In the wake of the Federal Bureau of Reclamation's denial of water to Klamath Basin irrigators, State Representative E. Werner Reschke is calling on the Oregon Water Resources Department to release the water to the local farmers.

While the Bureau of Reclamation has a the right to store water in Upper Klamath Lake, it has no right to use water from the Upper Klamath Lake — that authority falls to OWRD, to manage the use of that water, per holders of water rights and determined claims. Existing statutory provisions (ORS 540.210) clearly direct OWRD to undertake necessary action when water users are unable to reach agreement pertaining to the ultimate distribution of water. The language found in subsection (2) of this statutory is straightforward:

"(2) The water master shall then take exclusive charge of the ditch or reservoir, for the purpose of dividing or distributing the water therefrom in accordance with the respective and relative rights of the various users of water from the ditch or reservoir, and shall continue the work until the necessity therefor shall cause to exist.”

Tensions are beginning to rival those of about 20 years ago when Klamath Basin farmers clashed with tribes and law enforcement.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-15 11:57:09

Last Update: 2021-05-15 12:10:23

A suspect is facing numerous charges after pushing a woman into traffic, burning a power pole, and fighting with officers.

On Thursday, May 13, 2021 at 2:52p.m., a call came in to police of an area check regarding a suspect seen pushing a woman into the street near Southeast 36th Avenue and Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard.

No officers were immediately available to respond.

22 minutes later, at 3:15p.m., officers were able to clear calls and respond. They were updated that the suspect was throwing trash cans into the street, trying to grab passing cars and busses, and had set a nearby power pole on fire.

Officers located the suspect at Southeast 36th Avenue and Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard and attempted to take him into custody. He fought the officers, biting two of them and trying to break an officer's finger.

They called for additional officers and they were finally able to arrest him.

The investigation revealed that the suspect pushed a 67-year-old woman off the sidewalk into the street, causing approaching cars to brake to avoid hitting her. Officers later learned that the victim broke her wrist during the fall. Officers also located the power pole that was burned by the suspect. The fire was extinguished by community members.

Kenneth A. Church, 39, of Portland, was booked into the Multnomah County Detention Center on charges of Attempted Assault in the Second Degree, Assault in the Third Degree, Assault in the Fourth Degree, Reckless Endangering, Criminal Mischief in the First Degree, Attempted Assault on a Police Officer (3 counts), Interfering with a Peace Officer, Resist Arrest, Reckless Burning, and Disorderly Conduct in the Second Degree.


--Bruce Armstrong

Post Date: 2021-05-15 07:11:53

Last Update: 2021-05-15 00:02:16

The city of Portland Oregon has seen escalating violence as of late, largely due to the unruly activities of leftist extremists who have been given free rein of the city by local officials. Many horrific crimes continue to go unsolved, and little justice is being served.

A newspaper delivery driver is in the hospital with a serious gunshot wound after a shooting in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood.

On Friday, May 14, 2021 at 4:06a.m., Portland North Precinct officers were dispatched to a shooting call in the 4400 block of Northeast Shaver Street. They located an adult male victim with a serious gunshot injury. The victim was transported to the hospital by ambulance. His injuries are serious.

The Enhanced Community Safety Team (ECST) responded to investigate. They learned the victim and a female passenger were driving slowly down the street delivering newspapers when a suspect in another vehicle fired at them through the windshield of the unmarked delivery van. The suspect left the scene. No suspect description is being released at this time.


--Bruce Armstrong

Post Date: 2021-05-14 18:14:46

Last Update: 2021-05-14 18:23:15

Currently in Oregon, the public is still banned from participating in the legislative process at the State's Capitol building in Salem, supposedly due to safety protocols to prevent the possible spread of Covid-19.

The Super-majority party, the Democrats, are taking this opportunity to quickly pass policy legislation that would be slowed down by the presence of the people of Oregon. An imperfect system of remote participation has been hailed as efficient enough replacement by the Democrat leaders, although many critics disagree. The remote process may also be seen as fair and progressive to providing Oregonians a chance to participate and lobby their representatives from a distance.

Now, with the recent announcements of the CDC changing it's guidelines and the lifting of restrictions, many retailers are finally finding ways to go back to normal in a post pandemic Oregon.

The State legislature is slow to react to the news, still barring the people of Oregon from in-person participation. It might be truly progressive now for the state's leader's to let the people of Oregon return to normal, and integrate the traditional legislative process with what we have learned from the remote processes adopted over the last year or so.

A proposal from the Senate Minority Leader, Fred Girod (R-Lyons) would help to potentially restore balance and confidence in Oregon's legislative testifying opportunities.

