Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Basic facts about Oregon’s early sales of recreational marijuana

Today I got an email message from a friend who'd been contacted by someone who thought I had my facts wrong about early sales of recreational marijuana in Salem, and Oregon as a whole. That "someone" (I don't know who it was) wrote to my friend: I think he got the dates wrong for the early sales of pot.  Legal sales from rec dispensaries can begin on Jan 4 2016 if i am not mistaken... meaning that early sales (from medical dispensaries) would go from Oct 1 to Jan 4.  Brian would have you believe from his blog, that the City Council's action would ban…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Are Salem City Council votes predetermined prior to meetings?

It's an open question, the title of this blog post. But this is something people have been talking about for a long time here in Salem, Oregon, because it sure seems like important policy decisions often are voted on with very little discussion or debate between councilors at City Council meetings.Today I emailed the message below to Kacey Duncan, the Acting City Manager, and other city officials. After last Monday's city council meeting, I figured it was time to ask some pertinent questions that revolve around whether the City of Salem is complying with Oregon's public meeting law. The way…
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Posted inSalem

“Trust us” says Salem’s right-wing City Council. “Why?” ask citizens.

As the saying goes, there can be a universe in a grain of sand. Likewise, those attending last night's Salem City Council meeting got insights into how things at City Hall are generally going. In short: not well. Not for those of us concerned about government transparency, trust, and citizen participation. The three go together. Transparency. Trust. Citizen participation. For example, when people feel like the Mayor, city councilors, and other officials are being open and honest with them, trust is fostered. When people trust that what they say will be listened to, and can make a difference, they're more…
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Posted inSalem

The Salem City Council accuses me of misinformation — I call them out on this

It's late. I'm tired. But I have to defend myself against the untrue accusations Salem city councilor Brad Nanke, and other officials, made about me tonight. Not long ago I got back from a fascinating Salem City Council meeting. (Check out the KGW-TV story about this that was on the 5 pm news. I was interviewed, but, sob, I was identified as "Dan Atchison, City Attorney." As was the real Dan Atchison, who also was interviewed. My reputation is now ruined! I considered suing KGW, but I think that instead I'll ask them for an ounce of free weed. The…
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Posted inSalem

Salem has a new City Manager — Steve Powers

It looks like Salem, Oregon has a new City Manager, Steve Powers. He's currently the City Administrator of Ann Arbor, Michigan.  So reports MLive (whatever that is) in "Ann Arbor city administrator accepts new job in Oregon." City Administrator Steve Powers is planning to leave the city of Ann Arbor to pursue a new career opportunity in Oregon. Powers, who has been Ann Arbor's top administrator since 2011, informed the City Council of his decision via email late Sunday afternoon. He has been offered the city manager position in Salem, Oregon, and he has accepted pending the Salem City Council approving…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana Salem

Salem City Council might ban marijuana sales — secretly

News flash: without any warning to Salem's citizens, the City Council might move to ban recreational marijuana sales at its Monday (August 31) meeting.  Here's a PDF version of this flyer; feel free to share far and wide Download Hey Salem PDF I find this outrageous, like so much the Mayor and right-wing council majority is doing these days. My outrage is as much about the disturbing lack of public notice and transparency going on here, as the absurd notion that recreational marijuana sales should be banned in a city whose citizens approved Measure 91 by 53% to 47% in…
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Posted inBicycling Salem

What I like most about cycling at a Portland Sunday Parkways event

Yesterday I took part in my second Portland Sunday Parkways bike ride. After my first experience, I wrote "What Salem Sunday Streets can learn from Portland Sunday Parkways."  Now that I've been to two Portland Sunday Parkways, I've got a better understanding of what I like about these open streets events, where 7-8 miles of streets in various parts of Portland are completely closed off to moving vehicles. People cycle, scoot, skateboard, walk, or whatever along the route, which leads to several public parks where booths and activities abound. After driving up from Salem, my Bike Friday folding bike ("Silkie,"…
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Posted inSalem

Cycling in Salem got good news, but we’re a long ways from being pedal-friendly

Way to go, Salem Bike Boulevard Advocates! Without you pushing for Family Friendly Bikeways in this town, of which we currently have exactly none, there wouldn't have been this good news that you shared today on your Facebook page. We have great news to share with you this morning. The City of Salem has been awarded an ODOT TGM grant to begin the planning stages of the Winter-Maple Family Friendly Bikeway! What does this mean? It means that Salem will receive $110,000 from ODOT along with a $30,000 match from the City to plan a safe and convenient route.  TGM…
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Posted inSalem

A Salemian’s joys and sorrows of seeing a show in Portland

Last night my wife and I journeyed up I-5 from Salem to Portland to see the musical Wicked. We loved the show. But that's not what I want to talk about.  Rather, I was struck by how different an experience it was to see a top-notch musical in Portland, Wicked, compared to our seeing the Enlightened Theatrics performance of Hair in Salem a few weeks previous -- which also seemed to be Broadway-quality.  I came away feeling that there is a lot to like -- a LOT -- about what Salem, typically viewed as Portland's much less cool sister city…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

History shows it’s possible for Trump or Sanders to become president

Don't get too excited by the title of this blog post, fans of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. I'm not capable of arguing how it is that these guys could buck the odds and become President of the United States. (As we'll see, nobody is.) Rather, I want to share some passages from a chapter, "The Secret of Success," in historian Yuval Noah Harari's fascinating book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind, that remind us how unwise it is to think that anything is impossible in this wild and wacky chaotic world of ours. I read the chapter this morning.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Religion

