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On this day, February 11, 1999 the New Carissa cargo ship which ran aground a week earlier on the Oregon Coast near Coos Bay was set on fire with explosives to burn off some 400,000 gallons of fuel oil to prevent its spillage.




Post an Event


Celebrate Presidents Day
Sunday, February 16, 2025 at 2:00 pm
Come celebrate Presidents day!



Sunday February 16th (day prior to Presidents day)

2562 S Santiam Hwy, Lebanon OR

(Between Grocery Outlet and Schmizza)

1:30 PM starts flag wave, movie starts approx. 2:30 PM

Flag wave weather permitting. dress warm.

Watch the Reagan movie and enjoy some snacks.

$5 donation recommended.

Linn County Conservative Alliance 2562 S Santiam Hwy, Lebanon, OR 97355. between Grocery Outlet and Schmizza.



Let Kids Be Kids
Thursday, March 6, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Empower parents, protect kids, and reclaim our schools. Parents have a responsibility to stand up for their children and their futures. Keynote speaker, Fox News Host Rachel Campos-Duffy. music by Kurt Van Meter. Tickets director@parentsrightsineducation.org
NW Event Center, Hillsboro, OR



Friends of Gap Road Town Hall
Tuesday, March 11, 2025 at 6:00 pm
Guest Speakers: Jim Johnson a career in land use and water management, and David Neal a Linn County farm owner exporter and owner of a land water management business.
Harrisburg High School Multi Purpose Room 400 S 9th St


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Governor Kotek Announces 2025 Legislative Priorities
Democrats launch a nanny state agenda

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek lists five priorities for the 2025 legislative session focusing on staying the course on addressing homelessness and housing supply, mental health and addiction care, and improving outcomes for Oregon K-12 students.

Governor Kotek supports investments aligned with her recommended budget and will work with legislators on additional topics such as a comprehensive transportation package, stable funding for the Oregon Health Plan, child welfare outcomes, addressing the public defense crisis, and wildfire suppression and community resilience funding.

Governor Kotek said. “This legislative session carries a clear charge for all of us: to tackle problems with purpose and embrace opportunities for change together. We can’t forget why we are here: Oregonians who don’t know where they’ll sleep tonight. The person in our lives who wants mental health care and can’t get it. Children who are brimming with promise and who rely on us to get their education right. Hard working Oregonians who are wondering how they’re going to make ends meet. We’re here because we have the opportunity to make their lives better, now and in the future.”

1. Building on Progress to Address Homelessness and Housing Supply

Governor Kotek’s housing and homelessness agenda this session will build on her priority to getting people off the streets and increasing housing production. Her priorities include legislation that supports increased production of “middle housing” housing options, stronger pathways to home ownership, and the establishment of a Tribal housing grant program. She will also support setting up statewide shelter program standards and establishing a program that funds water, wastewater, stormwater, and transportation infrastructure needed for new housing production. The Democrat leaders are more interested in finding root causes that are driving the cost-of-living than the Governor seems to be. They want constraints to reduce the cost of childcare, utilities, broadband, and health care/prescription drugs. They will focus on expenditures and preventions that may lower costs in the long run including a pathway out of homelessness by providing a place to live.

2. Strengthening Mental Health and Addiction Care

Governor Kotek’s vision is to make mental health and addiction care accessible no matter where you live and what you can afford. Her behavioral health agenda will close gaps in the current system and expand access to the types of care and workforce needed. Organizations lost their workforce during COVID through Executive Order mandating the vaccine. That poor decision now puts Oregon at insufficient levels to meet current demands, particularly when serving individuals with the highest level of acuity.

The Governor is prioritizing investments in Oregon's workforce and increasing capacity by developing a new model of permanent supportive housing that can more effectively serve people with serious mental health needs who can live independently with enhanced on-site services.

3. Improving Outcomes for Oregon Students

The Governor's education agenda will better resource our schools and hold them accountable for the outcomes by creating as much fiscal certainty for school districts as possible. The current service level for the State School Fund increased last year by $600 million, leading to a historic total investment of $11.36 billion. She proposes to codify an updated process for calculating the State School Fund to provide more accurate and predictable funding for K-12 public education.

Increased investment must come with better outcomes for Oregon students. The Governor's 2025 education agenda is for more accountability for districts, schools, and the state. When a district’s numbers show failure for their students, she says direct assistance should be deployed toward better student outcomes, but she ignore the need and solutions that school choice would bring. Instead, the Governor will introduce a plan to create a continuum of support for districts and schools. The legislation will run in tandem with a set of administrative actions to better support schools and districts.

4. Staying the Course

The Governor has been accused that her recommended budget is nothing more than status quo. She is sticking with her policies and wants to build on what she sees as progress from her first two years in office.

5. Additional Priorities

Other legislative priorities include stable funding for wildfire mitigation and suppression, but as chair of the state land board, she needs to be accountable to counties loosing over 50% of their timber income.

The Governor supports a transportation package that fully funds the operations and maintenance of Oregon’s transportation system ignoring the majority of citizens against tolling.

Governor Kotek will also support legislation that advances Oregon’s climate resilience, improves state government operations, and reduces consumer costs. Oregonians are watching how she plans to accomplish such big goals without raising costs to consumers while raising taxes and fees.

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

The Governor’s leaders in the legislature filled in where the Governor has fallen short in keeping Oregonians safe by keeping streets and sidewalks clean, and protect Oregonians from the threat of gun violence by imposing more gun restrictions on law abiding citizens.

Leadership says they want to protect basic rights and freedoms by safeguarding access to unions, healthcare, abortion, clean water and lands. They add to being a sanctuary state, a place of diversity, equality and inclusivity (DEI) as a fundamental freedom, they will fall on their sword for. That battle seems to destroy all their priorities – it’s so easy to spend billions of taxpayer dollars when it isn’t their money.

“The legislature’s job is to improve Oregonians’ lives. Solving Oregon’s most important problems means our government has to work effectively,” said House Majority Leader Ben Bowman (D-Tigard, Metzger, & S. Beaverton). “We believe that every Oregonian should feel safe and at home in our state, and the values-driven leaders in our caucus will work hard to deliver results for working people.”

Their road forward is to “progress toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions while ensuring our state is resilient in the face of climate change.” Perhaps to cover the Governor’s mismanagement of land use and wildfires. Let’s not forget how much CO2 from California fires is drifting up to Oregon. It seems an unattainable goal with their priorities to think they can “provide the legislative oversight needed to ensure public funds are improving the lives of Oregonians and delivering results.”


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2025-01-28 11:36:36Last Update: 2025-01-28 18:38:08



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