Intel drops 1200 Oregonians (3x more if Measure 118 passes)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon OregonWatchdog.com Intel announced that it is laying off 1,200 Oregon workers in the Portland Metro area.   Nationwide, Intel is expected to lay off a total of 15,000 workers.   This comes after Biden awarded Intel $8 billion in CHIPS Act grants.  This means the industry as a whole is in deep…

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Oregon, Alaska wildly lead nation’s drug boom (chart)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, As Axios reports, drug deaths via overdose are steeply falling across the United States, just not in Oregon or Alaska. According to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from the dates of May of 2023 and April of 2024, Oregon witnessed nearly 1,900 overdose deaths.…

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Oregon 20% hop crop drop

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Oregon is witnessing a near 20% decline in hop crop harvesting. This is the second year in a row. This follows a national decline in beer sales. At the same time of Oregon’s 20% drop, local politicians are pushing an alcohol tax on Oregonians to discourage drinking among adults…

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Graphic maps out Israel-Hamas war

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, In light of Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu’s, visit to Congress this week, we created this graphic to map out the Israel-Hamas conflict. As the graphic shows, Israel is being attacked by forces within six different nations, all supplied by Iran.  It also shows some of the 120 attacks…

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Schools get billions more, kids drop out anyway

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Absenteeism that started with the Covid-19 pandemic has morphed into a crisis with nearly half of all Oregon students listed as chronically absent in a newly released 2024 Kids County Data Book report. The data book, which evaluates the well-being of children throughout all 50 states, ranked Oregon children…

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Multnomah County continues free tent program

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation Portland city officials cleared 4,000 homeless encampments last year after a 2022 lawsuit contended tents blocked access on public sidewalks needed by people with disabilities, which equated to between 8,000 and 12,000 tents. But at the same time, the Joint Office of Homeless Services—a collaboration between the city and…

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Inflation is holding on (chart)

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Inflation rose in recent months, with year-over-year inflation holding steady around three percent. Healing supply chains, and slower wage gains are largely responsible for slowing the rate from 2022, but inflation is still far from the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. The Fed believes that inflation will slow further in…

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State makes $2.9 billion mistake

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Unintentional accounting errors by Oregon state officials totaled $2.9 billion in 2023, state auditors concluded. That means state agencies failed to keep clear track of extra tax money received during the Covid-19 pandemic, the Oregon Secretary of State’s office reported. Auditors who reviewed paperwork from 18 federal programs allocating…

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School bans military stole at graduation

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Officials at Reynolds High School in Troutdale refused to let graduates who enlisted in the military wear the stoles of their chosen armed services branches, prompting outrage from their families. Angel Lopez Lane, who enlisted in the Marines, planned to wear his stole when he crossed the stage to…

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Chart: Unusual gap in job numbers

By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Here is some data point from the job numbers: • Foreign born workers (which includes illegal migrants) vastly outpaced American born workers. • 433,000 people have left the labor force in May 2024. • 100,000 of these workers being defined as discouraged workers. • Those holding multiple jobs increased…

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