Tag: oregon

Federal Judge Orders UO to Pay $191K to PSU Professor Blocked for “All Men Are Created Equal” Comment

The University of Oregon is facing the financial consequences of an unconstitutional attempt to suppress speech after a federal judge ordered it to pay $191,000 in legal fees to Portland State University professor Bruce Gilley.

The order, issued by US District Judge John V. Acosta, follows a settlement reached in March 2025 in which the university acknowledged Gilley’s comments should not have been censored and agreed to implement major policy reforms.

The legal fees, which will be covered by UO’s insurer United Educators, include $147,070 awarded to the Institute for Free Speech (IFS) and $43,930 to the Angus Lee Law Firm.

These payments, combined with more than $533,000 that the university had already spent on its own legal representation by late 2024, push the cost of defending its actions to at least $724,000.

That figure excludes further expenses accrued since November.

These high costs are directly tied to UO’s decision to support its DEI officials after they blocked Gilley for replying “all men are created equal” to a university post on X.

This fee award reflects the substantial resources required to vindicate fundamental constitutional rights in the digital age, as well as the vigor with which the University of Oregon chose to defend unconstitutional policies,” said Del Kolde, IFS Senior Attorney.

“The university made a costly decision to prioritize DEI principles over constitutional principles, aggressively litigating this case for nearly three years rather than acknowledging the obvious, that blocking someone for quoting the Declaration of Independence violates the First Amendment.”

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Oregon lawmakers advance bill to limit federal use of National Guard

Oregon lawmakers are moving to restrict the federal government’s authority over the state’s National Guard despite a surge of violent anti-ICE protests, particularly in Portland.

Three Democratic state representatives introduced legislation that would block any deployment of the Oregon National Guard that would hinder its ability to respond to state emergencies such as wildfires. The bill also outlines the specific duties the Guard can and cannot be assigned. The proposal comes in response to President Donald Trump’s move to federalize the National Guard in California to help protect law enforcement amid anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.

“Deploying the military against our country’s citizens is an affront to our democratic principles,” said Representative Dacia Grayber, one of the sponsors of the bill, in a statement. “Ensuring that the Guard can only be mobilized in keeping with their congressionally-authorized functions is a common-sense safeguard to ensure separation of responsibility between our military and our local law enforcement.”

The bill passed the House Rules Committee on Tuesday, though Republican House Leader Christine Drazan voted against it, saying she wanted to consult with the caucus, according to KATU. The bill now heads to the full House to be voted on.

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Portland residents beg Antifa not to destroy property during anti-ICE riots

Ongoing protests led by anti-ICE activists in Portland have escalated in recent weeks, leaving many local residents dealing with the consequences of repeated confrontations between demonstrators and law enforcement.


The latest wave of unrest began on June 8, when activists blocked the driveway of a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. Since then, clashes have continued across the city, and 22 people have been arrested this month in connection with anti-ICE demonstrations on various criminal allegations.

Gray’s Landing, a low-income apartment complex housing elderly residents, veterans, and families, is located near the ICE building and has taken steps to shield itself from being caught in the conflict. Signs reading “Please do not vandalize,” “We are a nonprofit. We are not associated with the ICE building,” and “We believe everyone deserves a place to call home” have been posted on ground-floor windows, according to Oregon Live. Residents have endured noise from bullhorns, honking cars, and flash-bang grenades, along with graffiti, vandalism, transit delays, and chemical irritants used by federal agents to disperse crowds.

The ICE building at the center of the protests sits between South Macadam Avenue and a K-8 charter school, Cottonwood School of Civics and Science. Nearby is also the Oregon Ballet Theater headquarters and its rehearsal space.

Last Saturday, protests intensified during the “No Kings” Day event, which authorities declared a riot. The escalation raised concerns among residents that additional National Guard or federal forces could be deployed to the area. Many residents expressed sympathy for the demonstrators’ cause but admitted to feeling uneasy about the ongoing turmoil in their neighborhood.

