No one would describe the Oregon Senate, with an average age of 61, as having a particularly youthful energy. But now, middle and high schoolers are helping the Senate start its day. The colors ceremony, in which people carry and present the American and state flags ahead of the Pledge of Allegiance, is one of […]
Close to 2,000 middle and high school students across the Salem-Keizer School District walked out of their classrooms Friday to gather across from the Capitol, rallying for increased support for immigrant communities in Salem. The youth advocacy organization Latinos Unidos Siempre organized the rally after an inquiry from 16-year-old McKay High School student Arely Rodriguez, […]
While legislators are supposed to represent their constituents, it’s not often that a letter from an Oregon teen leads to a law. However, Kailee Desmond, a Lake Oswego teen, sought to change this. As someone with severe allergies, she saw that EpiPens and other needle injections were the only ways for schools to administer the […]
As Oregon lawmakers weigh how to balance the state’s budget, hundreds of Oregonians visited the Capitol to plead with them not to cut funding for public defense, career and technical education and kids with disabilities. In the fall, Gov. Tina Kotek asked all state agencies to put together proposed cuts of 2.5% and 5% to […]
Hundreds of Oregonians turned out across Portland and in Salem to protest against federal agents shooting people in Portland and Minneapolis, as well as U.S. military action in Venezuela. Several groups quickly organized Saturday’s events after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer shot and killed an unarmed woman in her vehicle in Minneapolis, federal Customs […]
Speaking through plexiglass holes, strict 30-minute time limits and threats of trespassing — these are some of the conditions immigration lawyers in Oregon say they’ve faced while trying to provide legal representation to clients detained by federal immigration enforcement officials.  Since President Donald Trump took office in January, immigration lawyers in Oregon say they’ve experienced […]
Concerns over aggressive federal immigration enforcement dominated Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield’s final town hall of the year. About 150 people attended Wednesday night’s event at Portland Community College’s Sylvania Campus, where Senate President Rob Wagner, a Lake Oswego Democrat who represents the area in the state Legislature, joined Rayfield. Over the course of an […]
Oregon state Rep. Annessa Hartman, D-Gladstone, announced Tuesday that she has been diagnosed with Stage 3 cervical cancer. Hartman’s announcement came the day after lawmakers gathered to memorialize her friend and fellow Portland-area Democratic Rep. Hòa Nguyễn, who died from cancer at age 41 in October. Hartman, 37, and Nguyễn both won swing districts in […]
