM SENTENCING POLICY FOR JUVENILES (Oregon Public Broadcasting)
Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill has released a new policy for Measure 11 offenders who are juveniles.
Measure 11 is the 1994 Oregon law that established mandatory minimum sentencing for certain serious crimes. The law also applies to juvenile offenders, and it usually meant those offenders were tried as adults.
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ODA WONT CONDUCT ON-FARM FOOD SAFETY INSPECTIONS (Capital Press)
The Oregon Department of Agriculture has decided against seeking federal funds to conduct on-farm food safety inspections.
The agency will instead wait to see what role the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will play in on-farm enforcement of the Food Safety Modernization Act.
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OUTLOOK IS GOOD FOR OREGON NURSERIES, FOOD PROCESSING (Capital Press)
Oregon’s food processing and beverage manufacturing industries are expected to perform well over the next decade, and the states crop production and nurseries will gain as well, according to a new report from the Office of Economic Analysis.
While lacking details, the quarterly economic and revenue forecast by Senior Economist Josh Lehner predicts strong performance by Oregons agricultural segments and associated industries, bucking the trend in one case.
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WHEAT FARMERS AWAITING MILLION DOLLAR RAIN (East Oregonian)
Eastern Oregon wheat fields are already turning shades of amber in the wake of unusually warm weather that kicked off the month of June.
Temperatures in Pendleton reached 96 degrees on Sunday and 100 degrees on Monday, which has the crop maturing about two weeks ahead of schedule. But Mike Flowers, extension cereal specialist for Oregon State University, said theres still time before harvest and the next few weeks could go a long way toward making or breaking this years production.
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BLM OFFICIAL: WILDFIRE SIZE HOLDS STEADY OVERNIGHT (Argus Observer)
The Owyhee Canyon Fire held its size overnight.
Despite heavy winds, firefighters were able to hold the perimeter, Larry Moore, the Bureau of Land Managements Vale District public information officer, told the Argus.
At press time, the fire was 50 percent contained and was holding at about 20,500 acres.
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OREGON RACES TO FINALIZE RULES FOR MARIJUANA, ISSUE LICENSES (Medford Mail Tribune)
-OLCC’s Patridge says number of applicants keeps growing-
After months of public hearings with pot growers, lawmen, public health officials and others, an Oregon commission is racing to finalize recreational marijuana regulations and issue licenses to hundreds of businesses within a few months.
But those who aim to produce souped-up coffee and other niche products might have to wait a bit longer.
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MEDFORD CASINO WOULD COST OTHER TRIBES (Medford Mail Tribune)
-BIA document shows a Coquille gambling operation would bite into profits-
A casino under construction in Yreka, Calif., could see a 22 percent revenue drop if the Coquille Indian Tribe places a video-gambling operation in Medford, an analysis obtained from the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs reveals.
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MATTHEW T. MANGINO: SENTENCING SCHEMES RESULT IN LONGER SENTENCES FOR AGING OFFENDERS — GUEST OPINION (Medford Mail Tribune)
The number of prisoners over the age of 55 serving more than one year in state prisons increased from 26,300 to 131,500 in the last two decades, according to a study released this week by the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Research has shown that all but a small minority of criminals, even violent ones, mature out of crime before middle age, meaning that long sentences for aging offenders does little to prevent crime.
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LAVA BEDS MAKES PLAY FOR PARK STATUS (Herald and News)
Lava Beds National Monument could soon be recognized as one of Americas best of the best.
On June 22, Discover Klamath Executive Director Jim Chadderdon and other stakeholders will meet with California Sen. Barbara Boxer to ask her to support designating Lava Beds as a national park.
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PROPOSED COMPOST FACILITY NEAR STATE LINE UNDER REVIEW (Herald and News)
A new composting facility less than one mile from the Oregon and California border is under review by the State of Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The deadline for comments to the DEQ regarding the facilitys request for a solid waste permit is June 10.