Jackie Keogh, who works for the nonprofit that runs Gray’s Landing, said the residents are growing increasingly anxious.

“The impending dread is based on the history of protest impacting their homes and their overall feeling of safety,” Keogh said. “Our goal is to make sure both staff and residents feel safe in our building.”

The nonprofit has had to stockpile plywood in case windows are broken, install smoke protection systems, and update security codes. One 62-year-old resident said she is “afraid to come out of the building,” adding, “I can’t even turn on my air conditioning because of the tear gas.”

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Economic suicide by design

This week, Oregonians heard the announcement that Tektronix, an iconic Oregon-based company, is moving its headquarters from Oregon to North Carolina.

Tektronix has decided that it has had enough of the Oregon Democrat high taxes, poor schools, and constant degradation of the quality of life for its employees. Textronix was once one of the largest employers in the state of Oregon. Anybody working in the electronics branch of technology relied on Tektronix test equipment to troubleshoot electronic problems. Driving by the Tektronix campus was very sad for me when we moved to Oregon. The parking lots around the Tektronix buildings were mainly empty, and slowly got even emptier. As an Electronic Technician who relied on the Tektronix test equipment my entire career, this was like watching an old friend slowly die from neglect.

Elections have consequences, and so does how people vote. Voting for more taxes, higher fees, and the crazy bills the Democrat supermajority pushes through is costing Oregon thousands of highly-paid citizens who have had enough, and they then leave Oregon for different states. Yet Oregon continues down the same old path to economic disaster. Oregonians cannot figure out that Democrats are all the same; their solution to problems is to raise taxes and fees on everything. For decades, Oregonians have been voting for Democrats to lead Oregon, and nobody noticed that conservatives and Republicans were leaving over economic or freedom issues. The Democrats, Liberals, and progressives just kept on making Oregon less affordable and less desirable to raise a family or retire here.

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What is nihilism? A teen charged in a mass shooting plot and a car bomber subscribed to the same ideology, authorities say

An Oregon teen arrested last month in connection with an alleged mass shooting plot targeting a mall in southwestern Washington subscribed to a “nihilistic violent extremist ideology,” according to officials.

Similarly, FBI officials said Guy Edward Bartkus, the man accused of bombing a Palm Springs, California, fertility clinic last month, “had nihilistic ideations.”

It’s this “preoccupation with themes of violence, hopelessness, despair, pessimism, hatred, isolation, loneliness, or an ‘end-of-the-world’ philosophy” – as the FBI defines nihilistic ideation – that allegedly drives these individuals to violence.

Here’s how experts and authorities describe nihilism.

What is nihilism?

Nihilism, which is usually defined as a philosophical concept rather than a set of actions, is the belief that “all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated,” according to Alan Pratt, professor emeritus at Embry-Riddle University.

Nihilism is “associated with extreme pessimism and a radical skepticism that condemns existence,” Pratt wrote in a philosophical definition. “A true nihilist would believe in nothing, have no loyalties, and no purpose other than, perhaps, an impulse to destroy.”

Nihilism is also often connected to German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who argued that “its corrosive effects would eventually destroy all moral, religious, and metaphysical convictions,” according to Pratt.

Retired senior FBI profiler Mary Ellen O’Toole, who has researched past violent actors to provide the FBI with its initial definition of nihilistic ideation, describes nihilism as “something on a continuum.”

“A person’s outlook on life is never black or white,” O’Toole told CNN. “Over the years, there have been some people that have planned mass violence, where their nihilistic thinking, or view of the world, was very extreme, and then you have some where it’s less extreme.”

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Justice Department Backs Judicial Watch in Oregon Elections Case Over Alleged Violations of National Voter Registration Act — Files Statement of Interest

In a major win for election integrity advocates, the Department of Justice has sided with Judicial Watch in a lawsuit against the Oregon Secretary of State over the state’s failure to follow federal law requiring transparency in how it maintains its voter rolls.

