I went to Salem on Monday for the first day of the three Legislative days. I watched two other committtees on zoom. It is great Oregonians value open public meetings and access. Salem was dominated by the state's latest revenue forecast, the complex task of budgeting against the backdrop of federal funding uncertainty caused by the federal budget bill H.R. 1, the shut down, and enduring issues in the state's schools. 💰 Revenue and State Finances Oregon lawmakers received a

Voting by mail isn’t new. We’ve been doing it for generations. Absentee ballots were used by soldiers during the Civil War, and in World War II, ballots were sent to troops overseas. Some southern states objected back then — not because of logistics, but because those ballots included African-American soldiers. So it’s no surprise that restricting access to the ballot box is still a tactic used to keep certain groups from participating. In plain terms: limiting who can vote l