SCR 19 would require the legislative committee chairs to conduct public hearings on legislative measures so that witnesses testify in specified order.

It would essentially require those committee chairs to conduct public hearings on legislative measures so that, to greatest extent practicable, witnesses alternate between those in favor of measure and those opposed to measure, except that witnesses who have traveled more than 100 miles to testify must be given priority. Nothing in the rules prohibit public hearing from proceeding if only witnesses remaining to testify are those in favor of or opposed to measure

This approach seems to be a logical proposal in a state where political tensions remain high, possibly due to aggravated statements from the Democrat leaders, who seem to condone the political polarization.

It currently awaits further action in the Senate Committee On Rules.


--Bruce Armstrong

Post Date: 2021-05-14 16:30:59

Last Update: 2021-05-14 17:02:18

On August 18, 2019 The New York Times published an article titled “ the 1619 Project”.

The article begins with a first-person story told by Nikole Hannah-Jones of her father who proudly flew the American flag: “my dad felt so much honor in being an American". Hannah-Jones goes on to explain that she felt like this was a marker of his degradation, his acceptance of subordination. The author blames slavery, not on the English pirates that stole people from a Portuguese slave ship and sold them at Jamestown, but on the buyers, the Jamestown colonists. The article went on to document the pervasiveness and cruelty of African slavery in the English colonies that became the United States, and the study of the American past should begin with the event that birthed racism to fully explains the racism of the American present.

The 1619 Project encountered fierce push-back, both from conservatives and historians. John G. Turner, in the National Review, points to the author’s statement that “one of the primary reasons the colonists decided to declare their independence from Britain was because they wanted to protect the institution of slavery.” Never mind that Britain was the original market for slaves. But some academic historians were ready to tell a new story about America’s past and to kick the Pilgrims out of their God ordained place in American history.

Out of the 1619 Project grew a new academic curriculum that is now being married with critical race theory (CRT). CRT has been around since 1989 and gained traction in legal studies out of a recognition that the law was not inclusive of people who are not white. A controversy arose when it became weaponized as anti-American or anti-white.

USA Today quotes, Cleveland Hayes, associate dean of academic affairs and a professor in the Indiana University School of Education, who has done research on critical race theory, admits it has caused division and made some people feel bad or ashamed. He’d like to see it as an inclusive study, and “not about you as a white person, it’s about recognizing the humanity and erasure of people of color.” But, as humans will do, they have used CRT to elevate one race by putting another down.

Asra Nomani, vice president for strategy and investigations at Parents Defending Education, opposes critical race theory in schools and said “using a lens of race to look at society is superficial and divisive and creates a hierarchy of human value that separates and demonizes people based on race.”

Oregonians for Liberty in Education is attempting to make parents aware of the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) flooding our school system in an attempt to change history by scheduling events on the 1619 Project. Building on critical race theory, on May 10, ODE sponsored and paid $25,000 for “An Evening with Nikole Hannah-Jones,” and invited Oregon’s teachers statewide. They suggest parents watch the 90-minute webinar, billed as “1619: Centering Black History and Black Futures in Oregon.” Don’t expect to learn about the “1619 Project” because it was aimed at CRT. Hannah-Jones criticized historians, spoke on the legacy of slavery, and when asked about her status she justifies her privileges by having legal rights now but we can’t forget the past. Bringing the past to bear on the present was her overall influencing theme. (See Northwest Observer article)

ODE has taken it one step further, May 13, Hannah-Jones has been invited back to deliver another ODE-sponsored webinar, this time speaking directly to Oregon’s schoolchildren. Parents need to watch it with their children and not put it off as another class assignment video.

Hannah-Jones’ own video on the power of storytelling, she titled “What drives me is rage.” Apparently her rage is her invisible heritage, as she calls it. She begins her dialogue on history by saying, “before there was a United States, we had decided that black Americans were not going to be treated like human beings and they were going to be treated as property and owned and not have any rights in the country where they lived and the country where their children would be born.”

Critical race theory is showing up in legislation as “equity” and was codified as Governor Brown’s agenda when she asked that HB 2030 be introduced, which changes the mission of each commission from "equality" to "equity." Changing equality to equity is a totally different approach. Equality means every person has the opportunity based on their hard work to achieve what they want. Equity says we can’t allow anyone to get further ahead than the next person. That means holding the brightest and smartest students back to a common level. Some of the education bills taking the “equity” route are:

SB 732 Requires school districts to establish educational equity advisory committee on educational equity impacts.

