Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana

CNN Weed 3 medical marijuana special: “signs of revolution everywhere”

Sometimes (well, often) I worry about where the United States is heading. Right-wing crazies, science deniers, government-haters, and religious zealots are doing their best to prevent this country from solving our many pressing problems. But in the midst of this negativity there are some encouraging signs of progress.  Same sex marriage, along with gay rights, is on the verge of being universally accepted. Global warming is starting to be recognized as a major threat by more and more people. Even opponents of the Affordable Care Act are having a tough time denying its benefits. And marijuana is rapidly losing its…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem’s Police Facility Task Force makes progress by going backward

Sometimes going backward is the best way to start moving forward. That's what happened last night at a meeting of the impressively-named City of Salem Blue Ribbon Task Force on the Police Facility. (I'm still waiting to see a Red Ribbon or Yellow Ribbon Task Force; will its members feel inferior?) Here's a photo of conclusions that the task force voted to approve, which will be cleaned up and formalized by the chair, T.J. Sullivan. (1) Look at financing options to tie up piece of land as soon as possible (prior to bond)(2) Immediately obtain an architecture firm (confirm size…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Germanwings crash spurs talk of self-flying planes. I’m on board.

Driving home today, I heard some interesting talk about self-flying planes on both the Michael Smerconish show and CNN. The impetus was the recent crash of Germanwings Flight 9525, which was commandeered and flown into the ground by an apparently suicidal copilot.  Smerconish asked listeners if they'd be OK with flying on a pilotless plane. Meaning, the "pilot" would be a computer endowed with artificial intelligence. I thought to myself, Sure, why not?  This will surely come to pass eventually. It's just a matter of time. Self-driving cars already are being tested. Regular cars are beginning to be equipped with rudimentary…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Ted Wheeler makes good case for Oregon Retirement Savings Plan

I headed off to today's Salem City Club noon meeting thinking, this won't be very interesting. The subject was "Retirement Security (Or Not) for Oregonians: Can We Avoid a Crisis?" Well, I was wrong -- mostly because I'd forgotten how fluently entertaining the speaker, State Treasurer Ted Wheeler, is. Likely he could make a talk on "How Paint Dries" interesting. I've heard Wheeler speak several times before. Whenever I see him, I feel grateful that Oregon has talented guys and gals such as Wheeler in state government. This thought also runs through my head: He'd make a great Governor someday.…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Steiner drops Oregon vaccine mandate bill. Disappointing day for science.

On the whole, I've been happy with how the Democratic leadership in the Oregon legislature have been going about the people's business.  But not today.  Killing the much-needed bill that would eliminate non-medical reasons (philosophical and religious) for not vaccinating children was a stick in the eye both to the health of Oregonians, and to those, like me, who care about using science as a guide to social policy-making. I just sent an email to Elizabeth Steiner-Hayward, after learning from a Statesman Journal story that she has dropped Senate Bill 442.  Download Senator drops Oregon vaccine mandate bill That's a…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Let’s make daylight saving time permanent, in Oregon and everywhere

Some Oregon state legislators want to do away with daylight saving time in this state. Bad idea! We need to make daylight saving time permanent, giving Oregonians an extra hour of light in the evening year-round.  Great arguments for doing so can be found in a Vox post that is aptly named, "It's time to make daylight saving time year-round." Looking at the lobbying groups in favor of DST, however, hints at the real benefit. DST means that people who work a standard day shift (and kids who go to school during the day) get more daylight after work. Manufacturers like…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Another day, another nonsensical Statesman Journal editorial

One of the reasons I keep on subscribing to the Salem Statesman Journal newspaper, a Gannett USA Today clone that is failing our town, is that reading its editorials often gets my heart pumping faster with irritation. I'm not sure if this substitutes for genuine aerobic exercise, but, hey, it might be health-promoting. Even the irritation could be positive, since it leads me to mentally deconstruct the reasons I typically find the editorial page editor's (Dick Hughes) opinion pieces lacking in logic. Not as challenging as doing the New York Times crossword puzzle, but intellectually enjoyable. Case in point: yesterday's…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Why legal marijuana may spur changes in Oregon land use laws

Today I attended a 1000 Friends of Oregon meeting at the capitol about land use issues in the current 2015 session of the state legislature. For me, the most interesting discussion involved Measure 91, the initiative voters approved last November that legalizes recreational marijuana.  As reported in a blog post about an OLCC listening tour meeting in Salem this month, people are talking about Measure 91 leading to legal pot becoming this state's "Napa Valley" when it comes to tourism. (Of course, if California legalizes marijuana soon, as is expected, the real Napa Valley and points north could become their…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Sustainability

Will Oregon’s low carbon fuel bill be horse-traded away?

This morning I went to the monthly meeting of the Woodburn Democrats group, getting both a free breakfast and the ability to take part in some interesting progressive talk.  I'd been asked to say a few words about the Kitzhaber/Hayes scandal that led to our Governor's resignation, then lead a discussion. (Not that I, or hardly anybody else, is capable of leading Dems, well known for their like herding cats proclivity.) Representative Betty Komp started off the meeting with some remarks about how the 2015 Oregon legislative session is going. During the question and comment time, I told her that…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Reaction to Michael Davis’ bizarre Statesman Journal opinion piece

I'll give Michael Davis, executive editor of the Salem Statesman Journal, credit for this: he stimulated a lot of online comment discussion by writing his decidedly weird "Oregon's fatal case of the Pulitzer pox." As I said in the title of yesterday's post concerning Davis' rant about the Portland Oregonian editorializing in favor of Governor Kitzhaber resigning (which the Guv has done), Statesman Journal executive editor has some Oregonian envy. At the moment there are 77 reader comments on this opinion piece. Quite a few praised Davis for taking the Oregonian's editorial board to task in calling for Kitzhaber to…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Statesman Journal executive editor has some Oregonian envy

