Oregon

Understanding The Oregon Militia

January 10, 2016 Les Zaitz, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Carbon infrastructure, Federal land management, Fracking, Mandatory Sentencing, Oregon, Oregon Militia

By Les Zaitz for the Oregonian. Rep. Walden intended, he said, to quickly make points about grazing permits, the proposal for a 2.5 million acre national monument in Malheur County and other Western issues. He started talking at 7:25 p.m. Eastern time to a nearly-empty chamber. "I got up there and 17 years of working with farmers and ranchers and folks in eastern Oregon just poured out," Walden said. He described it as an "artesian well of emotion." He talked of knowing the Hammond ranching family of Diamond for nearly two decades. The patriarch, Dwight Hammond Jr., and his son Steven went to prison the day before Walden's speech. They were convicted on arson charges for burning federal land – a case that triggered the militia to rally in Burns. He recounted episode after episode of what he said was arrogant federal bureaucracies hampering rural Oregon. "Do you understand how frustrated I am at this? Can you imagine how the people on the ground feel?"

America’s History of Protest and Its Ironies

January 9, 2016 Heather Ann Thompson, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Bundy, Indigenous Rights, Oregon, Wounded Knee

By Heather Ann Thompson for The Huffington Post - When scores of ranchers donning cowboy hats and rifles began their occupation of a remote outpost in Oregon last Saturday, it was by no means the first time in American history that a group of armed men and women had staged a dramatic occupation out West and made demands of the federal government. The men who recently barricaded themselves in the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge -- a federal building near Burns, Oregon -- are there, they say, because they must take a stand against the numerous "atrocities," committed against them by the federal government.

Organic Farmers Score Victory In ‘David And Goliath’ GMO Fight

January 6, 2016 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Resist! Food and Agriculture, GMOs, Monsanto, Oregon, Pesticides

By Nadia Prupis for Common Dreams - Jackson County, Oregon wins new protections against cultivation of genetically engineered crops. Organic farmers are racking up new victories in the fight against 'franken-food', as a growing number of counties line up to bar genetically engineered (GE) crop cultivation throughout the country. A federal judge in Jackson County, Oregon recently upheld a consent decree that designates the region a "GE-free zone," a ruling which officially protects the decree from appeal, granting new protections to farmers, consumers, and the environment.

How Media Transformed Right-Wing ‘Willing To Kill’ Extremists

January 5, 2016 Staff, www.fair.org Educate! Media, Militia, Oregon, White Privilege

By Staff of FAIR - Of all extremist groups, the far right is consistently given the kindest news coverage in US corporate media. This weekend, the world witnessed a prime example of such friendly treatment in action. Armed far-right anti-government militants occupied a federal building in Oregon late on January 2 and announced they would remain there indefinitely. Although the armed occupation was ostensibly organized to protest the imprisonment of ranchers on arson charges, the ultra-conservative militants made it clear from the beginning that they were willing to use violence, and hoped to inspire a larger anti-government uprising.

Breaking: Protesters Dangle From Bridge To Block Shell

July 29, 2015 Stuart Tomlinson, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Arctic drilling, Kyactivists, Oil, Oregon, sHell No

By Stuart Tomlinson for Oregon Live, Activists Protesting Oil Drilling Demonstrators took to the river in kayaks and hung from ropes off the St. Johns bridge to protest shell drilling for oil in the Arctic region. Saying they have enough supplies to last for days, a group of 13 Greenpeace activists rappelled off the St. Johns Bridge over the Willamette River early Wednesday in an effort to block a Shell Oil Arctic icebreaker from leaving Portland. According to Annie Leonard, executive director for Greenpeace USA, the group is trying to prevent passage of Shell's MSV Fennica, which has been in a dry dock on Swan Island where a tear in the hull was being repaired. "Every second we stop Shell counts," Leonard said. "The brave climbers here in Portland are now what stand between Shell and Arctic oil. This is President Obama's last chance to wake up and realize the disaster that could happen on his watch."

