Oregon should regain its maximum minimum wage
I don’t know about you, but it goads me that Washington state’s minimum wage is always a few cents higher than ours in Oregon. Every year, we of the Upper Left Edge offer Americans the highest of the...
View ArticleOvercloud Economy May Explain Political Campaign
We’re all familiar with the underground economy. Favors or services are exchanged without money or formal records, skirting taxes or other liabilities. There’s another hidden economy operating above...
View ArticleRound Numbers Make Bad Public Policy
Liberal politicians locally and across the country are racing to hike their minimum wage to $15. Oregon requires all employers to pay the second highest minimum wage in the country, but the same law...
View ArticleExplaining Oregon
We all have friends who don’t understand Oregon. Most of us know lots of people who have never been to Oregon. Many have to use a process of elimination to find Oregon on a map. (“Oregon — it’s that...
View ArticleDoes Kitzhaber Like Trump’s Approach?
Now that former Oregon governor John Kitzhaber has ended his self-imposed exile from public life, I wonder what he thinks about Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. It’s a serious question. Kitzhaber...
View ArticlePranking the Polls
Published in the Register-Guard on April 1, 2016 You may have read recently about long lines of people waiting to vote. It strikes us in Oregon as unthinkable, both morally and logically, to wait in...
View ArticleDo We Elect Trustees or Delegates?
Republican delegates sent from Oregon to the national party’s summer convention in Cleveland will have less flexibility than most of their colleagues. Those arriving from Pennsylvania will have the...
View ArticleOregon Could Revive Localism With IP 28
Chances are very good Oregonians will be voting in November whether to assess a gross receipts tax on businesses with sales that exceed $25 million annually. Once all the shouting begins, the...
View ArticleNo Safe States in 2016
We tell ourselves that Oregon is a “safe state,” so we can vote for president based on our conscience. A certain perverse complacency lulls us, reasoning that our state’s seven electoral votes will...
View ArticleEndorsing Endorsements
A funny thing happened to me a few weeks ago at the United States Supreme Court. I didn’t laugh out loud, but almost. And as I have reflected on it, it points to an important experiment we’re all...
View ArticleOregon Health Plan’s Future is Suddenly Uncertain
Does the Oregon Health Plan have a price on its head? If the incoming administration’s pick for Secretary of Health and Human Services is approved, the OHP may have the boot of Rep. Tom Price on its...
View ArticleEgan Shows What Eugene is Made Of
I used to tell people if they had only one hour in Eugene, they should attend the Eugene Celebration parade. In 60 minutes, anyone could see how this city moves through the issues that animate its...
View ArticleWe May Need the Beast to Escape the PERS Hole
The chronically underfunded Public Employees Retirement System has been in the news again, so I returned to my muse on the subject. I last visited Gil Farsnow almost two years ago, but nothing had...
View ArticleWho Needs High Crimes? We Have Misdemeanors
“High crimes and misdemeanors.” It practically rolls off the tongue these days, as the talk intensifies about ending this chapter of our political history ahead of schedule. What did the president do...
View ArticleAre You in the Path of Total Eclipse Hype?
Amid all the hype about Monday’s solar eclipse, only one aspect of the event has not been thoroughly and relentlessly examined — the hype itself. Why is a celestial event that could have been predicted...
View ArticleReflections at the Electoral Equinox
We passed the electoral equinox this week. The 2016 election is now further removed than is the 2018 election ahead of us. This is a good time to survey lessons learned that can shape the 51 1/2 weeks...
View ArticleIt’s Time for the West Coast to Unite
We all know that the West Coast is different from the rest of the country. We’re now in a position to make that obvious. If we could pick up our dirt and move it, which direction would we go? The long...
View ArticleAffordable Housing Strategy: Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
There have been homosexuals in the military as long as there have been homosexuals and militaries, but only in the last 30 years has the issue become a social movement. Recruiters and field commanders...
View ArticleInvite Amazon to Build Near the Eugene Airport
Oregon did not make Amazon’s list of a dozen finalists for its proposed second headquarters. Portland offered a 32-acre parcel near the former Pearl District Post Office that is ripe for redevelopment,...
View ArticleCollide With Your Daily Newspaper
You may have seen this quote from an executive in Tuesday’s paper this week: “Politicians should not use taxpayer dollars to impose ideological litmus tests and punish organizations that express views...
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