Wildfires loom, groundwater is disappearing and the tenor of Oregon’s response to the most destructive symptoms of human-caused climate change hinges on a tight contest for the governor’s chair. Whoever wins will inherit a raft of aggressive climate rules and target reductions for emissions enacted by Gov. Kate Brown in 2020.
Incumbent Tonya Graham and challenger Joy Fate are running for Ashland City Council Position 2. Graham, a one-term councilor elected in 2018 who has championed climate change reform, said she believes the city has become more resilient in the face of wildfires and COVID-19, and she wants voters to give her another term to continue being part of that resiliency. Fate, a retired local media producer, said the city has made poor decisions with taxes, utility rates and planning fees, and if elected she would reverse what she sees as undue financial burdens on the people and businesses of Ashland.
Voters have a choice this November between abortion rights-backers Betsy Johnson and Tina Kotek for Oregon governor, or anti-abortion candidate Christine Drazan.
With a recent national report putting Oregon 50th in the nation for mental health care, major candidates for governor advocate divergent ways to improve the situation: Tina Kotek sees implementing Measure 110 as part of the solution, Betsy Johnson wants local agencies to find fixes the state can back, and Christine Drazan is ready to suspend regulations she sees as getting in the way of delivering care.
A coalition of Oregon news organizations asked gubernatorial candidates for their views on the state’s economy — and what specific steps they would take as governor to improve it. This story is part of a six-part series about the biggest issues facing Oregon.
Oregon has been in a housing crisis for years. The next governor will set the state’s housing policy, wielding significant influence over whether current residents and their children can remain in the state and whether employers will be able to recruit workers needed to maintain or grow their businesses.
Oregon’s governor serves as the superintendent of public instruction, appointing leaders at the Department of Education, and is ultimately responsible for ensuring the state’s students are graduating prepared for life after high school. The next woman to hold the job will face the daunting task of guiding the educational system’s recovery from pandemic losses, and navigating through an environment where education in public schools is increasingly politicized and polarized. Here’s how the three candidates said they’d tackle the job.
Three West Coast governors and a Canadian premier signed a pact to make the region the first on the continent to transition to 100% clean electricity and a low-carbon economy. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown joined California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and British Columbia Premier John Horgan in San Francisco on Oct. 6 to sign the pact, which includes commitments to create policies, investments and interstate projects that will end each state’s dependency on fossil fuels and create new green energy jobs in the coming decades.
Should healthcare be a constitutionally established right in Oregon? Should firearm purchases be further restricted? Both these questions, which are behind a pair of measures appearing on the Nov. 8 ballot, will be explored in an in-person dialogue Sunday afternoon in Ashland hosted by the Jefferson Center.
The public will have a chance to see Ashland City Council candidates air their views at a Candidate Forum on Sunday at Ashland High School sponsored by the Ashland Branch of the AAUW of Oregon and the Mountain Meadows Democrats Plus organization.
Ashland has a new mayor. The Ashland City Council unanimously elected council Chair Tonya Graham as mayor Tuesday night to succeed Julie Akins, who resigned effective Jan. 27.
Mailboxes throughout Jackson County will be filled this week with a 12-page broadsheet newspaper introducing the Rogue Valley Tribune to prospective readers. EO Media Group is getting the word out about its Medford-based news site and three-times a week printed paper with a saturation mailing to 93,000 area addresses.
How can something that goes so wrong be so right? That’s the intention in “The Play That Goes Wrong,” the opening play for the 2023 season at the Oregon Cabaret Theatre in Ashland. What makes the play amazing and uproariously fun is the googolplex litany of wrong things.
John Frank: “Our councilors just need to see the big picture and stop focusing on the small green stick-dots.”
How can chemistry be utilized to understand human impacts on the environment? That question will be answered during a Friday science seminar hosted by Southern Oregon University assistant professor Chris Babayco, Ph.D., organizers have announced.
Jim Hatton: “I have come to respect and honor them all. I am not here to say they are right or wrong. It is right for all individuals to seek their own path, what is right for them, and what inspires them.”
(It’s free)