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INVIGORATING OUR EFFORTS TO EDUCATE OUR KIDS — GUEST OPINION (The World)
We shouldn’t be pointing fingers; We should be offering helping hands.
This was the theme when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke recently at The Oregon Community Foundation annual meeting. He was there to educate, support and inspire us to do better in our efforts to give all Oregon children the opportunity to succeed in school and, ultimately, in life.
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CLINICAL DIRECTOR RESIGNS FROM MENTAL HEALTH AGENCY (Daily Astorian)
The clinical director at Clatsop Behavioral Healthcare has resigned as the mental health agency responds to the findings of an internal investigation into management.
The agency announced Wednesday that Michele Crump-Hart, who has served as clinical director since 2014, and Sumuer Watkins, the executive director, had come to the mutual agreement that it is in the best interest of the agency for Crump-Hart to resign.
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ITS JUST GONNA BE A BAD DAY (Daily Astorian)
Amid the catastrophic damage that a Cascadia earthquake and tsunami will inflict on Astoria, Columbia Memorial Hospital may be a shambles and unable to treat patients on site.
That’s one of many hard realities brought home this week by Cascadia Rising, a four-day series of interagency disaster preparedness exercises taking place throughout Oregon and Washington.
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ASTORIA DISPATCH SELECTED AS PILOT SITE FOR NEW TECHNOLOGY (Daily Astorian)
Astoria Dispatch is one of six 911 centers in the state to be chosen as a pilot site for new technology to accept text messages, images and video.
Jeff Rusiecki, Astoria Dispatch manager, said the aging system will be replaced with an updated network. The dispatch center will be able to take a variety of information from sources other than telephones.
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PORT DEBATES LETTING OREGON LNG OFF THE HOOK (Daily Astorian)
Port of Astoria Commissioners are still hung up on whether to let Oregon LNG out of its sublease of more than 90 acres on the Skipanon Peninsula.
Richard Glick, an attorney for LNG Development Co., sent the Port a letter in April asking the agency to terminate a sublease with the company, which runs 25 more years. The company announced in April it was abandoning a highly controversial liquefied natural gas terminal in Warrenton and pipeline across Clatsop County to Woodland, Washington.
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GUEST COLUMN: LESSONS FOR BEATING THE LEARNING GAP — GUEST OPINION (Daily Astorian)
With the school year nearing its end, students and families all over Oregon are beginning to think about the upcoming summer and their time outside of school.
I want to take a moment to stress the importance of providing young people with safe places to learn during the summer months, because not all Oregon families can afford summer camps and summer tutors.
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GUEST COLUMN: KIDS ARE A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT — GUEST OPINION (Daily Astorian)
We shouldn’t be pointing fingers; we should be offering helping hands.
This was the theme when New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof spoke recently at The Oregon Community Foundation annual meeting.
He was there to educate, support and inspire us to do better in our efforts to give all Oregon children the opportunity to succeed in school and, ultimately, in life.
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CONSUMER GROUP SAYS OREGON INSURERS HAVEN’T JUSTIFIED HUGE RATE REQUESTS— BLOG (Oregon Business Journal)
Oregon insurers haven’t made a strong enough case for rate hikes, with several appearing to overstate how much medical costs are going up, while attempting to increase profits, says a new analysis from the consumer nonprofit OSPIRG Foundation.
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NEW ANALYSIS REVEALS OREGON HOSPITALS’ STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES— BLOG (Oregon Business Journal)
Oregon hospitals are excelling in medication safety and coordinating care but have more work to do in reducing readmissions and central-line-associated bloodstream infection rates, according to a report out today from the Oregon Health Authority.
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THE HOUSING TRILEMMA— BLOG (Oregon Office of Economic Analysis)
Every city wants to have a strong local economy, high quality of life and housing affordability for its residents. Unfortunately these three dimensions represent the Housing Trilemma. A city can achieve success on two but not all three at the same time. Underlying all of these tradeoffs are local policies as well.