The DOJ filed a Statement of Interest on Friday, in the case Judicial Watch v. Read, confirming that Oregon cannot hide behind its counties or bureaucratic red tape to avoid its clear legal responsibilities under the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA).

The case centers on Oregon’s refusal to hand over public records detailing efforts to clean up its voter rolls — including lists of people sent confirmation notices and whether they responded — as mandated by Section 8 of the NVRA.

Judicial Watch and other plaintiffs allege that Oregon’s Secretary of State, Tobias Read, failed to make a reasonable effort to remove ineligible voters from the rolls and unlawfully withheld critical records from public inspection — a violation that could conceal voter fraud and election mismanagement.

In a stunning rebuke of Oregon’s handling, the DOJ’s legal filing emphasized that states, not counties, are directly responsible for maintaining and disclosing these records.

Oregon’s own response to Judicial Watch’s 2023 records request admitted that fulfilling it would take 5,000 hours due to lack of central coordination.

The DOJ made clear: this is no excuse.

“To the extent that the state does not have in place and must fashion ad hoc methods to access and retrieve the records from the counties and ensure the records are preserved for at least two years, the state’s laws and practices would not be consistent with the state’s obligations under the NVRA,” the DOJ wrote.

The DOJ warned that any state law attempting to delegate those responsibilities to local officials must yield to federal law under the Constitution’s Elections Clause.

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Federal Judge Allows Lawsuit Seeking Home Psilocybin Care To Proceed, Rejecting Oregon Officials’ Motion To Dismiss

More people in Oregon could eventually access legal psilocybin following a new federal court ruling in favor of plaintiffs who argued that the state’s first-in-the nation psilocybin law wrongfully prevents homebound patients from seeking care.

Four care providers—three licensed psilocybin facilitators and a physician specializing in advanced and terminal illnesses—sued the state about year ago, alleging that the state Psilocybin Services Act (PSA) discriminates against disabled individuals who can’t travel to designated service centers where the substance is administered.

The providers said they were told by the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) that there was no way to accommodate homebound patients under the state’s psilocybin law.

In an 12-page ruling issued late last month, District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai denied the state’s motion to dismiss the suit, opining that the plaintiffs have standing to bring the challenge and that a modification of the state’s psilocybin law to provide a reasonable accommodation to homebound patients under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would not violate principles of federalism.

“The Court agrees with Plaintiffs and finds that their requested remedy rests on physical access rather than use or distribution of a controlled substance in violation of state and federal laws,” the ruling says. “Plaintiffs do not ask the Court to order the provision of a controlled substance, as Defendants contend. Instead…Plaintiffs seek compliance with the ADA so that their disabled clients will have the same physical access to a service that is available to nondisabled individuals.”

Reached by email on Tuesday, plaintiffs’ attorney Kathryn Tucker, said she was pleased the court ruled in favor of the providers seeking to offer home psilocybin services.

“We are eager to ensure that homebound disabled and dying Oregonians can access psilocybin services, as they are among those most likely to benefit,” she wrote. “Opening access for these Oregonians will increase demand for psilocybin produced pursuant to the PSA as well as demand for services of facilitators, particularly those with expertise in providing care to disabled persons and those with advanced illness.”

“We hope to move this forward quickly now that the court has rejected the State’s effort to dismiss, recognizing that the ADA does apply to Oregon’s psilocybin program,” she added. “Because people with advancing illness may have little time left, delay in enabling access can mean that patients who might have obtained relief from debilitating anxiety and depression will die in unrelieved suffering.”

Notably, the new opinion, noted earlier by Psychedelic Week, does not order a specific remedy. It simply allows the underlying suit, Cusker v. Oregon Health Authority, to proceed toward a final decision.

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Oregon police responded 17 times to home occupied by Tren de Aragua gang members charged with torture, kidnapping, attempted murder: charging documents

An Oregon home that housed illegal immigrants accused of kidnapping, torturing, and attempting to kill a Washington state woman in January has prompted at least 17 police responses within the past year over a number of alarming incidents reported at the property, according to dozens of police reports exclusively obtained by The Post Millennial.