Got to tell it like it is: The Portland Oregonian kicked the Salem Statesman Journal's butt with both its investigative reporting and editorializing on the Kitzhaber/Hayes scandal -- which has culminated in Governor Kitzhaber's resignation. Today the executive editor of the Statesman Journal, Michael Davis, indulged in some petty journalistic sniping at the "bad girls" who run the state's biggest and meanest newspaper to the north. His Oregon's Fatal Case of the Pulitzer Pox piece struck me as sour grapes rationalizing, given how the Statesman Journal was asleep at the wheel as this saga unfolded, seemingly doing no original investigative…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Using marijuana doesn’t increase the risk of a car accident

Ha! I should be a marijuana researcher for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Over four years ago I blogged, "Marijuana users can drive just fine -- vote yes on Prop 19." I learned many things during my college years (1966-71) at San Jose State University. One was that heavy marijuana users, a.k.a. "stoners," could drive just fine while under the influence. I can personally testify to this. Oh, man, I sure can. ...How do I know? I'm alive. And I never even got into any sort of auto or motorcycle accident while driving around the San Francisco Bay Area in…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

Liberal me ponders Oregon’s Kitzhaber-Hayes “scandal”

Had to put those scare quotes around scandal in the title of this post, because I really don't know how much to make of all the brouhaha swirling around Oregon's Governor and "First Lady" (more quotes -- they're engaged but not married, which adds to the intrigue). My knee-jerk reaction, being a liberal/progressive who is a strong supporter of Kitzhaber, was that the Portland Oregonian's editorial calling for him to resign was a bunch of baloney. As is the outrage being expressed by Republicans in this state, including the guy Kitzhaber beat last November, Dennis Richardson. But it bothers me…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Marijuana Salem

“Marijuana could be Oregon’s Napa Valley”: OLCC Commissioner at Salem meeting

After attending last night's Listening Tour meeting in West Salem of the OLCC (Oregon Liquor Control Commission), which is charged with implementing legal recreational marijuana in this state, I came away with a very strong feeling that, yes indeed, the times really are a'changing when it comes to pot. Several hundred people attended the meeting. I got there fifteen minutes early, and the area set aside for seating was already filled up. Sliding partitions had to be opened up to accommodate the larger-than-expected crowd. There was an interesting mix of folks who had come to express their views about how…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Oregon Guv and Leg, just say no to changing marijuana law

What the hell are Governor Kitzhaber and some Oregon legislators up too -- trying to undermine Measure 91, which legalized recreational marijuana in November 2014, even before it has gone into effect? It's deeply insulting to the 56% of Oregonians who voted "Yes" on Measure 91.  Look, I understand that a minority of people in this state don't want legal pot. But a freaking clear majority do!  There was an intense debate about the merits of Measure 91 for months prior to the election. Publicity certainly wasn't lacking about what it would do.  Tax marijuana at $35 an ounce. Allow…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Must-see: The Health Care Movie. I loved it!

Last night I got to watch The Health Care Movie in a marvelous way. In a living room on a big screen TV. For free. With the filmmakers, Laurie Simons and Terry Sterrenberg -- who now reside right here in Salem, Oregon. Here's the trailer.   After the showing I told Laurie and Terry that their movie about the American and Canadian health care systems was one of the best "cause" documentaries I've ever seen. And I've seen a lot.  The production is highly professional: beautifully edited, creative, humorous in parts. Most importantly, the movie is deeply moving. I spent…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Oregon is fortunate to have a great state court system

At today's Salem City Club meeting, "The State of the Oregon Courts Address," I chose a good table to sit at after walking over from the food table, a vegetarian lunch cradled in my hands. The speaker, Honorable Thomas A. Balmer, Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, was sitting next to me. I thought I recognized him from his talk on the same subject last year. A confirming clue was him saying, "The speaker has to get here early and eat fast, or be hungry during his talk." Balmer and I had a pleasant conversation before the meeting was…
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Posted inCurrent affairs

My brilliant can’t-miss prediction about Obama’s immigration executive order

I love writing blog post titles like this one. I make myself sound so absolutely great!  I spent a few milli-seconds wondering whether I should leave out the "can't-miss" and just go with "brilliant," but then I thought, To hell with it; let's go for the egocentric gusto.  Tomorrow President Obama is going to talk to the nation about his plan that could allow five million undocumented immigrants to stay in this country and get work permits.  This sounds like a great idea to me. After all, the Senate has passed bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform, but the Republican-led House has never…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Salem

Salem, Oregon is more liberal than many people think

Salem is Oregon's capital, the seat of state government. But no one would call it the capital of Oregon's vaunted liberalism/progressivism.  (In the 2014 midterms we were the only state that added to its Democratic majorities in the state House and Senate; we reelected a Democratic governor and U.S. Senator; and we legalized recreational marijuana. Yay, us!) Rather, Salem lies between two cities with much stronger liberal reputations, Portland and Eugene. Salem has just about the same population of Eugene, but nowhere near its blue cool'ness. Portland kicks our butt in this regard to an even greater extent. Which is…
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Posted inCurrent affairs Science Sustainability

Republican denial of global warming makes me hate the GOP

Progressive Democratic me actually is a pretty moderate guy. I was raised by a very conservative mother. I grew up reading Bill Buckley and National Review. I have right-leaning friends. As a long-time Oregonian I fondly recall our state's Governor Tom McCall, along with Senators Mark Hatfield and Bob Packwood -- Republicans. I can forgive today's GOP for taking misguided stands on the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform, and other domestic issues. I can accept their hawkishness on Iran, the Palestinian issue, and other foreign policy matters. But there is one thing that makes me freaking angry when I hear…
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