Religious views have no place in fetal tissue debate

I don't believe in God. But I sure do believe in keeping God out of all social policy discussions, including the recent debates over fetal tissue research. And not only God -- all supernatural notions based on unsupported faith, no matter how sincerely held they may be.  Over on my Church of the Churchless blog I've been arguing that religion has no place in politics and policy-making since 2004. That year I wrote "Religious values have no place in politics."  Consider abortion, stem-cell research, and gay marriage—three issues that are commonly considered to comprise the core of “values-based” voting in…
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Posted inRecreation Salem

My brush with death from a feral chicken attack at Minto Brown Park

Life feels sweet after narrowly escaping three dangerous genetic relatives of Tyrannosaurus rex, a.k.a. "chickens" in modern parlance, at Salem's Minto Brown Island Park today. I'll share some photos of the attack, but these only reflect the objective state of the photons that made it into my iPhone's camera lens. My intuitive life-loving emotional mind saw these vicious animals differently. As miniature Velociraptors. After all, I had no idea if they'd gone completely feral, returning to the primitive instincts of their dinosaur ancestry.  In case other people who use the rural'ish Minto Brown trails come across these monsters, I'll describe the birds'…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

Rural Oregon bans marijuana shops, then wonders why its economy sucks

Oregon has a well-deserved national reputation for being progressive/liberal. But everybody who lives here knows that this only reflects the vibe in western Oregon, the eastern part of the state (except Bend) being way behind the times. Thus even though arch-conservative Glenn Beck recently named Portland the worst city in America -- which means it actually is one of the best -- he could go to most places in rural Oregon and feel right at home. Case in point: Oregonians legalized recreational marijuana last November by a comfortable margin, passing Measure 91 56% to 44%. But in its wisdom (ironically…
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Posted inHealth Marijuana

Medical marijuana and opioids in Oregon: a tangled web of confusion

Yesterday the Bend Bulletin's magazine insert, "High Desert Pulse," included a fascinating cover story: When pot means no prescription for pain -- Doctor/patient divide over marijuana. Download When pot means no prescription for pain; Doctor:patient divide over marijuana PDF Countless patients suffering from debilitating conditions such as MS, arthritis and post-traumatic stress disorder have made extraordinary claims about how using marijuana reversed the course of their medical conditions and turned their lives around for the better. Many report marijuana relieves physical pain better than powerful prescription opiates and even allowed them to stop taking the medications.  But the medical research…
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Posted inSalem

Sadly, the vision of Salem’s Sustainable Fairview has been much diluted

Back in January 2003 I wrote my first blog post about Sustainable Fairview, 275 acres in Salem, Oregon that previously was the site of the Fairview Training Center -- a facility for people with developmental disabilities. In that post I included a document that summarized the vision for Sustainable Fairview. Here's an excerpt: Download Fairview summary For almost 100 years Fairview functioned as a self-sustaining community, as the State of Oregon's primary facility for developmentally disabled children. It provided housing and services and produced its own food and energy. Including the careful restoration of historic buildings and the integration of…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Humor

“We Need Brain” — GOP prez debate songified in 4 minutes

Damn. If I'd known this highly creative songified summary of the first GOP presidential debate was coming, I could have saved two-plus hours of valuable remaining-life time and just watched a four minute video.   A New York Times piece provides background on the video. I read: The Gregory Brothers are a music video production group made up of Andrew, Michael, Evan and Sarah Gregory. How they put the video together so fast is mind-boggling.  On a related note, I loved this post-debate Trumpanalysis by Ezra Klein. Trump is growing on me, in a decidedly weird way. His saying that he'd…
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Posted inEntertainment Salem

Enlightened Theatrics’ Hair production made me feel “the 60’s are still real”

I've never enjoyed live theatre more than Enlightened Theatrics' production of Hair my wife and I saw last night at Salem's Grand Theatre.  And that isn't the cannabis talking. Well, let's make that it isn't just the cannabis talking. Hey, it seemed oh-so-appropriate to celebrate a paean to 60's hippiedom with some of Oregon's newly-legal recreational marijuana. Which, in a non-roundabout way, brings me to the Numero Uno reason I felt so good during and after this marvelous production of Hair: The talented directors and performers made me realize The '60s are still real.  Meaning, it isn't only that the…
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Posted inEntertainment

Tell DirecTV, “2015 is the year to carry the Pac-12 Networks!”

With August having rolled around, it's time for me to start getting irritated again at DirecTV for not having reached a deal to carry the Pac-12 Networks.  (This is my 2014 rant, which includes links to my previous rants.) There's more hope this year than in the past. The president of the Pac-12 Networks said that he is hopeful a deal can be worked out with DirecTV, now that it has been bought by AT&T. And a statement on the Pac-12 Networks web site raised my football spirits a bit: We know that DirecTV subscribers have been frustrated not having…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Clinton-Warren 2016! (and my other brilliant political ideas)

I'm a political junkie. I like talking politics because, unlike science, it is one of those fields where I can honestly say to myself, "Brian, your ideas are so freaking right-on, it's unbelievable!"  Of course, everybody else in the political arena feels the same way. That's the nature of political discourse: everybody can be correct, because it's pretty much all about feeling, not facts.  So this is some of what I'm feeling at the moment, from my obviously correct personal progressive point of view. (1) Don't do it, Joe Biden. Yikes. The idea of you running for president fills me…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Planned Parenthood fetal tissue controversy is pure B.S.

Planned Parenthood is a great organization. Thankfully, a ridiculous attempt to defund it failed in the Senate today.  Senate Republicans’ latest ploy to choke off all federal funding to Planned Parenthood failed, as expected, on Monday afternoon in a 53-46 procedural vote. The measure fell short of the 60 votes needed to move it forward. It shouldn’t have been anywhere near that close. But the perennial conservative effort to cripple the nation’s largest family-planning organization got a boost last month from a string of grainy, edited undercover videos released by an anti-abortion group, and purporting to show Planned Parenthood officials discussing the illegal sale of…
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