HB 2935 Limits authority of school district to become member of voluntary organization that administers interscholastic activities unless organization implements equity focused policies that prohibits discrimination.

HB 3363 Establishes Racial Equity and Justice Student Collaborative.

HB 2166 Directs Superintendent of Public Instruction to convene advisory group to review equity in education system.

SB 232 Modifies requirements of report on Educators Equity Act that is prepared by state agencies.

Martin Luther King said “do not judge a person by the color of their skin, but by their character.” Critical race theory is the total opposite.


--Donna Bleiler

Post Date: 2021-05-14 13:52:34

Last Update: 2021-05-14 18:34:34

Oregon public schools are seeing declines in enrollment.

Oregon public schools have enrolled 29 fewer students for 2020-21 than they did a decade ago for 2011-12 -- that after 10 years of year-over-year increases to enrollment. The decline in enrollment isn't as bad as the chart makes it look, as it's only showing the tip of the iceberg, but a decline of 3.9% is not sustainable. In raw numbers, it's a loss of 22,000 students from a pool of half a million.

On the other hand, the 2020-21 numbers represent just the first year of COVID-19 and the school policies that were accepted by many in the beginning. What does the next set of numbers look like?

As teachers' unions flex their muscle and make demands of the system, parents are ultimately downstream from those demands. It's not lost on a parent that the same teacher who demands full pay, yet no in-person classroom duty might not be making a great statement when they bump into the unhappy parent at Costco.

One might look at the graph and simply conclude that the cause is nearly entirely COVID-19 and that, once the outbreak and society get repaired and back to normal, the graph will snap back, or at least make a partial recovery. This might not be true. The public education system has systemic weaknesses, most significantly its inability to educate and graduate students. Time spent on critical race theory, what some consider inappropriate sex education, as well as other speculative curricula may have led to a leveling off of enrollment which began about 2015.

The consequence of declining enrollment? Once a critical mass is reached -- one can imagine that it's less than 50% -- a group of people, resentful of having to pay for a public school system that no longer delivers results, will find a way to no longer pay -- perhaps through a voucher law. While this obviously leaves a social mark, it also leaves a political mark. It has the effect of shutting down two of the largest public employee unions in the state, the Oregon Education Association which represents teachers and the Oregon School Employees Association which represents all the classified employees.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 11:47:39

Last Update: 2021-05-13 12:14:14

The federal Centers for Disease Control has issued updated guidelines that permit vaccinated people to take off their masks in almost all settings. For months, science has shown that vaccinated people do not pose a threat to others by spreading the virus.

Yet, Oregon OSHA still requires masks in places of business for those who have been vaccinated.

“At nearly every turn, Oregon has moved the slowest to follow the science. On reopening our schools, our economy, and now masks. The science is clear that vaccinated people do not spread the virus and do not need masks. The Governor should immediately direct OSHA to update their permanent mask mandate to come in line with this guidance,” Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod (R-Lyons) said.

Neither the Oregon Health Authority nor Oregon OSHA have any response to the CDC announcement at the time this went to press.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 10:50:30

Last Update: 2021-05-14 09:38:38

Update: The Governor has announced that Oregon will conform to CDC guidelines

In light of the new Centers for Disease Control guidelines for mask wearing, Oregon House Republican Leader Christine Drazan has sent a very short, no-nonsense letter to Governor Brown requesting that Oregon conform to the new CDC guidelines.

Dear Governor Brown,

I am writing to request that Oregon officially conforms with new CDC guidance and direction from the White House that allows fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks.

It's time to let Oregon move forward and take a step towards normalcy. Let's recognize the science from the CDC and the announcement from the White House. I urge you to use the powers of your office to incorporate this new development into Oregon's COVID-19 policies and OSHA's new rule.

As Oregon remains one of the most masked and locked-down states, Governor Brown will surely feel some pressure to make changes.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 10:09:49

Last Update: 2021-05-14 10:57:09

In response to a sports-related, mask incident, State Representative Vikki Breese Iverson (R-Prineville) has penned a letter to Governor Brown asking that policies be changed. In her letter, Representative Breese Iverson describes the incident:

The episode involves a 16-year old female student-athlete who collapsed during high school basketball tryouts. The student had trouble breathing with her face covering, suffered from a lack of oxygen, ultimately lost consciousness, and for a time stopped breathing. Agreat coach administered CPR, and the young athlete was transported to the local emergency room where, thankfully, she fully recovered. A detailed account of the incident is attached for your review. You can make sure this never happens again.

In light of the new guidance from the CDC regarding masks, it makes sense to review the state guidelines from top to bottom regarding masks. Indeed, many have regarded the requirement for student-athletes to wear masks during high-activity sports as being unnecessary and/or dangerous.

