This is absolutely something that should have been done via legislation, not executive order.

And all that money being collected from gas companies in taxes/fees? Not being administered by the government, not accountable in any way, just being funneled all to a single non-profit: "Seeding Justice" , a "Portland-based nonprofit that deals in social, racial and environmental justice". Which I'm sure has no ties to Kotek, none at all. Estimated to be over $150M.

Their list of grants they have handed out looks like it's straight out of a Tucker Carlson monologue about crazy things "the woke marxist left" is doing. One of my favorite lines was a grant for "full-spectrum doula training specific to sex workers". Stuff like this is red meat for Oregon conservatives.

Love to see America taking up this free speech fight again. EU has gotten out of control.

On the one hand, this is some nanny state bullshit. On the other, fuck gas leafblowers I will hate that sound.

I enjoy a lot of PBS and NPR programs, but it is weird AF to me that people want the government to subsidize the media.

1. The job of the media is to hold the government to account. They can't do that if they're funded by the government.
2. If people appreciate this media, they can pay for it, like they already do with their tax dollars. I see no reason why people need to be taxed so we can have NPR.

"What if instead of investigating actual crimes, which is what people are actually complaining about, we just arrest people for looking homeless?" - EPD and City Council, two of the laziest and most incompetent organizations you will ever interact with

I don't like Bentz but I'd rather have my rep actually going to work and voting on/drafting legislation than doing town halls. His rationale isn't unreasonable, town halls are mostly a space for people to show up and vent, elections are the only time that venting actually counts for anything.

FIRE is one of the orgs that worked on this case, they are awesome and non-partisan defenders of free speech.

Well this is a straight up lie:

"Program had no funding and cost nothing other than ~4 hours of each program member’s time related to the program each month."

Those hours aren't free. They are hours that we as taxpayers pay for. That's 4 hours that could have gone to something else.

I like this decision, DEI initiatives have gone too far imo. We should be promoting people, hiring people, and allocating resources based on merit, not based on race or other factors. The law and our government system should be neutral to race, gender, etc. We can't make people's biases cease to exist through legislation, but the least we can do it make sure our actual laws and rules don't specifically privilege one group over another. It's wild that this is a controversial statement in today's age.

Very interesting thank you for posting!!