After new DMV law went into effect, the number of applicants for driver's licenses decrease

The Portland Tribune


After Ted (tax-and-gouge-me) Kulongoski had issued an executive order in November , which is due to take effect February 4, the number of people taking the test in Spanish fell over 80% versus that of English, Russian, Vietnamese, Chinese or Japanese.

Kulongoski argued that Senate Bill 1080, which required applicants to present more documents to prove their identity and their legal presence in order to obtain a driver's license in Oregon was needed to help prevent identity theft and other public safety problems.

Before the law, Oregon had been one of a handful of states that did not require drivers license applicants to prove that they were here legally. Also, Oregon grants licenses for eight years which is longer than many other states.

Immigrant rights advocates said that the law will harm Oregon economy by making it more difficult for undocumented workers to get jobs.
I believe that was the whole point.

"That means that little by little, they're not going to do their work," said Marco Mejia, Portland area director of the American Friends Service Committee Immigration Program. That will have a dramatic impact on organ farms, hotels, restaurants and other businesses that rely on immigrant [illegal slave] labor.

Ultimately, the law will drive up the cost of food for Oregonians. The effect is going to be totally negative to the overall community."

The "American Friends Service Committee Immigration Program"?!?
whatever... it is obviously just another group advocating that subwage labor should be allowed and tolerated, oh yes, there is also that little issued that these people are not supposed to be here in the first place and really do not have any right to work in the United States.

Yes I know, another technicality.

While it is more of a pain in the butt to have to show multiple pieces of identification to get a drivers license, I will have to applaud Kulongoski for waking up long enough to take a stand on this issue. While in my opinion, he claims that it is to help prevent identity theft, personally I think it has something more to do with the fact that Homeland security was not going to accept an Oregon drivers license as valid identification, however I digress.

Make a lot of noise… And sooner or later somebody will pass a law

The Oregonian

This is what may be happening for bike riders in the Portland area. Senator Floyd Prozanski's has a plan for Portland to be the nation's first mandatory bicycle helmet law for all riders.

"All I'm saying is that I think it's time for the state, when we want to promote more use of bicycles, to ensure better safety for everyone."

Currently Oregon law only requires riders younger than 17 years of age to wear a helmet.

bike riders in both Eugene and Portland have been making such a stink for so long, and trying to "convince us" to get out of our cars, that the "overkill, we are not smart enough to think for ourselves and government should do it for us," idiots are jumping on this bandwagon. Of course, these are the same people that would like to wrap our kids in bubble wrap and have them live in a sterilized world.

And why stop at bike helmets? how many injuries have occurred in last year from people simply going down a staircase? Should we start requiring them to wear helmets or safety harnesses to prevent injury?

In my opinion, wearing a helmet either on a bicycle or a motorcycle should be of one's choice.

LTD to add a new tax to our property taxes? (I don't think so)

The Register Guard

The lane transit district will consider putting the first property tax measure in its 30 a year history on the November ballot, citing increase costs and fuel prices. If the property tax measure is approved, it would eliminate plans for the second biggest cuts to service in LTD history.

The measure would raise five million dollars per year and would cost the average household anywhere from $25.00 to $40.00 per year.

"...if the economy rebounds and payroll tax receipts improve, the board could choose not to collect the tax — or collect only a portion of it — in a given year," spokesman Andy Vobora said.

Hey, here's an idea… How about delaying the EmX until we could really afford (justify) it. That alone, might save LTD enough to avoid cuts and layoffs.

Gads... where does the time go???

Yes, despite the rumor, I am still here.

there are so many things to blog about and so little time however, that is going to change soon.
two things that will change soon are...

1. working nights and having no time for anything else.

2. slow internet connection! (makes looking up news items a very slow process, ah, what we take for granted)

these changes should take place in a couple of weeks.

Thanks for checking back.

Robin

Teddy does not like Bush's idea of off shore drilling. really? what a surprise!

KATU

In response to President Bush's call vote of Congress to lift the Federal ban on oil and Gas Drilling off American coast, Oregon governor Ted "tax and gauge me" Kulongoski [not surprisingly] was unmoved by the calls to open coastal waters to Oil Drilling.

Kulongoski commented on Wednesday that it would be a " short sighted response to a long-term issue of creating a sustainable and secure and domestic energy economy."
first of all, nobody said that drilling on coastal waters was the "cure all" to the energy issue, however, it is an option that is currently at hand.

While I do not think anybody disputes that the country must move towards new technologies and fuels, the problem is that is not something that is going to happen overnight.

And it is not just the fuel that we put in our cars that rely on oil. Plastics and other materials also rely on oil.

Federal government taking steps to crack down on illegal immigration

Fox News--

An executive order signed on Friday by President Bush which would require all Federal departments and agency's that use contractors in an effort to crack down on illegal immigration would be required to verify that the workers are eligible to work within the United States.

The order came after a worker verification bill was stalled in Congress, which would have required employers to check the citizenship and legal status of ALL their employees. libertarians however said that the E-verify system is flawed and it would lead to discrimination and job loss by U.S. citizens that are wrongly identified as being illegal.

The executive order states, "it is the policy of the executive branch to reinforce fully the immigration laws of the United States, including the detention and removal of illegal aliens and the imposition of legal sanctions against employers that hire illegal aliens."

Individual states had already begun passing their own laws to keep employers from hiring illegal aliens after Congress had failed to pass a comprehensive immigration bill in 2006.

