Posted inCity Council City of Salem Environment

Time for Salem to ban fireworks, sale and use

Yesterday the City of Salem banned the use of fireworks, as did two fire districts adjoining Salem. Now the City Council should implement a permanent ban on the sale and use of fireworks. The reasons given for yesterday's ban only scratch the surface of what's wrong with fireworks. Sure, high temperatures, low humidity, and wind gusts make setting off fireworks especially dangerous in terms of starting fires. But those conditions are the new normal for early July in this era of rapidly accelerating global warming. Yesterday, Tuesday July 4, was the hottest day on record for our planet. The average…
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Posted inLGBTQ issues National politics

Supreme Court majority acting like politicians, not judges

This week the United States Supreme Court added to its string of outrageous decisions by voting 6-3 to ban affirmative action in college admissions, to prevent the Biden administration from providing student debt relief to those who took out loans, and to allow a Colorado woman to not offer her web site design service to LGBTQ people -- thereby giving religious bigots a license to discriminate. Previously, of course, the court voted 6-3 to reverse Roe v. Wade, the more than 50-year precedent of abortion rights, a decision that had been upheld in several subsequent decisions by the Supreme Court.…
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Posted inOregon politics

Here’s the dumbest thing Oregon Republicans did this legislative session

Stupidity isn't limited to one political party, for sure. There's plenty of dumb moves made by both Democrats and Republicans.  But I've got to give the award for the most egregious display of political cluelessness in the Oregon legislative session that concluded yesterday to four Republican senators and one independent, who I assume was Brian Boquist, as he used to be a Republican. For even though the six-week walkout by Senate Republicans had ended after Democrats agreed to water down two bills dealing with abortion and gun control, those five senators didn't attend the last day of the session yesterday,…
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Posted inNational politics

Hunter Biden guilty of tax evasion and illegal gun possession. Yawn.

Looks like Republicans are going to have to find another Biden other than Hunter to accuse of dastardly doings. May I suggest the Biden's German Shepherd that bit someone on the White House grounds a while back?  For Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, has gotten the equivalent of a legal slap on the wrist after a five-year investigation by a federal attorney appointed by Trump and kept on the job by President Biden to avoid any appearance of favoritism.  A Washington Post story describes what Hunter Biden is facing. In short, not much, because what he did didn't amount to…
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Posted inOregon politics

Democrats should bend on abortion and gun bills to end GOP walkout

It's difficult for me to say this, since I hate to reward Republican hostage taking, but in this case the hostage is a whole lot of legislation that would benefit Oregonians more than Democrats bending on two bills detested by the Senate Republicans who have walked out would hurt Oregonians. Yes, a month ago I said that Democrats shouldn't negotiate over the walkout, as this will just encourage more walkouts. But now the June 25 deadline when the current legislative session must end is less than two weeks away. So the situation is similar to what President Biden and congressional…
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Posted inDowntown Urban Renewal

How downtown Salem is coming alive. But could be livelier.

Here's the considerably delayed second installment of my May 19 blog post about a City Club program regarding progress in redeveloping Salem's downtown area. That post showed slides of the planned conversion of the Truitt Brothers cannery into a vibrant mixed use development. Now I'll share slides presented by Shelly Ehenger, Urban Development Program Manager for the City of Salem. Ehenger started off by showing the boundary of the Downtown Urban Renewal Area, where leveraging of property tax assessments can be used to promote improvements. She noted that the cannery isn't part of that area, but there are other ways…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Trump’s federal indictment another first for the worst ex-president

Donald Trump likes to brag about himself. Well, today he got another #1 to add to his list of pseudo-accomplishments. Trump is the first former president to face federal charges. A New York Times story describes the well-deserved indictment.  The Justice Department on Thursday took the legally and politically momentous step of lodging federal criminal charges against former President Donald J. Trump, accusing him of mishandling classified documents he kept upon leaving office and then obstructing the government’s efforts to reclaim them. Mr. Trump confirmed on his social media platform that he had been indicted. The charges against him include…
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Posted inOregon politics

Call this GOP tip line to report 11 Republicans who have walked out from the legislature

Laurel Hines, my wife, had a great idea. Use a tip line set up by Oregon Republicans hoping to find fraud in state government to report a serious wrongdoing: the walkout by GOP members of the state senate that's gone on now for about five weeks, while those legislators who aren't performing the duty they were elected to do continue to pull in their taxpayer-paid salary. Here's a message that Laurel sent to some friends today. Here is something you can do and go on record regarding the walkout by the Republicans. If enough people flood the tip line, it…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon GOP is acting crazier than Republicans in Congress

Because this is Oregon, not Alabama or Mississippi, I've gotten used to saying that while our Republican politicians seem to be more reasonable than Republican officeholders in red states, they're actually just as far-right. The only difference being, Oregon Republicans don't have the opportunity to manifest their extremism given how Democrats dominate our state's political balance. Well, now that the walkout of Republicans in the state Senate has entered a fifth week, with the GOP being utterly unwilling to negotiate an end to the walkout (Governor Kotek has said that she's given up on her attempt to broker a deal),…
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Posted inNational politics

Debt limit deal seems like a good compromise to this progressive

Many of my fellow progressives won't like my opinion, but I'm happy with the debt limit deal reached today between President Biden and House Speaker McCarthy. The deal is going to irritate those on both the far-left and far-right of the political spectrum, so passage of the legislation isn't assured. But the alternative -- defaulting on the nation's financial obligations -- was much worse.  A New York Times story provides some basic facts about the deal. President Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Saturday reached an agreement in principle to lift the debt limit for two years while cutting and…
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Posted inOregon politics

Democrats need to hang tough on Senate GOP walkout

Republicans are doing their best to make my blood boil. (So far, figuratively.) Nationally, House Republicans seem determined to make their demands so extreme to raise the debt ceiling that the federal government will be unable to pay all of its bills soon, creating a financial catastrophe.  Here in Oregon, the walkout of Senate Republicans entered its 15th day. And they just announced that they'll keep on not doing the job they were elected to do all the way to the last day of the current legislative session, June 25. A story in the Oregon Capital Chronicle describes their unreasonable…
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Posted inNational politics

My debt ceiling prediction: catastrophe. (I hope I’m wrong.)

