The legal strife over an Albany rail line lasted about five years, but now the city and two railroads have put it behind them and embarked on an new era of cooperation. At least that was the hope expressed by city officials Wednesday night when the Albany City Council unanimously gave final approval to a new […]
As soon as the Supreme Court came out with its ruling striking down a key section of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, President Obama and others complained. They made it sound as though voting rights were in grave danger. But the critics are completely off base. Citizens can find out what the court actually […]
After about a year on his $280,000-a-year job, Rudy Crew is leaving to become a college president in New York City. Last year Governor Kitzhaber hired him as Oregon’s first chief education officer to oversee what the governor and others see as a program to improve public education from kindergarten through graduate school. He signed […]
The latest Supreme Court opinion on racial discrimination shows that we’re still a long, long way from putting that problem behind us. The basic principle is that under the Constitution, it’s wrong for the government to treat people differently because of their race. But the court has made exceptions in the area of admissions to […]
On a recent ride I couldn’t help but notice this row of unusual — at least to me — plants at a nursery in the northeast corner of Linn County. It looks like kind of a palm tree to me. Nobody was around to ask. If anybody knows what these things are, please send me an email. From Rynni Henderson, via […]
Albany’s downtown urban renewal program is about to restart with a sharper focus on encouraging job creation and increasing the taxable value of the revitalization district known as CARA. For the past year, the program has been on hold while urban renewal manager Kate Porsche led the 14-member CARA advisory committee in monthly discussions of […]
House wants more ‘voters’
Over the objections of 28 members, mostly Republicans, the Oregon House has passed a curious bill that aims to get every citizen in the state registered as a voter whether they want to be or not. It would work this way. The DMV has a record of every citizen with a driver’s license. Under HB 3521, if […]
Tags: HB 3521, Kate Brown, Oregon voting