Tag: oregon

Oregon DMV admits to illegally registering hundreds of non-citizens since 2021 via motor voter program

More than 300 non-citizens were mistakenly registered to vote in Oregon over the past three years due to errors by the state’s Driver and Motor Vehicles (DMV) services. The issue arose after Oregon passed a bill allowing individuals to obtain driver’s licenses without needing to prove US citizenship. Oregon’s elections are conducted via mail-in ballots.

According to Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, the error occurred when DMV staff mistakenly selected “US passport” or “US birth certificate” instead of foreign equivalents while entering documentation data for individuals applying for driver’s licenses. This error led to non-citizens being added to the voter registration system.

Griffin-Valade noted that of the more than 300 improperly registered individuals, only two are believed to have actually cast ballots. It remains unclear whether those individuals were citizens at the time of voting. Once the error was identified on Thursday, the affected individuals were notified by mail that they would not receive ballots unless they are eligible voters, according to a report by KGW8.

“Safeguarding the integrity of our elections is my top priority,” said Griffin-Valade. “When my office was made aware of this error, we moved quickly to update the voter rolls. I am also personally calling on the DMV to take immediate action to improve its processes to ensure this doesn’t happen again.”

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek reassured the public that the error “will not impact the 2024 election in any way,” and added that the DMV was taking “urgent corrective action” to prevent similar mistakes in the future.

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No, Oregonians Are NOT Being ‘Hit Hard’ By Climate Change

A recent article posted by Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), titled “Climate change will keep hitting Oregonians hard, but the exact impact will depend on where you live,” claims that Oregon will be impacted severely on multiple fronts by climate change. Areas of concern include increased wildfires, sea level rise, and water shortages, among others. [emphasis, links added]

This is mostly false, as many of the problems listed are not worsening, and those that are have nothing to do with climate change.

OPB writes that different regions of Oregon will face different effects from climate change, which is reasonable; coastal communities will have to worry about sea levels more than those in Eastern Oregon, for example.

But the caveats listed by OPB are interesting. The story doesn’t just discuss geographic and natural climate differences, but also differing effects based on demographics, such as, “how many people live there, and how much money their local governments have on hand.”

Those two variables, and others like population growth and relative incomes, are independent of long-term climate change and even short-term weather events.

Regardless, the article goes on to make several false claims regarding the direct effects of climate change:

“The Oregon Coast faces sea-level rise, algal blooms and shellfish biotoxins. The northern Willamette Valley faces heat waves, higher landslide risks and increased water demands as the population grows. Northeastern Oregon faces longer fire seasons, scorched crops and increasing numbers of destructive pests.”

For the sake of brevity, we will not go into each assertion made in this post, but almost every one of these supposed hazards is overblown at best, and or simply not occurring, at worst.

Beginning with sea level rise, the average absolute sea level rise globally is about 1.7+/-0.3 millimeters per year.

Two out of the five available National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) sea level monitoring stations in Oregon are slightly above that rate, at 1.78 +/- 0.58 and 2.52 +/- 0.61 mm/year, or the rest are below the average global rate. These rates equate to a rise of about 0.58 ft and 0.83 ft over 100 years, respectively (See chart below).

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Oregon Voters to Consider Approving Nation’s First Universal Basic Income

Oregonians will vote in November on a controversial ballot measure that would give every resident, regardless of age or income, $1,600 each year—as long as they live at least 200 days in the state.

A family of four would receive $6,400 annually, with no strings attached. The money would be non-taxable and would not affect other benefits.

If voters approve Measure 118, the Universal Basic Income (UBI) program would be funded by a tax on the gross receipts of corporations that generate more than $25 million in annual sales.

Oregon would be the first state to roll out such a comprehensive UBI.

As of June 2024, no U.S. states have a UBI program, though several states and cities have run pilot programs.

However, the “Oregon People’s Rebate” proposal is meeting with stiff bipartisan resistance from elected officials and pushback from the business community.