Portland Police Arrest Man Locked To Barrel In TPP Protest

May 10, 2015 Stuart Tomlinson, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Climate Change, climate crisis, Oregon, TPP

Portland police arrested a man who locked himself to a concrete barrel at a Northwest Portland fuel terminal Friday morning. He was protesting the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement and the export of fossil fuels. Tim Oscar Norgren, 41, of Stevenson, Washington, a member of Teamsters Local 320, locked himself to the barrel on railroad tracks outside the Arc Logistics Partners' terminal at 5044 N.W. Front Ave. on Thursday. Police arrived to remove him at around 9:30 a.m. A spokesman for the Portland Rising Tide said Norgren timed his protest to coincide with President Obama's visit to Oregon. Portland Rising Tide was formed, according to its website, to "promote community-based solutions to the climate crisis" by direct action. At the same time as Norgren was being removed by Portland police, more than 50 protesters from groups such as the Oregon Fair Trade Campaign and unions like Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 gathered outside the Nike World Headquarters campus in Washington County, where Obama was speaking. "I'm locked down today in part because climate change is an issue of survival inextricably linked to so-called 'free trade' globalization efforts like the TPP," Norgren.

Portland City Council’s Earth Day Session Disrupted

April 24, 2015 Ted Sickinger, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Activism, Environment, Oregon, Portland

Portland City commissioners walked out of their Earth Day hearing Wednesday after opponents of a proposed propane export terminal in North Portland staged a small demonstration in council chambers. The council will vote soon on whether to amend zoning at the Port of Portland's Terminal 6 to allow the propane terminal to build a pipeline over land that is currently zoned for conservation. The vote has not been scheduled, but opponents have vowed a long and loud campaign to derail the project, proposed by a Canadian company, Pembina Pipeline. Wednesday's protest shook up Mayor Charlie Hales, who expressed strong support for the $500 million terminal project when it was first announced last September, and claimed it met all environmental and safety standards before any analysis had been presented on that front.

Oregonians Are ‘Mad as Hell’ About Trade Deals

March 28, 2015 Alison Rose Levy, www.truthdig.com Resist! Food and Agriculture, Oregon, TTIP

According to people I’ve talked to on the ground in Oregon, that may be something close to what many residents there are feeling right now. But instead of shouting out the window, Oregonians are petitioning and phoning their senator, Ron Wyden, to ask him to oppose granting so-called fast track authority to President Obama. Granting that authority would allow the president to speed two dangerous international trade pacts through Congress, and Wyden, the ranking member of the Senate Committee on Finance, is a critically important figure whose support will be necessary for the passage of the agreements—known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, or TTIP.

Oregon Is First State To Adopt Automatic Voter Registration

March 17, 2015 Sheila V Kumar, www.AP.com Create! Oregon, Voter Rights

Seventeen years after Oregon decided to become the first state to hold all elections with mail-in ballots, it took another pioneering step on Monday to broaden participation by automatically registering people to vote. Gov. Kate Brown signed a bill that puts the burden of registration on the state instead of voters. Under the legislation, every adult citizen in Oregon who has interacted with the Driver and Motor Vehicle Services Division since 2013 but hasn't registered to vote will receive a ballot in the mail at least 20 days before the next statewide election. The measure is expected to add about 300,000 new voters to the rolls. "It just changes expectations for who's responsible for making elections work," said Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and director of the Elections Research Center.

Wyden’s Internet Freedom Allies Fret He’ll Abandon Them

March 14, 2015 Jeff Mapes, www.oregonlive.com Resist! Congress, Internet, Oregon, TPP

Sen. Ron Wyden was greeted Friday morning at his Umatilla town hall meeting by a 30-foot-long blimp urging him to oppose an upcoming trade pack that critics say could curb internet freedom. Activists from Fight for the Future -- a Boston-based nonprofit that works on a variety of open internet issues -- planned to tote its rented blimp around to three other Wyden town halls Friday and Saturday in La Grande, Baker City and Ontario. For grassroots groups like Fight for the Future, the Oregon Democrat has always been one of their biggest champions in Congress. He's been with them on everything from fighting government electronic surveillanceto playing a key role in blocking anti-piracy legislation sought by Hollywood and other big content producers.

