At the first—and likely only—public hearing on Metro’s “supportive housing” tax measure, one resident asked a question on everyone’s mind: “Our money isn’t being spent the way it should be now, so what assurances do we have that this will be any different?” The question highlights the fact that trust in local government is at […]
Rarely has Oregon’s lack of political leadership been as painfully obvious as it is now on the topic of grid reliability. Most of us take for granted the miracle of electricity. We flip a switch and the lights come on. Computers, air conditioners, smartphones—all powered by the magic of the grid. We don’t care how […]
LISTEN TO THE PODCAST “In the midst of chaos, there is also opportunity.” – Sun-Tzu The coronavirus – or SARS-CoV-2 – is indeed real and it is causing deaths around the world. But while the stock markets are reacting in typical kneejerk fashion, we would be wise to truly understand the threat posed by the […]
In the course of a recent internet chat about Donald Trump, someone raised an interesting question. What single attribute of our president best encourages those of us who support him while most infuriating those who hate him? Several suggestions were offered, but the one that most impressed me was elegantly simple. The writer identified in […]
The city of Philadelphia kicked Catholic Social Services out of its foster care program because it insisted on placing children in optimal nurturing environments. Both Scripture and sociological research indicate that the best possible environment for a child is in a home with a mom and a dad who are married to each other. Homosexual […]
You may not be able to tax carbon out of existence, but you can tax agriculture out of business. That’s the refrain of Timber Unity, the coalition which sees the resurrection of last year’s cap-and-trade bill as a threat to businesses which have called Oregon “home” for decades. One woman at the Timber Unity protest […]
UN and EU government agencies – and tax-exempt NGOs – have brought a plague of locusts Billions of desert locusts have descended again on East Africa. Crawling first, then sprouting wings and flying in hungry hoards of 40-150 million or more, they are devastating crops and threatening tens of millions of people with lost livelihoods […]
On Monday, the Oregon Senate was scheduled to convene at 11 a.m. to conduct business in the short legislative session. Of the twelve Republican senators, eleven failed to attend, denying quorum and grinding the business of the Senate to a halt. Senate Minority Leader Herman Baertschiger (R-Grants Pass) blasted the President of the Senate for […]
The rising disdain for free market capitalism has inundated public discourse with erroneous beliefs that have consistently found their way into my messages on social media; statements that parrot those of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren such as, “poverty exists because of capitalism and greed.” Creating this false relationship of the rich and the poor […]
After eight years of bragging that the proposed light rail line to Tigard would result in average daily ridership of 43,000, TriMet has quietly dropped the estimate to 37,500. This “bait-and-switch” was totally predictable. At the start of every rail planning process, TriMet creates a high ridership estimate to get local politicians excited. Once the […]