From the sometimes sober Oregonian editorial board:
Too often, the argument over property rights takes place in a vacuum, as if governments could afford to extend roads and sewers, willy-nilly, to meet growth wherever it happens. Taxpayers can’t afford it.
Reality check for the pro-sprawler/anti-tax types…

Do you own a car that can run on the clean burning biofuel Ethanol? Maybe you’ve got a 2003 Dodge Cargo Minivan? Or a Mercedes C240? Maybe you drive a honkin’ Chevy Tahoe that you bought brand new in the last three years. If so, you drive what is known as [...]

On Friday former Guv John Kitzhaber will announce his political plans for this year. Whatever he decides, he has definitely reentered the Oregon political world, and it looks as if he’s going to stick around for now, governor or not. Some say he’s had his day in the sun. But then again [...]

Sunday’s Oregonian had a front page interview with former Governor John Kitzhaber (audio included in link) regarding his vision for a new approach to health care in the state of Oregon and the nation. As a member of the small business community in Oregon, I was intrigued by what I read because Kitzhaber is [...]

…at least he did until yesterday when uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges. Today Senator Gordon Smith is scrambling to get rid of his Abramoff money faster than you can say “Golf trips to Scotland.”
The whole Abramoff scandal saw its first disinfecting sunlight in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee where [...]

If you’ve been reading the opinion pages of the Oregonian lately you probably have noticed the back and forth going on between the O, Republican House Speaker Karen Minnis and Dem reps Jackie Dingfelder and Mike Shaufler on the failed biofuels bill (HB3481) from the ‘05 session.
On Dec. 26 the O wrote an editorial critical [...]

Which Oregon legislators in the 2005 session supported equality and liberty for Oregonians? Which ones opposed or even promoted limiting civil liberties for the people of this state? The ACLU of Oregon has published its legislative scorecard for the 2005 session and there aren’t too many surprises: House Speaker Karen Minnis and [...]

Did you know that in Oregon you can donate $50 as an individual, $100 married/filing jointly, to a political candidate or organization and claim it as a tax credit, not to be confused with a tax deduction? As a credit, it’s a use it or lose it situation: either the $50 gets collected by [...]

I can already imagine the praise the Oregonian will heap on Senator Gordon Smith for voting against the budget bill today. They’ll write about how he stood up for the working poor, the elderly and young students struggling to make it through college on their government student loans. Yup, the editors at the [...]

December’s SUSA ratings just came out on Governor Kulongoski and the trends aren’t good for him, especially amongst those who identified themselves as “liberal” in the survey. Last month he was at an overall 44% approval rating. He’s down one percent to 43% this month, which is insignificant when taking into account the [...]