Fuel prices are at record highs and the city of Springfield is considering charging households a road maintenance fee

The Registerguard-

A committee of residents appointed earlier this year by mayor Sid Leiken with the help of the 11 member task force, has concluded that by charging everyone with a Springfield address fee for road maintenance dubbed " street preservation fee" of $1.75 per month could raise up to one million dollars annually.

According to assistant public works Director Len Goodwin, larger stores that generate a great deal of traffic could wind up paying several hundred dollars per year in road maintenance fees.

“If we do not address the issue here and now, we will address the issue in the future in a much more severe way,” committee member Neal Zoumboukos told councilors. “We must be proactive.”

Other recommendations for raising money included raising the city gas tax (yeah right), a property tax levy and studded tire fees.

“We would lose a tremendous amount of credibility if we put a gas tax (increase) out right now,” Leiken said. “The option presented by the task force is something I’m very interested in pursuing.”

The main cause of the street funding dilemma was from the loss of funds from Federal timber county payments.

So far according to the league of Oregon cities, 19 cities in the state are collecting local fees to fund road repairs.

Gosh Batman, I think I know where we can get $49,000,000… Oh I'm sorry, that money is reserved for the EmX.

Lane county job cuts -lack of income or mismanagement?

KMTR-

For lane county, Thursday was considered D-Day for some lane county employees as the county cuts 8% of its workforce as a result of Congress not renewing the $47,000,000 annual Federal timber payments.

A short term solution was for Eugene and Springfield to swap County road funds for general fund money, keeping some county services intact however, under the new budget constraints, more jail beds will go empty and more criminals will go back on the street.

"That means that people assaulting other people, with knives for example, or have terrible criminal background -those people are going to be released. There is no way around that, says chief deputy district Atty. Alex Gardner. " that's bad. That doesn't happen in other places."

Gardner continued by saying " the system is in collapse today and is only going to get much worse."

I will have to agree with Gardner… However, let's also not forget that it is the D A's Office which continually advertises which crimes it refuses to prosecute.

So what about a long-term solution for the budget? Perhaps one place to start would be setting priorities for Eugene and where it is a community wants to go.

For example, which is more important? A multimillion dollar bus line or the protection of our citizens?

The old argument "it came out of a different budget" is flawed because no matter how you look at it, it is still " right pocket, left pocket, it is still all the same pair of pants".

With the cost of fuel skyrocketing, government and private sector budgeting is going to become much tighter and more businesses will close their doors, forcing more people will be out of work. That means that the crime rate will also increase, especially as the funds available for public safety decrease.

As the city of Eugene has already experienced with the old Sears building, if the area is not considered " safe", businesses will refuse to relocate to Eugene and banks as with the old Sears building, will refuse to give loans for construction.

And the list goes on…

Is it just me... or has the political race been focusing on the stupid?

Chicago Tribune--

It seems like Senator Brock Obama for example has spent more time during this race for the presidency defending or more accurately apologizing for who he associated with as a child, his ministers bigmouth, and being knit picked for every stupid little thing.

Most recently, it was the word "sweetie" in response to a female reporter's question to him.

Obama remarked, ""Hold on one second, sweetie. We'll do a press avail, thanks."

The media and all the PC crowd of course threw out the red flags and commented of just how offensive the word "sweetie" was to that young lady.

The reporter who asked the question commented that she was not offended at all being called sweetie, however, she was more offended by the fact that he did not answer her question.

Shortly after the incident, Obama left a message on the reporters home answering machine apologizing for the use of the word and commented that he meant no disrespect.

I guess my thinking is what should we be more concerned about... that somebody should have to walk on egg shells as they try to express their message to the people and the possibility that their message may be misconstrued and the focus of that message is more on the error then the content of the message itself?

I personally am old tired of the "he said, she said, finger-pointing politics" which distracts from the real issues at hand.

City of Portland donates $200,000 to day labor site

the Portland Tribune

A controversial day labor site in the city of Portland on Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Everett street has been delayed from May 6 to June 16, 2008 in order to have time to organize the program, award contracts and work out a good neighbor agreement with nearby businesses.

The program led by Mayor Tom Potter and the Portland city Council awarded the nonprofit Voz: workers rights in education Project $200,000 in city funds to operate the site for two years.

Potter and other supporters believe that the workers needed shelter, protection from abuse and places to stand that doesn't disrupt nearby businesses and traffic.


Pablo Alvarado, executive director of the Los Angeles National Day Laborer Organizing Network, commented that the delay with was a wise idea after visiting the site.“I think there has to be more intensive outreach effort toward employers. The first challenge is to maintain same number of jobs you get at the corner, and have to have nicer infrastructure. If you have an empty lot, how do you expect workers to come in? What’s the difference between that and the streets?”
Not everybody is in favor of the idea of having a day labor site in their area. "Having that many people concentrated in one area, what's going to happen?", Said Richmond of Ed's Auto Lectric.

what about employment agencies? I was under the impression that is traditionally where employers would go to find workers and more importantly, why is the city funding a project like this?

Although it is easy to say that stereotypically day labor sites are used for illegals, the sign in front of the new site reinforces a certain segment of the population. The colorful hand-painted sign posted on the fence reads.... N “La Nueva Fecha Para abrirel centro es el 16 De Junio. The new opening date of the day labor center is June 16. — gracias.”