The latest news stories across the state of Oregon from the digital home of the Oregon coastal cities, OregonBeachMagazine.com
Monday, October 17, 2022
Oregon Beach Weather
Air Quality Alerts Along the Coast
There still is an Air Quality Alert in effect until 5 pm this evening for coastal areas including Florence and Mapleton. While the alert is in effect the current air quality index for the Florence area is good and is subject to change through the day.
Everything west of the Cascades – including much of the southern Oregon coast and all of the Washington coast – are under air quality alerts. The current air quality is compromised by wildfire smoke from fires burning in Oregon and in Washington.
More information about air quality can be found at: http://www.lrapa.org
Mussel Harvesting Closed For The Entire Coast Of Oregon
Mussel harvesting has been closed for the entire coast of Oregon. On Friday the Oregon Department of Agriculture issued the closure due to high levels of domoic acid found in the shellfish.
Razor clamming also remains closed along the coast line but bay clam and crab harvesting remains open.
In order for harvesting of the prohibited items to reopen the levels of acid must be below the danger level for two consecutive test periods. Testing occurs twice monthly.
Man Crashes Truck Into Warrenton Mini Mart
A man drove his truck through the front of the Mini Mart on Friday night, causing damage to the building but no injuries. The man said he may have hit the gas and brake pedals at the same time, according to police.
A cashier, J.D. Chauvin, was in the middle of a transaction when the truck hit the convenience store. “It sounded like a bomb went off,” he said.
The vehicle entered the store’s dining area across from Chauvin, shattering windows and knocking furniture. An employee had been sitting there moments before, according to Sgt. Jim Pierce of the Warrenton Police Department.
The driver also damaged the window frame and concrete wall, and toppled wood that had been stacked outside. He had backed out of the store by the time emergency responders arrived, Pierce said. The man will not face criminal charges, Pierce said.
Measure 111 Will Decide If Healthcare Should Be A Right For All Oregonians
Oregon voters will decide if health care should be a constitutional right. The Right to Healthcare amendment would be the first of its kind in the nation. Passage of Measure 111 would amend the state constitution to ensure that every resident has access to “cost-effective, clinically appropriate and affordable health care.”
Democratic Senator Elizabeth Steiner Hayward is a family doctor and was Chief Sponsor of the measure that was referred by the Oregon legislature. She calls the proposed amendment a “guiding principle.”
“It doesn’t create a tax. What it does is, it says ‘here is a value that Oregonians share and hold deeply enough that they want it in their constitution.’”
Private physician Sam Metz passionately supports a single payer health care system and opposes Measure 111. He says one reason is legal liability. “According to legislative legal counsel, any Oregonian who does not receive cost-effective or affordable health care has standing to sue the state.”
If Measure 111 passes in November, it would be the first amendment adopted by any U.S. state to secure the right to affordable healthcare for every resident.
As the measure reads, the state’s obligation to ensure affordable health care would have to be balanced against existing obligations including “funding public schools and other essential public services.”
And it reads that “legal remedies for lawsuits may not interfere with the balance between a right to healthcare and funding other essential public services.”
If voters pass Measure 111, it would be up to lawmakers to determine how to fulfill the state’s obligation. The measure does not contain any built-in funding.
MORE INFO: https://ballotpedia.org/Oregon_Measure_111,Right_to_Healthcare_Amendment(2022)
Measure 113 will decide in November whether to punish state lawmakers who boycott the Capitol, a tactic that Republicans have effectively used in recent years to push back against the Democratic supermajority in the Legislature.
Ballot Measure 113 would amend the Oregon Constitution to prevent lawmakers with 10 or more unexcused absences from serving their next elected term in office. It is aimed at discouraging lawmakers who are in the minority from using walkouts as a tactic to kill proposals with which they disagree. Republicans used walkouts in recent years to kill legislation seen as priorities for Democrats, including greenhouse gas cap-and-trade plans introduced in 2019 and 2020.
They were able to successfully do that because Oregon is one of just four states in the nation, along with Indiana, Tennessee and Texas, that requires two-thirds of lawmakers to be present in order to vote on bills. All other states require no more than half of the lawmakers to be present. Measure 113 would not change Oregon’s high quorum requirement.
