Top 5 headlines

1 Kotek gives IP-28 statement
2 Fox News: Hunting, fishing ban faces backlash
3 Unions slam Kotek’s economic council
4 Kotek bragged on grad rates. There’s a big problem
5 7,000 Lose Oregon SNAP Benefits

Bonus

$10M to reduce barriers to housing
New Oregon law closes interest rate loophole
LaPine rejects data center development
Hillsboro erupts over data centers

The post Top headlines for the week of 6/5 first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Jason Williams
Oregon250.com
Website dedicated to celebrating America’s 250th anniversary.

Peter Salem, who was born a slave, quickly became a Revolutionary War hero. At twenty-five, his owner sold him to Lawson Buckminster, a major in the Continental Army, who loaned the slave to fight in the war for independence.

At the Battle of Bunker Hill, Salem was identified by witnesses as the soldier who fired the chest shot that killed British Major John Pitcairn. Pitcairn’s death boosted the colonists’ morale, and Salem’s participation was memorialized in John Trumbull’s 1786 painting, The Battle of Bunker’s Hill. After the battle, General George Washington said owners could no longer order their salves to fight, so Buckminster freed Salem to continue fighting as a Black Minuteman alongside Titus Coburn, Salem Poor, and Seymore Burr. He re-enlisted with the Continental Army and fought at the Battle of Lexington and Concord, the New York Campaign, the Battles of Harlem Heights and Trenton. After re-enlisting for three more years, Salem fought in the Battles of Saratoga, Monmouth, and Stony Point.

When the war ended, he moved to Salem, married Katy Bension in September 1783, and built a cabin near  Leicester, Massachusetts. He worked as a cane weaver, gardened, and did furniture repair.   The townspeople in 1887 erected a monument honoring his Revolutionary War service. His cabin has been designated a historical monument since 1909. Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., has a statue of Peter Salem installed for America’s 250th anniversary of independence.

The post Black sharpshooter became 1775 war hero (USA 250) first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

The Foundation of Government Accountability had this chart showing in one state the luxury vehicles owned by food stamp recipients.

The post Chart: Luxury cars owned by food stamp users first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation,

The City of Sherwood has just installed new speed cameras in this small town.

Within its first week the speed cam captured 1,040 violators.

Those 1,040 represent 5% of the town’s population.  Although surely many out-of-town drivers made up that sample.

The post Speed-cam nabs 5% of town in 1 week first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

The Problem: Portland has too few police officers for a city our size. The same number of officers as the early 1990s, with 175,000 more people.

The Solution: Initiative petition (#1PDX2026) lets voters change Portland for the better.
      Ÿ
More Safety: Establish a city policy of 2.0 officers per 1000 residents – about 400 additional officers.
Ÿ
Not More Taxes: Funded by dedicating 25% of the existing surcharge on corporate retailers (Clean Energy Surcharge fund). The tax was projected to raise $50 million a year – it now raises $200 million a year.  That’s a $150 million tax surplus. By using existing tax surplus funds there’s no need to raise taxes.

The Benefits:

• Faster 911 responses
• Restore neighborhood policing
• Advance public safety reforms
• Reduce crime and disorder

Ÿ  Deadline to return petitions by mail is June 23rd, but we need people to return them immediately so we have enough time to process them and fix errors.

Ÿ  Only Portland voters can sign.

The Taxpayers Association is sending out 10-line petitions of the Fully Fund Portland Police to Portland voters.

If you want one to sign or share with Portland voters you know, please email our office at the email address below, and provide your name and address where we can mail you a copy (with return envelope).

The post Portland petition fully funds police! (Goodbye crime wave) first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

I recently finished reading Barbara Tuchman’s classic history of the First World War, The Guns of August. It contains a passage that reminds me of the state of European military readiness in our day. Regarding Belgium in 1914:

Socialism was the raging issue. Public apathy to what was happening abroad and a Parliament obsessed by economy allowed the army to deteriorate to a condition resembling the Turkish. Troops were ill-disciplined, slack, untidy, avoided saluting, slouched in the ranks, and refused to keep step. The officers’ corps was little better. Because the army was considered superfluous and slightly absurd, it did not attract the best minds or young men of ability and ambition.