Representative Breese Iverson describes several models for youth competition, and then makes her request of the Governor.

You are in a difficult position as you try to weigh the right approach for balancing public health, economic impact, and personal freedoms related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the safety of Oregonians. I urge you to carefully consider our youth's ability to safely participate in sports.

It is time to make the appropriate changes and give communities, schools, and parents the ability to choose how best to keep their kids safe.

The letter was copied to Patrick Allen, Director of the Oregon Health Authority, Colt Gill, Director of the Oregon Department of Education and Peter Weber, Executive Director of the Oregon School Activities Association.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 09:39:34

Last Update: 2021-05-14 10:02:48

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has announced that no water is to be diverted from Upper Klamath Lake for irrigation this year to over 150,000 acres of productive farmland in Klamath County.

Instead, the water will be retained in the lake to support a failed environmental practice for fish species that has yet to prove its effectiveness. In previous, similar drought conditions BOR has delivered project farmers their full allocation of water. This year BOR is using unproven environmental opinions to claim all water must be retained in Upper Klamath Lake or released downstream to California.

“The Bureau of Reclamation exists for the farmers, yet this decision will decimate the livelihood of Oregonians trying to make it through this drought,” said Representative E. Werner Reschke (R-Klamath Falls.) “We know that holding this water back for these fish will not work, and we also know that these farmers need this water to survive. Federal decision-makers must change course to help these struggling communities make it through this drought.”




--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 01:59:34

Last Update: 2021-05-14 09:38:00

Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan will host Multnomah County Elections Director Tim Scott, advocates, and formerly incarcerated individuals on Friday, May 14 at noon for an hourlong discussion about voting rights in Oregon. In particular, Secretary Fagan and the panel participants, in the lead up to the special district election on Tuesday, May 18, will highlight the often confused ability of formerly incarcerated individuals and people who have received felony convictions to vote.

“Too many people in Oregon think they don’t have the right to vote if they were previously convicted of a felony or who were formerly incarcerated,” Secretary Fagan said. “I have seen it as a candidate and during my time as Secretary of State - it’s just not true. Our upcoming election on May 18 features critical questions about the future of our communities. Everyone should know their rights and exercise their right to vote.”

Joining Secretary Fagan for the discussion, Mythbusters: Understanding Your Right to Vote with Oregon Justice Resource Center, will be:

• Bobbin Singh, executive director of the Oregon Justice Resource Center (OJRC).
• Tim Scott, Multnomah County Elections Director.
• Trevor Walraven, Administrative Coordinator and Outreach for the Youth Justice Project at OJRC.
• Zach Winston, Policy Director at OJRC.
• Jackie Whitt, a tradeswoman, who uses her experience as a formerly incarcerated individual to give power and voice to those who cannot access theirs yet.
• Joshua Cain who is a recently released youth lifer who is using his life experience to advocate for reducing criminal behavior and recidivism, while encouraging criminal justice reform.

Some have criticized Secretary Fagan for spending too much time enhancing voting opportunities for felons, while paying too little attention to removing ineligible voters from the voter rolls.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 01:35:18

Last Update: 2021-05-14 09:39:10

Randi Weingarten, the president of one of the largest teachers unions in the country, finally came around to calling on schools to be open for "five days a week" of in-person learning next academic year.

According to recent data, only 12.5% of Oregon schools are fully reopened for in-person instruction, one of the poorest reopening progress in the country.

"Given current circumstances, nothing should stand in the way of fully reopening our public schools this fall and keeping them open,” Weingarten said in a speech. "The United States will not be fully back until we are fully back in school. And my union is all in," she continued.

Senator Dick Anderson (R-Lincoln City) is introducing SB 867 today that would get Oregon students back in the classroom full time in the fall. The legislation is a carbon copy of bipartisan HB 3399 introduced in the Oregon House by Representative Vikki Breese-Iverson (R-Prineville).

“Kids should have returned to school months ago. Other states have been giving their kids the education they deserve, while Oregon ignores the science that schools are safe. By reopening schools, parents can get back into the labor force, kids can begin to catch up on a year of lost learning, and reconnect with friends and peers,” Senator Anderson said.

“Republicans have been beating this drum for months. Now with the Democrat’s union on board, there is no excuse for them to sit back and allow the Governor to dictate if our kids will get a proper education next year. We need to give kids and parents assurance that they will return to the classroom,” Senate Republican Leader Fred Girod (R-Lyons) said.


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-14 01:24:07

Last Update: 2021-05-14 09:39:34