FURROWED BROWS over money. Not all money, but OUR money. It seems that Benton County has spent almost $2,000,000 [that’s two million, with another million slated to go toward it BTW] on getting ready to ask us for another $100,000,000 [that’s one hundred million] to build a brand new, bright and shiny, justice system campus. We aren’t saying that the county doesn’t need these new spaces, but $3,000,000 [that’s three million] sure feels like a real commitment to something we haven’t said yes to yet, doesn’t it?
PLOT POINT: Voters already rejected three prior county justice facilities measures; this fourth ask comes to a ballot near you sometime next year [well, probably in May].
CHEERS for presidential candidates, because we’ve got two of ‘em. Yes, the OSU Board has provided us with two potential presidents – Jayathi Y. Murthy of UCLA and Charles R. Martinez, Jr. of University of Texas at Austin. A final decision should be made in early June [and we’ll all just cross fingers and toes and maybe our eyes that whoever is chosen doesn’t have any reports coming out… because, well, you know…]
HUZZAH for our local foodies. We recently sat down with the owners of The Brass Monkey and Squirrel’s Tavern, as well as the founder of Corvallis Culinary Connections. It was a fun night with talk about the whys of owning a restaurant, the hows of making it through Covid, and the what-the-heck’s going to happen next.
LOOK, UP IN THE SKY, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky! Yes, you guessed it, Zelensky is the newest hero coming out of Portland’s TidalWave Comics. The book will be electronic for now and eventually a hardcover keepsake for anyone wanting to remember how Eastern Europe spent the last few months. PLUS a percentage of profits will go to help the people of Ukraine.
CHEERS for all of our Oregon representatives. Because Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, as well as Representatives Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Kurt Schrader, Peter DeFazio, and Cliff Bentz, have all been included on a very exclusive list of people not allowed to go to Russia ever again. They join the ranks of Morgan Freeman, John McCain, Orrin Hatch, Harry Reid, and Joe Biden. [Of course, this permanent ban is easier on McCain, Hatch, and Reid, given they’ve shuffled off this mortal coil] Still allowed into Russia? Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul.
And the vote goes on….
CONTINUOUS BATED BREATH for the May 17 election results from Clackamas County where the most unlucky woman in Oregon holds to office of County Clerk. Sherry Hall [the unlucky woman in question] contracted with Bend firm Moonlight Business Process Outsourcing [sold in 2020 to Lakewind Investments] to print the ballots for her county, and then everything went to H-E-double-toothpicks. The bar codes on the ballots were too faint to be read by the voting machines, leaving Hall and a slew of others to recreate tens of thousands of them.
Notably, and unfortunately for Hall, Secretary of State Shemia Fagan [the top Oregonian in charge of giving final okee-dokees to all of the elections] lives in Clackamas County… where they’ll probably be looking for a new printing company… and a new County Clerk.
Meaning, we spoke too soon…
JEERS for us – The Corvallis Advocate. We called the Labor Commissioner race for Christine Stephenson before all the votes were in [specifically from Clackamas County – not to beat dead horses but jussayin’]. Anyhoo, turns out Stephenson didn’t reach that magical 50% threshold required to win, and will be facing off in November against the candidate-in-second-place, Cheri Helt.
And now this…
SCOWLS at the world we live in right now. If you’ve seen any news of late, you know that 19 children and two teachers died in Texas this week. We are saddened that this happened just two weeks after someone killed 10 in New York because of their race.
Look, we’re not anti-gun people – some of our staff actually own guns. But on Jan. 1, 2022, seven people lost their lives in mass shootings that happened in eight different locations. And the U.S. has had more than 200 mass shooting this year, and it’s not even June yet.
So far in May of 2022, we’ve had 75 people die by mass shooting. These are only 45 of their names:
Eva Mireles, Irma Garcia, Uziyah Garcia, Xavier Lopez, Amerie Jo Garza, Jose Flores Jr., Alithia Ramirez, Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, Eliahana Cruz Torres, Eliahna “Ellie” Garcia, Rojelio Torres, Jacklyn Cazares, Jailah Nicole Silguero, Jayce Carmelo Luevanos, Alexandria “Lexi” Aniyah Rubio, Tess Mata, Makenna Lee Elrod, Aaron Salter, Ruth Whitford, Katherine Massey, Roberta Drury, Pearly Young, Heyward Patterson, Celestine Chaney, Geraldine Talley, Andre Mackneil, Margus Morrison, Kquadem Treyondus Parker, Jose Damian Garcia, Melvin Germain Salas, Amaya Victoria Taylor-Sandifer, Johnnae Shyann Fuller, Evante Hart, Urian Dion Woods, Davion Marcell Hickley, Jermaine Lewis, Quintin Lowe, Florence Diance Vance, Allen Gresham Jr., Jaqwan Dockery, Ralph Fields Jr., Juann Romero, Suade Fisher, John Crawford, John Cheng…
It’s time for our country to finally do something about this.
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