News U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) today was among a group of four senators to introduce the latest version of a bill that would ban employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The freshman Democrat announced today he is a sponsor — along with Sens. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe (both R-Maine) — of the Employment Non-Discrimination ...   More

News Earlier this week, WW published a story about the selection process for two open federal judgeships in Oregon. The selection committee, which was appointed by U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, chose five straight white males as finalists for the highly coveted $174,000-a-year positions. Wyden chief of staff Josh Kardon, who oversaw the process for Oregon's senior senator, took strong exception ...   More

News Sen. Ron Wyden's office has released the names of those whom a selection committee jointly named by Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley will interview for open U.S. Attorney and U.S. Marshal positions. After two currently open federal judgeships, the U.S. Attorney for Oregon and U.S. Marshal positions are among the prime federal political appointments for which locals are eligible. It's worth ...   More

News Putting your money under your mattress may seem more attractive after reading a report OSPIRG released last week on all the ways Oregon banks nickel and dime consumers. Here are two alarming facts the consumer protection group discovered in a survey of 10 banks and eight credit unions offering "low cost" checking accounts in Portland, Eugene and Ashland: An overdraft of $20 paid back in two ...   More

News Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke may be Time magazine's Person of the Year. But U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley doesn't seem too impressed with the man Time credited with preventing an "economic catastrophe." The Oregon Democrat announced this morning he would vote on Dec. 17 against Bernanke's nomination to a second term as Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Merkley, ...   More

News This Thursday, a pro-peace nonprofit called J Street will kick off its national grassroots campaign by launching local chapters in Portland and dozens of other locations nationwide. J Street differs from longer-established pro-Israel organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee because it supports a two-state, peaceful solution in the Middle East, and because it's willing ...   More

News U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.) has made himself into quite the political punching bag lately by blocking the extension of unemployment benefits on the Senate floor, and then reportedly telling Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) "Tough shit" when Merkley called him on it. Here on MSNBC's "The Ed Show," Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) gets in his shots at Bunning and some of the Kentucky senator's Republican ...   More

News Here's an update on yesterday's video showing U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) tangling DC-style with U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning (R-Ky.): Bunning has now backed down from his filibuster blocking the extension of unemployment benefits, no doubt disappointing Democratic political consultants who couldn't have been handed an easier political point than the image of a Republican unabashedly halting help ...   More

News Parents of children affected by salmonella told Oregon health officials and U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) some horrific tales today of what's happened to their kids from foodborne illness. The discussion this morning at the State Office Building came against a backdrop of pending food safety modernization bills in Congress. The Food and Drug Administration is also considering tightening its ...   More

News The op-ed piece in this morning's Oregonian by U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) on the mosque and Muslim community center that's been proposed near Ground Zero makes for a thought-provoking read. Merkley writes I appreciate the depth of emotions at play, but respectfully suggest that the presence of a mosque is only inappropriate near ground zero if we unfairly associate Muslim Americans with ...   More