Legislative leaders from the majority party, decide when to excuse fellow lawmakers from floor votes and Measure 113 would not change that, either. While some lawmakers regularly miss votes for personal reasons and are excused, the number missing from any one vote is low enough that voting can continue.
Public employee unions and other groups that tend to support Democratic candidates spearheaded and funded the effort to get Measure 113 on the ballot.
Democrats currently hold supermajorities in both chambers of the Legislature, as well as the governor’s office which has allowed them to power through a broad array of progressive priorities, from a minimum wage increase to statewide rent control. But Republicans in the state Senate and House have boycotted votes at the Capitol six times since 2019 in an effort to kill Democratic legislation.
In three cases, they were no-shows for just one day: to push for Democrats to slow down the pace of lawmaking in February 2020, to push for Gov. Kate Brown to return Oregon schools to in-person learning in February 2021 and in a holdout against a compromise congressional redistricting plan in 2021. House Republicans ultimately returned and allowed the redistricting plan to become law.
Senate Republicans’ two lengthier walkouts in 2019 targeted that year’s climate cap-and-trade bill, a proposal to close loopholes in Oregon’s vaccine mandate for schoolchildren and a package of gun policies including penalties for some gun owners who fail to lock up their weapons. Gov. Kate Brown killed the vaccine and gun bills in exchange for Republicans returning and allowing a vote on a new business tax to raise roughly $1 billion annually for Oregon schools. Democrats ultimately gave up on the climate bill that year, conceding that some Senate Democrats also opposed it.
In 2020, Senate Republicans walked out again to kill that year’s version of the climate bill and House Republicans joined in the boycott as a protest since the bill never left the Senate. Those walkouts shut down the legislative session early, around when COVID-19 hit Oregon.
Record Temperatures Around the State But Cooling on the Way
The northwestern United States has had its share of heat waves since early this past summer, and another bout of abnormal warmth reached a peak this weekend, AccuWeather meteorologists say.
Across much of the nation, average high temperatures tend to drop significantly as the autumn season progresses, and the Northwest is usually no exception. But this fall has been a different story.
In the case of Seattle, for example, the average high temperature typically declines from 66 to 56 from the start of October to the end of the month. Yet, so far this month, temperatures have not abided by the consistent downward trend in much of the Northwest.
Another record high temperature was set in Portland on Sunday at 86 degrees, which officially made it the hottest weekend on record in Portland for this late in the year. Records at the Portland International Airport date back to 1940.
Morning clouds will give way to afternoon sunshine and the hot/dry east wind has abated. This is good news for firefighters battling the Nakia Creek Fire in Clark County.
Even though October sunshine and short days will not support anything close to those temperature levels this time, the persistence of the warmth is rather unusual, forecasters say.
Medford, Salem, Portland and other cities in Oregon broke records for high temperatures this weekend in the state.
After the record-setting weekend of heat and strong east wind across the region, we will cool things down from the coast to the Cascades on Monday.
Community Bank Week Oct. 17-22
SALEM – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has proclaimed Oct. 17-22 as Community Bank Week. The week honors local banks and their employees for their economic and civic contributions in communities across the state.
Oregon community banks provide more than 5,800 family wage jobs through more than 375 branch and loan offices, issue $13 billion in home purchase and refinance loans, and safeguard $37 billion in deposits. They also make 80 percent of all agriculture-related loans.
Oregon’s community banks, most of which are chartered by the Division of Financial Regulation, play an essential role in promoting the economic health and prosperity of the state. In some communities, they are the sole provider of banking products and services and sometimes the largest employer. Community banks donate millions of dollars each year to nonprofits and local organizations.
“Our state banks continue to support small businesses and agriculture in Oregon, as well as provide banking services and create thousands of jobs,” said TK Keen, administrator for the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. “State banks are also invested in their communities through their 64,000 volunteer hours each year and the millions of dollars they have pledged to support nonprofits and other endeavors throughout the state.”
State-chartered banks throughout Oregon are celebrating Community Bank Week in their local neighborhoods. To learn more about Oregon’s state-chartered banks, go to https://www.oregonbankers.com/local.html.