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2,400 Patients May Have Been Exposed to HIV and Hepatitis at Oregon Hospitals: Officials

Health care providers in the Portland, Oregon, area said Thursday that 2,400 patients should get blood tests because an anesthesiologist may have exposed them to HIV as well as hepatitis B and C in recent months.

In a statement, Providence Health said that it “recently learned that Providence’s comprehensive infection control practices may not have been followed by a physician during some procedures” at several hospitals, including Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center, and “other non-Providence hospitals.”

The individual who was allegedly responsible is a physician previously employed by the Oregon Anesthesiology Group, said Legacy in the statement. The unnamed person is no longer employed by Oregon Anesthesiology Group and the company is no longer contracted by Providence, it said.

Providence said in its statement that the physician “might have put patients at a low risk of exposure” to hepatitis B and C as well as HIV for 2,200 patients who were seen at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center. Two patients seen at Providence Portland Medical Center were also exposed, it said.

As a result, the medical group said that the potentially affected patients will receive a letter with more information, but it encouraged those patients to get a blood test to determine whether they were infected with hepatitis or HIV “out of an abundance of caution,” and “at no cost,” according to the statement.

“If a patient tests positive,” the statement said, “Providence will reach out to discuss their test results and next steps.

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Portland Leftist Tries to Protect “Brown Man” Allegedly Texting and Trying to Meet 14-Year-Old Girl

A video clip shows a leftist woman in Portland trying to intervene and ensure a “brown man” who allegedly texted and tried to meet up with a 14-year-old girl wasn’t being harassed.

The clip was posted by a self-proclaimed “predator hunter” group called People v. Preds.

The predator hunter approaches a man called Sam and asks him, “So you know why I’m here obviously right?”

He then tells the man that he is not here to hurt him and just wants to have a conversation with him.

The man agrees to talk about why he is allegedly trying to meet up with a child after texting her before a woman with short hair is seen approaching from behind.

“I live in the neighborhood and I do a lot of mutual aid for the houseless, I just wanted to make sure that he was not being harassed.”

“Oh am I harassing you, you wanna tell her why you’re here?” the predator hunter asks the man.

“Is everything okay?” asks the woman, to which he responds, “Not really.”

“Do you want him to go away?” asks the woman, adding, “I just wanted to make sure that the brown person was safe, because we take good care of brown people in this city.”

The woman eventually walks off, prompting the predator hunter to laugh and remark on how this exchange is the most Portland thing ever.

The man then admits he thinks he’s been talking to the 14-year-old girl for a few weeks.

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Portland Baseball Team Becomes First Sports Team to Legally Sell THC Products During Games

The Portland Pickles baseball organization will become the first sports team in the United States to sell marijuana-based products during a live sporting event legally.

In an announcement, the Pickles revealed they have a new partnership with Cycling Frog, which sells THC-based seltzer drinks.

The team will start selling the THC-based seltzer drinks at their stadium on June 18th.

According to Oregon Live, the Seltzer drink contains 2MG of THC and 4MG of CBG and is available in lemon and passion fruit flavors.

Ross Campbell, the Pickles’ VP of Business Development, said, “The Portland Pickles have a responsibility in the sports industry to take leaps and set a precedent of innovative partnerships.”

Fans who want to purchase the drink must be over 21.

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Oregon Police Ripped For Bizarre Reason They Won’t Arrest Naked Person Who Allegedly Exposed Themselves To Child

A TikToker claimed a naked woman came up to his two-year-old son and exposed herself, however, the cop said no crime has been committed.

The exchange has since gone viral, with X users blasting Oregon law over a bizarre caveat.

“You’re saying in the state of Oregon some can walk up into to your two-year-old kid completely bare naked and that’s not a crime even if it’s on your property?” the Tiktoker pressed.

The cop responded, stating, “Correct. Well, so, it’s trespassing.”