Wyden, If You Support FastTrack Your Career Is Toast!

February 21, 2015 Flush the TPP, www.flushthetpp.org Educate! Elections, Oregon, TPP

Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden could face challenges in his new 2016 reelection fight if he votes with Senate Republicans in favor of the job-killing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the so-called “Fast Track” Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) many in Washington believe is needed for passing it. According to the new poll conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) on behalf of Democracy for America, half (50%) of all Oregon voters would be less likely to vote for Senator Wyden in his 2016 reelection if he voted for fast track authority and the TPP. Senator Wyden is widely believed to be one of the Senate Democrats most likely to work with Republicans and the White House to secure passage of TPA and the TPP.

Could A Community Bill Of Rights Stop A Pipeline?

February 19, 2015 Jes Burns, www.opb.org Strategize! Community, Environment, Fracking, Law, Oregon

Southern Oregon communities along a proposed natural gas pipeline route are looking for creative ways to stop the project. Douglas and Coos County residents hope a Community Bill of Rights will give them a legal avenue to assert local control. The pipeline for the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export terminal in Coos Bay would run through the property of Stacey McLaughlin. She doesn’t want it there. And speaking out before government officials has been less than satisfying. “It feels like a waste of my time,” she said. So McLaughlin is organizing her Douglas County neighbors to enact a community bill of rights. It would give cities and counties the legal grounds to say no to projects that violate local values.

Protestors Swamp LNG Meeting

January 31, 2015 Kyle Spurr, www.dailyastorian.com Resist! Energy, Environment, Oregon

Local activists opposed to a project that would ship liquefied natural gas from the Skipanon Peninsula near the mouth of Columbia River crammed into the Warrenton Community Center Tuesday night for a public meeting, hosted by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. The activists, dressed in red T-shirts that said “I am not an LNG acceptable risk,” were mostly part of Columbia Riverkeepers, an advocacy group against the proposed Oregon LNG project. The controversial project, which the activists protested before the public meeting, relies on multiple permit approvals being considered by the Oregon DEQ, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development

Deep Questions Over Portland’s Corporate Water Takeover

January 8, 2015 Victoria Collier, www.truth-out.org Educate! EPA, Oregon, Privatization, Water

A simmering water war is about to come to a boil over the fate of historic, well-loved public reservoirs in Portland, Oregon. At the heart of the controversy is a breakdown in public trust that reflects the dangers of corporate-led water privatization schemesin the United States and around the world. In an emotionally charged public meeting on November 18, 2014, Portland residents bombarded two of their city commissioners with questions about what they believe is a cronyism-driven plan to kill the elegant, gravity-fed, open water reservoir system that has reliably served their city safe, clean drinking water for more than 100 years.

GMO Labeling Campaign Claims Opponents Playing Dirty

December 6, 2014 Tracy Loew, www.statesmanjournal.com Organize! Elections, GMOs, Law, Oregon

The No on 92 Coalition attempted to place out-of-state election observers in at least four Oregon counties Tuesday, in violation of state law, proponents are complaining. Measure 92, which would require foods containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled, failed by just 812 votes during the first, computerized tally last month. A hand recount began Tuesday in 19 counties and continues in the rest through Dec. 9. Under Oregon law, each campaign may authorize an observer to watch each counting table. Authorized observers must be registered Oregon voters. But out-of-state observers still registered and showed up in Marion, Multnomah, Linn and Benton Counties, said Dave Murphy of Food Democracy Now, which is helping coordinate volunteers for the Yes on 92 Campaign.

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