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Oregon Lawmakers Plan Reforms to Stop Crushing People With Court Fees and Driver’s License Suspensions for Parking and Traffic Tickets

“We’re catching poor people in a spiral they can’t get out of,” Rep. Jeff Barker says.

Why Is an Anti-Abortion Measure on the Ballot in America’s Most Pro-Choice State?

This isn’t an endorsement issue—those choices will be revealed next month. Instead, what follows is a primer on the issues that Oregonians face this November.

Measure 103 Will Ban Grocery Taxes. What Else Will it Do?

Oregon businesses are asking voters to change the state constitution to prohibit city, county and state governments from ever taxing groceries.

Why is Nike Co- Founder Phil Knight Backing Both Colin Kaepernick and Republican Nominee For Governor Knute Buehler?

Earlier this month, Phil Knight, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Nike, gave GOP nominee for governor Knute Buehler $1 million. That is in addition to the $500,000 he gave Buehler ’s campaign last year.

Why Does Housing In the ‘Burbs Depend on Portland Voters?

From the vantage point of Portland, Measure 26-199 looks like a slam dunk. The regional planning agency Metro aims to bite into the area’s housing shortage by raising $653 million in property taxes and using the money to build as many as 3,900 new units of affordable housing in three counties: Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas.

Why Was it So Easy For Republicans to Crowd Oregon’s November Ballot With Measures?

Notice a theme among the measures on the statewide ballot? Four of the five address conservatives’ pet causes: abortion restrictions, immigration enforcement, and bans on raising taxes.

Don’t Utilities Already Do the Things the Portland Clean Energy Measure Proposes to Do?

Measure 26-201 would place a 1 percent surcharge on the business license tax paid by Portland retailers with sales of more than $500,000 in the city and more than $1 billion nationwide. Companies that could be taxed include behemoths like Walmart and Comcast, but also less obvious stores, like REI.

Who Is Not on the Oregon Ballot But Has the Most at Stake This November?

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler. He won’t be up for re-election until 2020, but the final two years of his first term will be shaped by what happens this fall.

Who is Paying For the Attack Ads on Gov. Kate Brown?

For much of 2018, Oregon television viewers have been fed a steady diet of ads highlighting the failure of state government policies—and blaming Gov. Kate Brown. A shadowy group called Priority Oregon paid for the ads.

In the Historic Portland City Council Contest, Why Are So Many African-American Politicians Lining Up Behind the Candidate Who Trails By 25 points?

Black elected officials from across the state. State Sens. Lew Frederick (D-Portland), Jackie Winters (R-Salem) and James Manning (D-Eugene) have endorsed Smith; so have former Sens. Margaret Carter and Avel Gordly (both D-Portland), two of the first black women to serve in the state Capitol.

Willamette Week

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