News Gov. Ted Kulongoski has had to cancel his participation on a two-week trade mission to Asia because of a vitreous hemorrhage in his left eye that prevents him from flying. A press release from the governor's office says the "cause of the hemorrhage is abnormal blood vessels growth in the retina, which are fragile and can bleed." The 69-year-old governor, who's in his final year of office, does ...   More

News Gov. Ted Kulongoski's "Reset Cabinet," which includes his top aides and most trusted agency directors as well as other allies, produced one depressing report today. The group, put together last October to review how Oregon can continue to provide government services amid a dismal economy and other challenges, forecasts a decade of multi-billion dollar deficits and reached this conclusion: Oregon ...   More

News The Daily Astorian reported today that former state Rep. Larry Galizio (D-Tigard) has been named the president of Clatsop Community College in Astoria. The Astorian also noted that one board member, Larry Sparks, resigned and in protest "called the president selection process 'politicized' and 'corrupted.''' Sparks, a semi-retired aerospace consultant, lives in Cannon Beach. He was appointed ...   More

News House District 24, which covers parts of Polk and Yamhill Counties, is shaping up as a key battleground in this fall's general election. Republicans, who hope to erode or eliminate Democrats' 36-24 majority in the House, are rallying behind one-term incumbent Jim Weidner (R-McMinnville), who had a rocky first term. A couple of weeks ago, the Oregon Beverage PAC donated $10,000 to Weidner. That ...   More

News Gov. Ted Kulongoski's "Resetting Government" address to City Club last Friday is still echoing around Oregon. Public employee unions panned the message, which drew on nine months of study by top state bureaucrats and called for sharply reducing the cost of government. Others, such as former state Sen. Ryan Deckert, a Democrat who's executive director of the Oregon Business Association and ...   More

News In a somber address to Portland City Club, Gov. Ted Kulongoski today laid out a bleak vision of Oregon's present and grabbed hold of Oregon's political third rail with both hands. The two-term Democratic governor is completing his final year in office and could be forgiven if he took the summer off. Instead, the former labor lawyer drew on the work of his "reset cabinet" to propose a bold set ...   More

News The Colorado political blog Face the State has turned up what appears to be a case of Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter borrowing heavily without attribution from an earlier speech by Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Neither speech is exactly the Emancipation Proclamation. But based on a side-by-side review, it appears that Ritter—who like Kulongoski is a Democrat—has got some 'splainin' to do. Plagiarism ...   More

News Oregon GOP chairman Bob Tiernan asked Gov. Ted Kulongoski today to suspend Cylvia Hayes from the governor's Renewable Energy Working Group. Hayes, who is Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Kitzhaber's girlfriend, co-chairs the renewable energy group. And Tiernan complains in his letter to Kulongoski of a "double standard" because Hayes remains in the working group while the Oregon Department ...   More