Police records show that neighbors have called 911 to report concerning activity that would “generally increase after nightfall,” including sounds of screaming, vans full of people being dropped off at the property, an alarming presence of young girls at the residence, drug use, and more.

The home, located at 5431 Bonita Road in Lake Oswego, Oregon, is where authorities said two of the three suspects with alleged ties to the violent Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang (TdA) had been living when they allegedly plotted to kidnap a 58-year-old woman from outside of her apartment complex on January 21 in Burien, Washington, near Seattle, according to charging documents. The victim was abducted, tortured, shot, and left for dead in a mountain pass, but miraculously survived the attempted killing.

The charging documents, filed in the King County Superior Court, identified the two suspects residing at the Lake Oswego home as Kevin Daniel Sanabria-Ojeda, 24, of Venezuela, who was taken into custody by the FBI on January 30, and an unnamed co-accomplice, who remains at large. The home is considered so dangerous that Lake Oswego Police require a three-car minimum response when responding to calls at the address, according to police records.

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Portland Trantifa extremist who issued death threats against Nancy Mace and J.K. Rowling identified

A trans person who threatened to murder congresswoman Nancy Mace and issued calls for author J.K. Rowling to be killed has been identified as a Portland, Ore. Antifa and transgender activist, The Post Millennial can exclusively report.On Nov. 19, a trans person using the screen name “venuspeenis” posted graphic video death threats to Rep. Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, and J.K. Rowling. After Mace posted the threats on her X account, the extremist changed his screen name, locked down his account and has been scrubbing his online footprint. But following an investigation, this journalist can report that the person who made the threats is Venus Andromeda Boyle (b. Nov. 15, 2000). He was previously known as Joshua Ryan Matthew Boyle.

The 24-year-old, originally from Lakeside, Calif., is a Portland State political science student on a scholarship awarded by the Pride Foundation for his transgender activism. Boyle has a history of involvement with Antifa in Portland.

In August 2019, Boyle attended a direct action by Rose City Antifa spinoff group PopMob where he posed with a bloody severed prop head of Donald Trump. Rose City Antifa is one of the most violent cells of Antifa in the United States. Their members have been involved in extreme violence and crime in the Pacific Northwest. Women who speak out against trans ideology have often been the target of their violence.

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46 Honduran nationals working for Sinaloa Drug Cartel arrested on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon

Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested 46 Honduran nationals on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon, following an extensive joint operation to disrupt open-air drug markets in Multnomah County. Authorities seized an array of illicit drugs, firearms, and cash. The Honduran nationals were reportedly working on behalf of the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel, a designated foreign terror group, according to a press release.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Seattle Field Division said that the apprehended “Honduran drug traffickers” flooded the Portland area with “deadly fentanyl and other drugs.” The enforcement operation that netted 46 arrests occurred in the first four months of 2025.

In total, authorities seized 44 pounds of fentanyl powder; 2,507 fentanyl pills; 22 pounds of methamphetamine; nine pounds of cocaine; two pounds of heroin; 20 firearms; and $204,007 in cash, according to the DEA.

“The fentanyl seized by our team in this case could have yielded over 1.5 million lethal doses – enough to kill everyone in Portland twice,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “I am proud that DEA could help our partners bring this surge to a successful conclusion, saving lives here in Portland and throughout Oregon.”

According to the DEA, nearly 70 percent of all drug poisonings and overdose deaths involve fentanyl, and just two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially deadly overdose.

Portland, a self-declared sanctuary city for illegal immigrants, is among the highest in the nation for fentanyl overdose deaths, as stated in a 2024 CDC report. The operation comes after the state of Oregon re-criminalized illicit drug possession last year following a failed 2020 drug decriminalization ballot measure that resulted in an increase in overdose deaths and open-air drug use on city streets, according to data.

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