Sounds like Europe today, they would like to organize their own defense of Ukraine and deter Russian aggression. If only Brussels had some martial prowess to throw around.

They don’t. Europe, and Brussels, the capital of Belgium, is now the capital of Europe, where both NATO and the European Union are headquartered. Freeriding on American power since 1945, they just don’t have a fighting spirit.

Eric Shierman lives in Salem and is the author of We were winning when I was there.

The post Battlefield Prowess of Brussels from 1914 to Today first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Guest Submission meme,

More memes below:

The post (6 memes) Truth in signs first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

Drazan: Denying Parole for Convicted Child Killer Is the Right Outcome, But Oregon Law Must Change
By Oregon State Senator Christine Drazan,

SALEM, Ore. – Following the parole board decision denying parole to convicted child rapist and murderer Dustin Wallace, Senator Christine Drazan (R-Canby) released the following statement.

Wallace was convicted for the 2010 rape and murder of 5-year-old Sahara Dwight in Roseburg and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Drazan attended Wednesday’s hearing in Salem, where the parole board denied his release.

“Today’s decision is a victory for Sahara’s family, but they should never have been forced to relive this nightmare in the first place. This hearing was the direct result of Kate Brown’s reckless decision to put dangerous criminals on a path to early release. As Governor, I will do everything in my power to keep dangerous offenders behind bars, stand unapologetically with victims and protect community safety.”

In 2021, former Governor Kate Brown commuted the sentences of dozens of convicted murderers and other violent offenders, making them eligible for parole hearings under Senate Bill 1008. Wallace’s case is one of those cases.

A copy of Senator Drazan’s testimony submitted on May 22nd to the parole board can be found here.

The post Sen. Drazan: Right choice in denying parole for child killer first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

This year, Governor Kotek and liberal lawmakers voted to disconnect Oregon from three of Trump’s big tax cuts from last year.   This included not applying business depreciation savings and car loan deductions from the newly enacted federal tax to Oregon tax law.  Because of this, many small businesses will be paying collectively $300 million in higher taxes at a time when Oregon is seeing a huge businesses drop.

The tax referendum petition was launched by State Representative Ed Diehl and immediately faced Governor Kotek’s delay (in signing the bill) which limited the amount of time to gather some 80,000 signatures.

There are still other petition efforts in play with a looming July deadline:

— Abolish the death tax petition
— Voter approval for tolls petition
— Stop excessive paddle-board float fees

The post Referendum petition to stop $300M business tax fails first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By Lars Larson
NW and national radio host,

The Northwest Nonsense

Anyone with more than a room-temperature IQ understands that the so-called leadership at Oregon’s failing ODOT deserves termination from the job.

Instead, Kotek plans to install ANOTHER failed leader to head the agency infamous for failed projects like the interstate bridge, or “triple the original price” debacles like the

Abernathy bridge…and failing roads all over the state.

So, who takes over at ODOT after the Kotek re-shuffle?

The Governor’s chief of staff, Chris Warner, spent almost 5 years at the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

It might sound like good background until you consider Portland’s road mess.

Warner oversaw an agency that let its backlog of bad roads snowball.

6 billion dollars in deferred maintenance…that grows at two-thirds of a billion dollars a year. 64 percent of city streets are rated in poor or very poor condition.

So, Governor Kotek tells us that a guy who has bounced around from one government job to another for decades will fix ODOT?

An agency that gets more than 6 billion budget dollars every two years. ODOT hasn’t built a new freeway in decades. Every project goes gigantically over budget and never finishes on time.

If you like the smell of all that, vote for Tina Kotek’s re-election.

Otherwise, choose Christine drazan for a change.

That’s the Rose City Rap. Join me at noon on KXL for 4 hours of Honestly provocative talk. I’m Lars Larson

The post Lars Larson: Kotek ODOT pick = disaster first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.

By NW Spotlight,

Independent journalist and homeless advocate Kevin Dahlgren shows a video of a homeless man who said he was given free ride in Portlanbd.  View the post below, then follow Dahlgren and financially support him.

A homeless man from another state admits he was given him one-way bus ticket to Portland, Oregon pic.twitter.com/cN3ztUuzYK

— Kevin Dahlgren (@kevinvdahlgren) June 3, 2026

The post Another homeless admits he was given free ticket to Oregon first appeared on Oregon Catalyst.