Tag: oregon

Oregon Considers Mandatory Lessons About Climate Change in Public Schools

Lawmakers in the state of Oregon are considering legislation which would mandate the teaching of climate change in public schools.

The only other state that is already doing this is the solidly blue state of Connecticut in liberal New England.

Public schools across the country are struggling with students who can barely read or do basic math but advancing the left’s political agenda on claimte change is being given special attention in blue Oregon.

FOX News reports:

Oregon eyes mandate for climate change lessons in schools

Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education.

Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply. Some teachers and parents say teaching climate change could help the next generation better confront it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores plummeted post-pandemic.

Schools across the U.S. have found themselves at the center of a politically charged battle over curriculum and how matters such as gender, sex education and race should be taught — or whether they should be taught at all.

One of the bill’s chief sponsors, Democratic Sen. James Manning, said even elementary students have told him climate change is important to them.

“We’re talking about third and fourth graders having a vision to understand how this world is changing rapidly,” he said at a Thursday state Capitol hearing in Salem.

Connecticut has the only U.S. state law requiring climate change instruction, and it’s possibly the first time such a bill has been introduced in Oregon, according to legislative researchers. Lawmakers in California and New York are considering similar bills.

Manning’s bill requires every Oregon school district to develop climate change curriculum within three years, addressing ecological, societal, cultural, political and mental health aspects of climate change.

This is a recipe for disaster.

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Oregon alcohol regulators may have snatched up rare liquors for personal consumption

The state of Oregon is investigating allegations that multiple members of its powerful alcohol regulatory agency may have abused their authority to secure rare liquors for their own use.

State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in a press release on Friday that the Oregon Department of Justice “is opening a criminal investigation into the matter involving ethics violations related to the purchase of liquor by some staff of the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission  and possibly others.”

A state investigation published by the Oregonian this week indicated that multiple members of the OLCC leveraged their position at the regulatory agency to secure liquors as part of preferential treatment.

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Oregon Democrat Proposes Increasing Congressional ‘Diversity’ by Adding Seats

Within weeks of allegations that his wife engaged in insider trading when she acquired $15,000 worth of Amgen stock, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation to expand the number of Congressmen and women in D.C.

The Restoring Equal and Accountable Legislators in the House (REAL House) Act aims to increase the number of representatives and increase their “diversity,” as well as the diversity of the Electoral College because Blumenauer thinks that congressional districts are too large.

“The number of constituents living in a single congressional district has dramatically increased since the number of House members was arbitrarily capped in 1929,” Blumenauer said. “Current district sizes threaten the direct constituent connection on which the House was founded.”

Currently, there are 435 voting members of the House of Representatives, a cap from when the U.S. population was only 122 million people.

“The REAL House Act will help our government better reflect our districts and constituents’ needs,” Blumenauer said in a statement online. “To restore the House’s direct link to the public and to foster greater diversity among members and the Electoral College, we must increase the number of representatives.”

The proposal did not outline how much it would cost to increase the size of the U.S. government by his suggested 149 seats.

Since 1929, Blumenauer argues the U.S. population has more than doubled to 328 million people and, as a result, the size of congressional districts has nearly tripled while the number of representatives has remained stagnant.

“The average congressional district now includes 800,000 constituents. If Congress fails to act, by 2050, each member of Congress is on track to represent more than one million people,” he said.

In December 2022, the Democratic National Committee approved a move to remove Iowa as the first state on the party’s presidential nominating calendar—as has been tradition since 1972.

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Oregon Eyes 2023 Crackdown On Illegal Marijuana Growers

Oregon lawmakers are looking to crack down on illegal marijuana growers who aren’t abiding by the state’s 2014 laws governing recreational use and cultivation.

Year-to-date, approximately 95 metric tons of illegally grown marijuana have been seized across the state, according to the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area task force. In 2019, they seized just 8 metric tons.

The 2014 legislation was supposed to eliminate problems caused by “uncontrolled manufacture” of the drug, however growers haven’t all magically agreed to the taxes and red tape that accompanied the legalization. Now, officials who have heard complaints from everyone from legal growers to the police are looking to crack down, AP reports.

Now, a draft bill set for introduction in the 2023 legislative session would double the maximum fine and prison sentence for illegal grows to 10 years and $250,000 for those growing more than 100 plants, or possession in excess of 32 times the legal limits.

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Oregon Corrects False Information On Child COVID-19 Hospitalization Rates

A report promoted by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) has been corrected after falsely claiming nearly 50 percent of children aged 12 to 17 who contracted COVID-19 required hospital treatment.

The Rede Group, which created the report for the authority, acknowledged the misinformation in a memorandum obtained by The Epoch Times.

“There was an issue with the numerator for hospitalizations in Figure 40 on page 180. When we calculated the percent hospitalized for each age group, we mistakenly thought the weekly hospitalization data from OHA were unique; they are not,” Danna Drum with the Rede Group told OHA in the memo. “We should have noticed this earlier and apologize for the error. Figure 40 has been corrected in version 1.1 of the report using data provided directly from OHA.”