“But what I’m saying is there’s no laws against the actual nudity portion of it,” he added, to which the TikToker interjected, “So you can expose yourself to children in Oregon.”

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 Stadium Boos Loudly After Biological Male Athlete Wins Women’s 200 Meter Dash at Oregon State Track and Field Championships

A transgender teen runner was booed as he crossed the finish line and won a spot in the girls’ Oregon State Championships.

Tenth-grade student “Aayden Gallagher” is a biological male competing against female athletes.

On Saturday Aayden Gallagher, a biological male, won the women’s 200 meter dash at the Oregon track and field championships at the historic Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon.

Aaden Gallagher is ‘unofficially’ ranked in the top 50 high school sprinters nationally.

According to Outsports:

Gallagher is a transgender girl in a state that affirms her right to compete on a girl’s team. Oregon requires no medical or hormonal transition for trans athletes to compete in any gendered category, and the state allows nonbinary athletes to simply choose their gender category in sports, regardless of any medical interventions.

When she raced to second place at 200 meters, and won the 400 meters at a meet in April, that fact didn’t sit well with a group of Republican legislators in her state.
They promptly called on the Oregon State Activities Association, the governing body for high school sports in the state, to change their policy

The OSAA’s executive director, Peter Weber, stood up and publicly defended the policy. He met their letter with one of his own.

“Oregon law has long prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation,” the letter states. “In 2019, the Oregon Department of Education amended its rules that ‘sexual orientation’ was defined to include ‘gender identity.’ The Oregon legislature likewise amended the definition of ‘sexual orientation’ to include ‘gender identity.’”

In response, there is a call to put forth legislation that would ban transgender girls and strip any achievements they may have earned.

On Saturday Aayden Gallagher came from behind and defeated Aster Jones from Roosevelt to take the Women’s 6A 200 meter dash finals.

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Oregon Governor Signs Bill Overturning Voter-Approved Drug Decriminalization Law

Gov. Tina Kotek (D) on Monday signed into law the sweeping measure the Oregon Legislature passed to combat the state’s fentanyl drug addiction and overdose crisis.

Kotek previously had said she would sign House Bill 4002, which was a centerpiece proposal of the short session. The law puts in place a new misdemeanor penalty for possession of small amounts of hard drugs, with opportunities for defendants to avoid jail if they enroll in programs that aid in their recovery and potential treatment.

In a letter to legislative leaders, Kotek said the state needs to have a carefully coordinated implementation to work as intended.

“Success of this policy framework hinges on the ability of implementing partners to commit to deep coordination at all levels,” Kotek wrote in her letter to Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego and House Speaker Julie Fahey, D-Eugene.

The new law will put $211 million towards a variety of court and treatment programs, including new and expanded residential treatment facilities, recovery houses and programs for counties to set up so-called deflection programs that people can participate in to avoid jail and criminal charges after an interaction with police. So far, 23 of Oregon’s 36 counties have agreed to set up those programs, which are not mandatory.

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Portland Community College Offers New Class on UFOs

Portland Community College is offering a niche new area of study this spring: UFOs.

“From Film to Real Life? UFOs, UAPs, Government and the Media” is an online class listed for non-credit in a category of study called “cultural exploration.” (Other offerings include low-cost Hawaii travel, foreign films and a “waterfalls and wine” tour of the Columbia River Gorge.)

The class is the brainchild of longtime local television news producer Brian Anslinger, the executive producer of KRCW’s lifestyle show Everyday Northwest. Previously, Anslinger worked as assistant news director and executive producer at KATU-TV.

Part of his mission with the class is to help students decode the confusing landscape of UAP sightings and research. (UAP, or unidentified aerial phenomena, is the updated name for UFOs, unidentified flying objects. Anslinger accepts both.)

“Having been looking at this subject for a long time and different aspects of it, I thought, gosh, if you see what’s happening on Capitol Hill or read headlines, I don’t know how you make sense of what’s actually going on,” Anslinger says.

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