Today, as the calendar creeps closer to Election Day on Nov. 3, tossing your ballot in the mail is a game of Russian Roullet. Mrs. Wesselink isn’t there anymore to guarantee your vote will be counted.
Democrats have long decried changes to the U.S. Postal Service as an effort to suppress votes. Republicans counter that the changes are designed to help stem the red ink from the USPS that has sent costs soaring and revenue declining.
Beth Schmidt, the Safe Routes to School coordinator who organized the annual Ruby Bridges Walk to School event for Salem Schools, has been awarded $250,000 in a settlement with the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments (MWVCOG).
Chris Beck knows his candidacy is a longshot in Oregon’s 2nd Congressional District. But Beck is hoping incumbent Rep. Cliff Bentz’s unwavering loyalty to President Trump, along with the administration’s policies that have negatively impacted so many of his constituents, will work in his favor.
Portland-area voters deserve a debate in their city that is focused on their issues. Those voters will likely swing the election. If Drazan can reduce Kotek’s large advantage in the area by just a few percentage points, she could claim Mahonia Hall. Kotek, on the other hand, needs to shore up some dissatisfied Democrats who may be thinking of voting for Drazan knowing the Legislature will still be firmly in Democratic control, and want a rev limiter on some of the more radical ideas coming out of those chambers.
Upset about what he feels is an expedited erosion of the working class by both political parties, Clay Bearnson has been nominated by the Independent Party of Oregon for Senate District 3 in Southern Oregon.
The extreme right of the MAGA movement and the extreme left of the Democratic Socialists of America have both built their followings rallying against the existing political establishment — “the people against the entrenched elite.” MAGA views government institutions as the enemy, while the DSA opposes the capitalistic, corporate empire they believe feeds off the sweat and blood of the working class.
The road to transportation funding was washed out in a major political tsunami this past year, leaving legislators with a major task to repair the damage in the upcoming legislative session. One of the lead engineers in the rebuilding project, Sen. Bruce Starr ( R-Dundee), sat down with me to talk about how to get Oregon back on the highway to success.
Today in Federal Court, U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken made it clear that America still has a long road ahead to fulfill that promise. In a strong rebuke, Aiken chastised a lawyer for the Mid-Willamette Valley Council of Governments for firing Beth Schmidt, the former Safe Routes to Schools Coordinator, who embraced her responsibility to honor Ruby Bridges during a walk to school event for Salem-Keizer students last fall.
Five changes the Legislature might consider to lift Oregon schools out of the nation’s basement in school performance. None will be easy. The status quo is a formidable opponent.