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In a year when they'll have the added burden of running under the banner of President Donald Trump, Oregon's vastly outnumbered Republicans have to pick their spots. A few of the names emerging in recent months in state election filings: "No Supermajorities PAC," "Yes, Keep Our Groceries Tax Free" and "More Housing Now."
Kim Sordyl poses for a photo at home as her family eats breakfast in the kitchen in Portland, Ore., on Friday, July 7, 2017. In April 2017, the Portland, Ore., school district filed a lawsuit against Sordyl, who is seeking ... more > She may be a Democrat, but Kim Sordyl has locked horns for years with Oregon's powerful teachers unions - and now it looks as if her foes may be seeking payback.
It wasn't only Democratic-leaning counties in Oregon that voted to impose a tax on hospitals and health insurers to pay for Medicaid for low-income residents - several counties that voted for Donald Trump also helped propel the ballot measure to resounding "yes" vote. As president, Trump endorsed Republican bills to repeal the Affordable Care Act's expansion of Medicaid.
Oregon approved taxes on hospitals, health insurers and managed care companies in an unusual special election Tuesday that asked voters - and not lawmakers - how to pay for Medicaid costs that now include coverage of hundreds of thousands of low-income residents added to the program's rolls under the Affordable Care Act. Measure 101 was passing handily in early returns Tuesday night.
"The stakes are too high to put politics before people: President Trump stripped protections for Dreamers and Congressional Republicans have not prioritized Children's Health insurance. Oregon's families and Dreamers deserve certainty, not partisanship," she said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, talks with reporters in the Capitol after signing the conference committee report to advance the GOP tax bill, in Washington, Friday, Dec. 15, 2017.( The U.S. tax system needs to be reformed, but giving $1.5 trillion in tax breaks to millionaires and corporations is bad public policy. This bill blows out the deficit, deepens America's wealth gap and imperils safety net programs.
A Christian man refused to pay his taxes because some of his tax dollars go to fund abortions, claiming that to do so violates his religious principles. "I don't believe I have broken any laws as I have a duty to protect my conscience and to 'practice' religion freely," Michael Bowman wrote in a declaration filed in court, according to Oregon Live .
Oregon governor Kate Brown recently wrote to her state's two Democratic senators warning that federal funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program will run out in December. About two months after federal funding lapsed for the Children's Health Insurance Program, state officials still don't know exactly when they'll run out of money or when Congress will renew funding - leaving families that depend on the program increasingly anxious about their benefits.
So Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden, as ranking Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, went down to the White House recently to talk to the president about the tax overhaul process, accompanied by other Democrats on the committee. One by one, the other Democrats explained to the president their predictable priorities on the bill: helping the middle class, protecting Social Security and Medicare, not exploding the deficit.
Legislation providing five more years of financing for an expired children's health program won House approval Friday, though a partisan battle over paying for the extension continued to play out in the Senate. Each side is using the fight to accuse the other of jeopardizing the Children's Health Insurance Program, which serves more than 8 million children from low-income families.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order early Friday that eliminated cost-sharing subsidies that helped low- and moderate-income Americans afford health insurance. About 50,000 eligible Oregonians stood to lose about $48 million a year in federal assistance.
Four months before Oregon lawmakers return to Salem, it's already clear one Democratic priority will likely dominate the session: passing a bill to cap greenhouse gas emissions and charge some of the state's largest companies for their carbon output. This summer, at a screening of Al Gore's latest climate change documentary, Gov. Kate Brown announced her support for passing the so-called "cap and invest" bill.
In this April 27, 2017, file photo, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks in the Capitol ceremonial office in Salem, Ore. Brown formally announced via a press statement and You Tube video Monday, Sept.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's recommendation to President Donald Trump recommending downsizing the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument has several errors, one of the people who was behind the creation of the monument said Monday. A memo from Zinke to the president justifying his recommendation that the boundaries of the monument, which lies mostly in Oregon and crosses over into California, be "revised" says motor vehicles aren't allowed in it.
Republican Rep. Knute Buehler, who is running for governor, defends his pro-choice stand, saying he believes in making abortion "rare," as well as safe and legal. "Remarkably," he writes, "that's no longer an acceptable position among the professional pro-abortion lobby."
Firefighting authorities have sent out reminders that drone operators cannot fly their unmanned crafts over Oregon's wildfires. The airspace over some fires has been closed by the Federal Aviation Administration so that tankers and other needed aircraft are not impeded.
In stories Aug. 15 and July 5 about Oregon's expansion of abortion and reproductive health care coverage, The Associated Press reported erroneously the amount of money allocated from the general fund for reproductive health care coverage to immigrants who aren't otherwise eligible for Medicaid. The new law allocates about $6.2 million for care for that population, including about $500,000 for abortion services.
The mother of two was rescused Wednesday by the U.S. Coast Guard along Highway 101 near Sea Lion Caves in Oregon A mother missing for nearly four days was rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard on a cliff along the Oregon coast Wednesday. Heather Mounce was reported missing after family members had not heard from her since Saturday in Dallas, which is roughly 15 miles west of Salem.
In this April 27, 2017, file photo, Oregon Gov. Kate Brown speaks in the Capitol ceremonial office in Salem, Ore. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, on Tuesday signed into law what advocates called the nation's most progressive reproductive health policy, expanding access to abortion and birth control at a time when President Donald Trump's administration and other states are trying to restrict them.