A service of the Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation.
By Jason Williams Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Veronica Guerin is a superb 2003 true-life story featuring Kate Blanchett as she plays the Irish journalist who took on the drug lords and was murdered for it. In the 1990’s, drugs and crime were experiencing a surge in Ireland. Newspapers were reluctant to report on it.…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Oregon voters who approved Measure 10 decriminalizing drugs thought addicts who received a $100 ticket would call a hotline to have the fee waived—and receive treatment needed to beat their addiction. But that didn’t happen. Between implementation of the law in February 2021 and September 2023, law enforcement officers…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation The real estate potential of the Portland metro area continues to linger in the bottom half of a list of 80 American cities surveyed and reviewed in the Urban Land Institute’s 2024 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report, according to the Portland Business Journal. The report ranks Portland at…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, People think that all the homeless need is a little helping hand. When drugs are involved it can make doing charity work outright dangerous. An elderly Seaside man who tried to help a homeless teenager wound up beaten with a chain and padlock, stabbed in the lung, and…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Here are some signs that the 2023 Christmas economic season may be more tenuous than predicted. #1. Retail sales slows: Retail sales have dipped in the past month as noted by Advisor Perspectives. #2. Retail spending: Spending by the retail industry is down from the last year as noted by the Wall…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation Since Russia invaded their homeland in February 2022, nearly 6 million Ukrainians have fled the carnage, seeking asylum in other European nations and throughout the world. About 4,550 have settled in Oregon, struggling to survive with little money and few possessions. More assistance may be coming their way, though,…
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation Amazon CEO and the world’s 3rd richest person, has announced he is leaving the State of Washington and moving to Florida. The NY Post notes, “If Bezos were to keep Seattle as his primary residence and maintain his current net worth of roughly $162 billion, it would mean he’d have to…
Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation Finding a place to pump gas in Eugene may be harder in the future if the Eugene City Council sides with activists and bans construction of new stations as a means to curb the use of fossil fuels, according to OPB. The city has 42 gas stations today, with two more…
(photo KGW) By Taxpayers Association of Oregon Foundation, Police have arrested a 48-year-old suspect in the early morning arson fire that damaged St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in downtown Salem in late August. Billy James Sweeten remains in Marion County Jail on charges of first-degree arson in the blaze that began in a nearby dumpster shortly…
By Taxpayer Association of Oregon Foundation In an effort to boost Oregonians’ switch to electric vehicles the Oregon Department of Transportation is granting $1.75 million in rebates to priority businesses, nonprofits, and governments to install EV charging stations. This is just part of $100 million dedicated to building Electric Vehicle stations using tax dollars. The…