As early as June 1, the federal government will run out of money to pay all of its bills unless the debt ceiling is raised and more money can be borrowed. The United States has never defaulted on its obligations, so many people believe we won't this time. I disagree. I think there's a better chance of our country entering financial meltdown than of the debt ceiling being raised in enough time to avert a major catastrophe.  Usually I want my political predictions to come true. In this case I want to be proven wrong. However, my reading of the…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Progressives should feel good about Salem-Keizer school board election

These days even local elections reverberate with echoes of national controversies. That certainly was the case with yesterday's special district election where three seats on the Salem-Keizer school board were up for grabs.  Two slates of candidates faced off, one progressive and one conservative. The stakes were high, since in 2021 four progressive candidates beat their conservative opponents, putting control of the school board in their hands. There are seven members of the school board, so 4-3 is a majority. This year the three seats occupied by conservatives in 2021 were up for election, though only one was occupied by…
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Posted inOregon politics

Senate Democrats shouldn’t negotiate over GOP walkout

Last Thursday Oregon Senate President Rob Wagner, a Democrat from Lake Oswego, agreed to a request from the minority leader to have the Senate not meet on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday after a nine-day GOP walkout. An Oregon Capital Chronicle story says: The three-day break gives Wagner and Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, a chance to work out differences before any senators rack up 10 unexcused absences. Legislators cannot qualify to run for reelection if they have 10 or more unexcused absences because of a voter-approved constitutional amendment that passed in 2022. ...“It is my hope that this will…
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Posted inDonald Trump

Trump on CNN was horrifying. Also, disqualifying.

I had no plan to watch the Trump town hall on CNN yesterday. But it was still going when I drove home from a Tai Chi class around 6 pm, so I listened to it on satellite radio for about half an hour. It was ugly. Really ugly. Trump lied incessantly. He talked over the moderator, Kaitlan Collins. He called E. Jean Carroll, who had just won a civil lawsuit where Trump was found guilty of sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, a "wack job" and said the trial was "a rigged deal." The New Hampshire audience, mostly Republicans and a…
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Posted inDonald Trump National politics

Justice! Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation

Our legal system served E. Jean Carroll well today. Today a jury took just a few hours to find him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming her. Carroll was awarded $5 million in damages that Trump has to pay. A New York Times story starts off this way. A Manhattan jury on Tuesday found former President Donald J. Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages. More than a dozen women have accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct over the years, but this is the only allegation to be affirmed by…
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Posted inCity Council City of Salem T.J. Sullivan

City of Salem pays $3.5 million for vacant property near riverfront. Why?

Since I don't watch City of Salem Urban Renewal meetings on You Tube (got to save my time for Succession), until today I wasn't aware that the Urban Renewal board, which is the City Council under another name, had approved paying $3.5 million for 1.14 acres of property near the riverfront. The property is marked with a red star. The triangular Park Front building is above it. The South Park apartments are below it. Riverfront Park is to the left of it. As I'll describe below, this seems like a questionable thing to do. In fact, it strikes me as…
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Posted inNational politics

Debt ceiling fight is super scary. Because the GOP is crazy.

June 1 isn't far away. I wish it were a lot farther. Because that's the date when the United States could hit the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is a uniquely American bit of stupidity, along with the electoral college. Denmark is the only other country with a debt ceiling, but Denmark doesn't engage in political games over it as we do. A New York Times story explains this. Almost no other country in the world has a debt ceiling. Elsewhere, politicians argue over how high taxes and spending should be when passing budget laws. Once those laws have passed,…
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Posted inOregon politics

Oregon Senate Republicans walkout. Again. Pathetic.

Well, it didn't take long for Republicans in the Oregon Senate to give an extended middle finger to the 68% of Oregonians who approved Measure 113 last November, which says that any legislator with ten unexcused absences from a legislative session can't run for reelection.  After walking out in 2019 and 2021, once again Senate Republicans are refusing to do their job, as reported by the Oregonian. Oregon Republicans boycotted the state Capitol on Wednesday, testing for the first time a 2022 measure that punishes state lawmakers for walkouts. The boycott comes as Democrats advance an abortion and gender-affirming health…
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Posted inSalem-Keizer school district

Right-wing attack ads target progressive school board candidates

It's sadly predictable. A few weeks before a local election where conservatives face off against progressive candidates, right-wing attack ads sprout like daffodils in the spring -- except the ads are a lot uglier. The May 16 Special District Election is no different.  Last Friday I wrote a post, Sexual assault claim spices up school board candidates forum. After the forum, someone told me that they saw two of the conservative candidates talking with the man who claimed that progressive candidate Cynthia Richardson, a Salem-Keizer schools employee, didn't take seriously a sexual assault that he says happened to his eight-year-old…
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