During the past 18 months, parents have taken a hard look at their children’s schools and considered whether or not their students’ educational needs were being met. This experience has led many families to make different education choices this year besides their assigned district public schools. Traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, online […]
During the past 18 months, parents have taken a hard look at their children’s schools and considered whether or not their students’ educational needs were being met. This experience has led many families to make different education choices this year besides their assigned district public schools. Traditional public schools, public charter schools, magnet schools, online […]
Last week, I attended my first out-of-state conference in nearly two years. This week, Portland City Council is considering an emergency ordinance banning the city and its employees from doing business with the State of Texas. The ordinance is in response to a new Texas law effectively banning abortion in the state. What do these […]
In this summer’s Olympic Games, Oregon natives Kim Hill and Ryan Crouser showed up, pushed themselves, and earned gold medals. Those medals have meaning—to them, to their team, and to their country. You don’t get that kind of meaning with a participation trophy. It’s too bad the state’s governor and legislature seem to disagree. On […]
Politicians have a lot in common with magicians. Both rely on misdirection to ensure that you don’t see how the trick is performed. One magic show receiving a lot of attention right now is HB 2021, passed by the state legislature in June. HB 2021 outlaws the use of fossil fuels for new electricity power […]
Oregonians are struggling to pay their utility bills. So then why are Kate Brown and the Public Utility Commission allowing their rates to go up? Residential arrearages for all energy utilities in Oregon have increased throughout the pandemic. To be in arrears means a customer’s bill is 31 or more days past due. Total residential […]
A proposed ordinance aims to deprioritize some homeless camps considered “low impact” This week, Portland City Council will consider new rules for homeless camp clean-ups. If approved, the city will “deprioritize” camps considered “low impact.” But, what makes a camp low impact? The city says a camp is low impact if it’s 150 feet away […]
Light rail has problems with reliability despite massive government funding. The U.S. Postal Service boasts that “neither snow nor rain nor heat” can keep mail carriers from swiftly completing their rounds; TriMet’s MAX Light Rail service can make no such claim. Last week, the heatwave brought temperatures well into the 100s, causing MAX services to […]
On Saturday, police responded to a call that a man was in the middle of I-84, swinging a pipe at cars. As police approached, the man jumped the freeway barrier onto the MAX tracks, where he got creamed by a train and was pronounced dead at the scene. But there’s more. Just two hours earlier, […]
By adopting a near-zero assumed rate of return, PERS can become solvent in the next decade No one wants to talk about the biggest problem facing Oregon. It’s not the pandemic. It’s not homelessness. It’s not racial justice. The biggest crisis facing Oregon is its public employee retirement system, or PERS. No one wants to […]