Given easy accessibility, more young people are using cannabis. Public health experts recommend lawmakers combat misinformation, expand prevention programs, set stricter potency limits and enhance law enforcement against false advertising and repeated use by minors.
The Greater Idaho movement, which wants to secede from the Beaver State and become a part of its neighbor to the east, had sputtered along for years, gaining little traction. But then, the coronavirus hit in the spring of 2020.
Three years after the first-in-the-nation law was passed, a record number of opioid overdoses, bad press and a growing homelessness crisis could slow the movement to treat addiction as a public health matter.
Though not retroactive, the rebates of $2,000 to $4,000 will be allotted for individual households and multifamily buildings with energy efficient retrofits and will be available regardless of income.
The tracts have had 20 percent or more of their population living in poverty at various intervals over the past 30 years. Just over 4 percent of the state’s population qualifies for the designation.
The bills will make it easier to distribute the opioid reversal drug Narcan, create a curriculum on the dangers of certain drugs, fund a coordinated crisis services system, establish a task force to study alcohol pricing and addiction services, and more.
As climate change has brought on an increase in heat waves, a growing number of residents across the state have been affected by heat-related illness and death.
The state will devote nearly $150 million to overhauling the state’s reading and writing instruction to improve poor reading test scores. Advocates believe it to be a long-term commitment to students.
A former executive at the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange FTX donated $500,000 to the state’s Democratic Party under a false name. Here are the events that led up to the misreported donation and Oregon’s response.
The state House approved a bill that would require the Occupational Safety and Health Division to raise its minimum fines, in some cases, by more than 1,000 percent for violating workplace safety rules.
The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the state $3 million, and the Portland metro area $1 million, to develop strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and develop clean energy economies.
Starting in September, the state will end the controversial practice of paying for remote state government employees’ travel to mandatory meetings. It’s unclear if the decision will impact pre-pandemic work policies.
The amount that fire victims receive after taxes and attorney fees is sometimes as little as just 25 percent of the original award. A state bill would allow victims to subtract wildfire settlements from their taxable income.
The state has signaled its support for allocating an additional $70 million to Gov. Tina Kotek’s initial request of $130 million in emergency funds to help move residents off the streets and keep them housed.
Nearly a dozen counties in Oregon have voted to leave Salem behind and join Idaho. Local secession movements have sprung up in multiple states due to the urban-rural political divide.
While the state doesn’t track who gets the biggest incentives, data shows that wealthy tech companies receive the largest breaks. However, the state often loses money on these economic development efforts.
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