Gov. Kate Brown is sharpening her tone around the troubling amounts of cadmium, arsenic, and maybe chromium that have turned up in the air around Portland glass factories. In a release yesterday, Brown detailed steps she believes the state needs to take—many of which, it should be noted, appear to already have been planned by the Department of Environmental Quality and Oregon Health Authority. Among the things Brown is calling for: more air and soil tests, working with the federal government to study glass factories around the country, and providing resources to neighbors of Bullseye Glass and Uroboros Glass who want to be tested for exposure to the carcinogens.
One other tidbit: Bullseye has relented in its refusal to stop using chromium 3, a typically safe compound that can oxidize to become the more toxic chromium 6. Last week, Bullseye agreed to suspend use of chromium 6 in its products, but refused to stop using chromium 3, as the DEQ had asked.
And Bullseye, while not returning calls to some media outfits, is inviting TV reporters inside to check out its operations.
In other Kate Brown news, the gov’s come out in support of a minimum wage proposal Democratic leaders decided they liked better than hers. That gives new legs to a plan that would assign Oregon three separate minimum wages, depending on geography. It might not mollify brewing ballot campaigns with their own ideas, though.
And how’s Brown faring after a year in office, anyway? Maybe better now that the minimum wage deal looks like it’s got legs, but there are questions. The Turncoat Denis C. Theriault offered up this synopsis over the weekend.
Who shot Oregon refuge occupier LaVoy Finicum? Plenty of people want to know, including, of course, some perfectly sane individuals who’ve sworn harm against the Oregon State Police officer behind Finicum’s death. Now, legislators are trying to push through a bill to protect that officer’s name—for a while at least. The Oregon ACLU says it’s neutral on the concept—provided the bill’s not used to protect officers’ identities in other cases.
Uber’s lowered its prices! Which of course means it’s lowered what thousands of local drivers make per fare. The company says that will even out when business comes flooding in, but drivers obviously don’t like the pay cut.
The O‘s music critic is sick of readers being racist, realizes there’s nothing he can do about it.
It’s official: Senate Republicans are going to block whomever President Obama nominates to fill Antonin Scalia’s billowing robes—unless some drastic change in the political winds forces them to abandon. Par for the course and all that, but the obstructionism could amount to the longest wait any of the past 12 successful nominees have experienced. Obama, remember, is your president until January 20.
Despite this, someone’s going to be nominated. Who might it be? Here’s a rundown.
“Magic flying puppies with winning Lotto tickets tied to their collars” and other things liberal economists are calling Bernie Sanders’ sunny predictions for how much single-payer health care might cost. Sanders’ people say they’re in the tank for Hillary.
The hysterical concern over how to pay for Bernie’s plans is hilarious. Nobody worries about how we afford the F-35. https://t.co/PhstjXx1Qx
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) February 16, 2016
Looks like maybe our annual dose of February sunshine has passed.