“Thank you for your attention to the matter and we apologize again for this error,” Drum added.

The old version of the report claimed that 47.4 percent of children aged 12 to 17 who contracted COVID-19 required hospital care.

According to OHA data, that percentage is actually at or below 1 percent.

The report also claimed that the hospitalization rates for all age groups were at or above 30 percent and portrayed the child hospitalization rates as higher than those of the elderly.

The new version of the report (pdf) presents significantly lower rates.

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Oregon Gov. Kate Brown Pardons Everyone Convicted Of Simple Marijuana Possession

Democratic Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a pardon Monday for those in her state who have been charged with simple possession of marijuana.

“No one deserves to be forever saddled with the impacts of a conviction for simple possession of marijuana — a crime that is no longer on the books in Oregon,” Brown announced in a press release. “Oregonians should never face housing insecurity, employment barriers, and educational obstacles as a result of doing something that is now completely legal, and has been for years. My pardon will remove these hardships.” The move will eliminate over 47,000 convictions from criminal records impacting about 45,000 people.

Calling the criminal justice system in Oregon “flawed, inequitable, and outdated,” Brown further added that “Black and Latina/o/x people have been arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”

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Oregon Teacher Posted List of Pejoratives About Whites; School Super Backs Teacher

Doing the job that leftist mainstream media reporters won’t do, Libs of TikTok has exposed yet another public-school scandal about which nothing will be done.

A teacher at a high school in Scappoose, Oregon, treated her white students to a litany of insults that called them “predator,” “privileged,” “school shooter,” and, of course, “racist.”

When parents objected to the “lesson,” the school superintendent said (without saying it, of course) that he supported the attack, and that nothing would be done.

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Oregon child starring in controversial drag queen event had been mentored by an accused child sex offender

Controversy has erupted after a pub in Eugene, Ore. announced it is hosting a drag queen event featuring an 11-year-old child. An investigation by The Post Millennial has revealed that one of the child’s “drag moms” was recently charged with child sex abuse offenses.

“Are you excited for drag queen story time brunch this Sunday morning?” Old Nick’s Pub asked in a Facebook announcement. “Vanellope is here to show you what a 11 year old drag queen can do.” The post featured several photos of “Vanellope Craving MacPherson DuPont,” the stage name of the child, including one where she is touching her chest and her mouth is open. The Post Millennial is not publishing the real name of the child.

Old Nick’s Pub is known locally in the university town for being a leftist bar, and it frequently hosts drag shows as well as sexual fetish events. Vanellope has performed at different events around the state of Oregon, sometimes with grown male performers in risqué outfits, since at least 2018. The girl has CashApp and Venmo accounts, where adults often send her cash tips. Photographs on her Facebook page also show her being showered on stage with dollar bills.  

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Portland Antifa riot arrestee charged in child sex sting

A Portland, Ore. far-left activist who was repeatedly charged with felonies during the summer of Antifa riots in 2020 has been arrested last Friday in a child sex sting.

Aubrey Ryan Quinn-Ward, 25, was arrested on Sept. 2 in neighboring Washington County by deputies following an investigation into online pedophiles. Law enforcement posed as children on social media platforms in a child predator sting that also resulted in the arrests of four other men in the Portland area. Quinn-Ward allegedly traveled to meet a child for sex but was instead arrested by law enforcement.

Quinn-Ward has been charged with luring a minor and first-degree online sexual corruption of a child — both felonies. He was quickly released without bail the following day. He has pleaded not guilty to both charges.

His quick release from jail following felony charges mirrors his multiple arrests in 2020 at the height of the nightly Black Lives Matter-Antifa riots in Portland after George Floyd died.

On July 17, 2020, the 50th straight night of rioting, Quinn-Ward was among those arrested after rioters blocked exits and tried to set a federal courthouse and the Justice Center on fire. At the time, he was charged with felony rioting, escaping from police, resisting arrest, interfering with officers and disorderly conduct. His $36,500 bail was waived and he was quickly released. His case was dropped altogether by the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office shortly later.

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Oregon Health Officials Delayed a Meeting Because ‘Urgency Is a White Supremacy Value’

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) is a government agency that coordinates medical care and social well-being in the Beaver State. During the pandemic, OHA was responsible for coordinating Oregon’s vaccination drive and disseminating information about COVID-19—both vital tasks.

The agency’s office for equity and inclusion, however, prefers not to rush the business of government. In fact, the office’s program manager delayed a meeting with partner organizations on the stated grounds that “urgency is a white supremacy value.”

In an email obtained by Reason, Regional Health Equity Coalition Program Manager Danielle Droppers informed the community that a scheduled conversation between OHA officials and relevant members of the public would not take place as planned.

“Thank you for your interest in attending the community conversation between Regional Health Equity Coalitions (RHECs) and Community Advisory Councils (CACs) to discuss the Community Investment Collaboratives (CICs),” wrote Droppers. “We recognize that urgency is a white supremacy value that can get in the way of more intentional and thoughtful work, and we want to attend to this dynamic. Therefore, we will reach out at a later date to reschedule.”

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