Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
Oregon lawmakers have repudiated a White House statement suggesting the U.S. Justice Department will enforce the federal prohibition on recreational marijuana in states that have legalized it. When Oregonians legalized recreational pot in 2014, they knew there was a risk of a federal crackdown with future presidential administrations, said Senate Majority Leader Ginny Burdick, D-Portland.
Oregon presidential electors Shirley Cairns and Sam Sappington sign documents after casting ballots for President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden at the Oregon state Capitol in Salem on Dec. 17, 2012. Members of the Electoral College cast the final, official votes in the presidential election.
Oregon has plenty to lose when it comes to President-elect Donald Trump's vow to change the nation's health care system. His surprise victory threatens state officials' hope of plugging a looming budget hole with $1.25 billion in federal health care reform payments, and his vow to immediately repeal Obamacare creates uncertainty for more than 470,000 Oregonians who received coverage or subsidies under the law.
The 90 Oregon lawmakers who will be gaveled into the 2017 legislative session face a difficult task after a bruising campaign season that ended in the thumping defeat of a $3 billion-a-year tax measure. Beset by rancor over Measure 97, they must frantically figure out who will lead Oregon on the two issues that observers say will matter most next year - addressing a budget shortfall that could hit $2 billion, possibly by raising new revenue, while crafting a transportation-funding package that's eluded Salem since 2015.
A prominent scholar says that Medicare will not be saved either by vouchers backed by Republican congressional majorities or the national health-care overhaul achieved under Democratic President Barack Obama. Theodore Marmor, who is making several stops in Oregon, says the ideal of Medicare for all - universal coverage based on the 50-year-old federal program of health insurance for people 65 and older - rests on stemming medical cost increases and setting limits for medical care.
Gov. Kate Brown faced widespread criticism this week for skipping the election season's traditional kick-off debate , hosted by the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association. That criticism seems to have hit home.
In thisJune 3, 2016, file frame from video provided by KGW-TV, smoke billows from a Union Pacific train that derailed near Mosier, Ore., in the scenic Columbia River Gorge. Oregon's Multnomah County Chairwoman Deborah Kafoury and Portland, Ore., Mayor Charlie Hales are calling on Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to oppose oil-by-rail projects like the Tesoro-Savage terminal proposed in Vancouver, Wash., and to work for a permanent ban on oil-by-rail--a request that comes in the wake of the Mosier derailment.