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Oregon’s New Umbrella: The Rainy Day Amendment

Op-Ed: By Steve Buckstein Cascade Policy Institute.

(PORTLAND) - What if Oregon could enjoy the fastest economic growth rate of any state over the next five years? What if, over the next two years, Oregon could build a rainy day fund in excess of $2 billion to help cushion inevitable economic downturns?

The first scenario above is what actually happened in Colorado from 1995 through 2000, the first five years of its citizen-imposed spending limitation, known there as TABOR, or Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

The second scenario is what forecasters predict will happen here over the next two years if Oregonians pass a spending limitation on the November ballot known as the Rainy Day Amendment.

Tickets Now Available For Event to Benefit Salem Parks

All proceeds from the Autumn Flavors event will go to the improvement of Salem parks.

(SALEM) - The Salem Parks Foundation is partnering with South Central Association of Neighbors, or SCAN, to raise funds to benefit Salem parks.

Tickets are now available for the Autumn Flavors event, which will be held on Saturday, September 30th, from 2:00 - 5:00 PM at Willamette Valley Vineyards, 880 Enchanted Way SE, in Turner.

Tickets are $30 in advance or $35 at the door, which includes fine wine, finger foods, great silent auction items as well as an afternoon of entertainment in the high hills of the beautiful Willamette Valley Vineyards.

ODOT to Suspend Roadwork Over Labor Day Weekend

DUII enforcement patrols will be increased statewide over the three day weekend.

(SALEM) - The Oregon Department of Transportation will suspend construction activities on all state highways over the upcoming Labor Day weekend.

In an effort to ease congestion and improve traffic flow, all ODOT-controlled construction activity that affects travel lanes on Oregon highways will shut down beginning at noon on Friday.

Work activities will not resume until Tuesday, Sept. 5th.

“We’ll do everything we can to help travelers safely get to where they’re going, with minimal disruption,” said Jeff Scheick, ODOT Northwest Region manager.

Former Prosecutor Tells Why Oregon`s Drug Courts Work

This guest opinion is by Judge Robert Selander of Clackamas County Drug Court. Selander is president of the Oregon Association of Drug Court Professionals.

(CLACKAMAS) - When I was Curry County deputy district attorney in the early 1970s I sought long penitentiary sentences for most drug offenders. I believed prison was the ultimate sanction. I was wrong.

Practice has shown that putting people behind bars doesn't affect their drug use. For many offenders jail is a social club where old friends meet. Released addicts simply go back to their other friends, old neighborhoods and addictions.

What works for many offenders is drug court.

18-year-old Female Stopped And Handcuffed by Man Impersonating a Police Officer

The suspect then fled the area in his vehicle described as a early 80's red Ford Bronco.

(CANBY) - Canby police are asking for the public’s help in locating a man who impersonated a police officer and stopped a female driver and handcuffed her Wednesday night.

Canby police spokesman Chris Mead says at about 11:15 PM...

Olympia Vernon Reads at Friends of the Library Event

(SALEM) - New Hallie Ford Chair Olympia Vernon will read from her novels Monday, September 18th at 4:30 PM in the Hatfield Room of the Hatfield Library at Willamette University. Light refreshments will be served at 4:15 PM. The reading is free to the public.

Olympia Vernon’s raw and formidable talents are on arresting display in earlier novels, “Eden”and “Logic.” Her third novel, “A Killing in This Town,” is a taut, poetic masterpiece that exhumes a horrific epoch from the annals of the American South.

There is a menace in the woods of Bullock County, Miss., and not only for the black man destined to be lynched when a white boy comes of age. The white men who work at the Pauer Plant are in danger, too, but they turn a deaf ear to the black pastor’s urgent warning that the factory is slowly killing them.

Razor Clamming Opens Along Most of the Coast

(NEWPORT) - All beaches south of Tillamook Head will be open to razor clamming effective 12:01 AM Wednesday, Aug. 30th, ending a domoic acid-caused closure along the central coast, state fishery and agricultural officials announced today.

Laboratory tests indicate domoic acid in razor clams collected from beaches south of Tillamook head are within the safe range (below 20 parts per million).

All Oregon beaches are now open to razor clamming except Clatsop beaches (north of Tillamook Head to the Oregon-Washington border) which are normally closed July 15th- Oct. 1st to protect newly set or juvenile clams.

Report: U.S. Child-Support Receipt Up; Reliance on Public Assistance Down

About 45 percent of custodial parents due child support received the full amount, and about 76 percent received at least some child support in 2003.

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - More child support is being received, and a rise in employment rates of custodial parents match a decline in participation in public assistance programs, according to a report released by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The report, Custodial Mothers and Fathers and Their Child Support: 2003, reveals that 7 million custodial parents received 69 percent of the money owed to them by the noncustodial parent. Thirty percent were receiving assistance from the government.

This was an improvement from 1999, when custodial parents were collecting just 59 percent of the money. Forty-one percent were relying on public help in 1993.

Summer Chinook Returns at Bonneville Dam Exceed 10-Year Average

Over 67,000 summer chinook were counted passing the Bonneville Dam between June 16th and July 31st, beating the 10-year average for the same time period by 24,000.

(PORTLAND) - The number of returning summer chinook salmon greatly exceeded the 10-year average according to the federal agencies responsible for salmon recovery efforts in the Federal Columbia River Hydro System.

Semi-Truck Crushes Small Car in Salem

Both the driver and the passenger had to be extricated by fire crews.

(SALEM) - Salem firefighters arriving on the scene of a crash just before 11:00 AM Tuesday morning found two people trapped inside a small car with a semi-truck on top of it.

The wreck happened at the intersection of Liberty and Pine Streets NE. Deputy Fire Marshall Chris Riffle says the alarm led to the response of 3 Engines, 1 Ladder Truck, and a Battalion Chief.

Firefighter/Paramedics arriving on the scene discovered that the semi-truck hit the passenger vehicle that was heading north on Liberty and the front of the car was literally pushed all the way to the ground.