Inspired by Kim-Mai Cutler and Cardiff Garcia, I set out to try and quantify the Housing Trilemma across the nations 100 largest metropolitan areas. It turns out to be very real.
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THIS ABANDONED RAILROAD COULD BECOME AN EPIC TRAIL FROM PORTLANDS BURBS TO THE SEA (Willamette Week)
The Salmonberry Trail doesn’t exist yet. We hiked it anyway.
The man in the silver pickup warned me: If I hiked down the hill to the old railroad tracks, I wouldn’t come back.
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AFTER DECADES OF DECLINE, CIGARETTES ARE BACK, BABY A LITTLE, ANYWAY (Willamette Week)
New figures show Oregon coffin-nail sales rose last year, halting a long-term downtrend.
Cigarette sales in Oregon have declined steadily since at least 1985, but state figures released last week show a big bounce for 2015: Smokers bought 357,000 more packs in 2015 than in 2014, a 2.7 percent increase.
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MURMURS: OREGON LOTTERY AND MARK CALLAHAN ARE DEALING WITH FINANCIAL SETBACKS (Willamette Week)
-Cowlitz Casino Expected to Hurt Oregon Lottery-
For years, Oregon tribes and private casino promoters have warned that the state is vulnerable to competition from a Native American casino in a bordering state.
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LAWMAKERS, PROVIDERS WATCH AS OREGON DHS PREPARES TO UPDATE FOSTER CARE RULES (KLCC)
A bill that makes sweeping changes to Oregon’s oversight of foster care providers takes effect next month. The reforms were proposed after numerous media reports of abuse and neglect at several foster care providers.
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STATE AGENCIES TO HELP SCHOOLS REDUCE LEAD IN DRINKING WATER (KTVZ Bend)
-Summer program follows Gov. Brown directive-
Oregon’s education and health agencies said Wednesday they recommend all school districts and child care programs test drinking water this summer, as part of a statewide plan to reduce student exposure to lead.
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WHY IDAHO IS PRACTICING WHAT IT WOULD DO IF A TSUNAMI HITS OREGON AND WASHINGTON (Boise State Public Radio)
State emergency management agencies in Idaho, Oregon and Washington along with their federal counterparts at FEMA, are conducting a drill through the end of the week to prepare for a catastrophic disaster.
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WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED DEATH FROM OREGON, BY THE NUMBERS (Los Angeles Times)
Oregon was the first state to allow patients with terminal illnesses to request medications that would end their lives.
Though other states have since adopted similar laws, Oregon remains the best guide for what to expect in California when physician-assisted death becomes legal in the state Thursday.
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‘COVER OREGON’ COVER-UP — OPINION (U.S. News & World Report)
-A new House report exposes the calamity of implementing Obamacare in Oregon.-
Everyone who’s actually experienced Obamacare knows it’s failing. Co-ops are closing left and right. State exchanges are shutting down. And, as those opposed to the plan warned all along, premiums are going up and up and up. It’s no longer a matter of whether you can keep the insurance you had if you liked it: It’s a matter of being able to have insurance at all.
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GOLDBERG HAS NEW ROLE IMPROVING ACCESS FOR OREGONS NATIVE AMERICANS (The Lund Report)
New federal rules allow for opportunities for managed care and full payment to non-Indian providers for Oregon’s tribal health services. Bruce Goldberg, the former state health director and a former Indian Health Service physician, will be helping the tribes provide more coordination between primary and speciality care.
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OREGON’S PRICE TAG ON A RUN-IN WITH THE LAW (Street Roots News)
-What do monetary sanctions look like here?-
As the financial burdens placed on those who come into contact with the American criminal justice system draw increasing criticism and the attention of the Obama administration we wondered: What do these monetary sanctions look like locally?
While Oregon is not the most expensive state to have a run-in with the law, it can cost you.
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