Letters to the editor: Jan. 29, 2021
Celebration of hate
While walking my dog in McMinnville one morning last week, I passed a house with a “Trump 2020” banner on the garage. Below the “Trump 2020” was the statement, “F your feelings” a hateful sentiment.
Then, in Friday’s News Register, I read the letter from Leonard Leis decrying Democratic hatred of Trump. Pointing a finger at Democrats as haters ignores the facts.
On Jan. 6, I watched Trump incite a homicidal insurrection by his followers on live TV. In the crowd, visible symbols of hate were prominent, including Confederate flags, banners like the one I encountered, and T-shirts proclaiming “Camp Auschwitz” and “6MWE” (“6 Million Wasn’t Enough,” a reference to the Holocaust).
The 2021 regular Oregon Legislative session is now under way.
Oregonâs laws are developed through committee work and due to the COVID-19 restrictions, committees will be meeting via video-conferences until the rate of coronavirus infection lessens.
Rep. Brad Witt addressing a Veterans Day event in Columbia County. Jeremy C. Ruark /The Chief
My House Agriculture and Natural Resources committee began meeting this week, and as an introduction we heard from Jim Brown, former State Forester and Natural Resource Advisor to Governor Ted Kulongoski. He described a sustainability model that I believe we should implement when crafting sound public policy.
I liken sustainability to a three-legged stool of economic, social and environmental needs. When developing sustainable policies, we must meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
SALEM â The COVID-19 vaccine rollout is underway in Oregon, but it could be months before farmworkers and others in the food sector receive a vaccination.
Health care workers are first in line. Phase 1a â the current phase â includes workers in hospitals, health care providers, residents at long-term care facilities, emergency medical service providers and first responders. The Oregon Health Authority, or OHA, estimates this includes between 300,000 and 400,000 individuals.
According to OHA, farmworkers will be eligible in Phase 1b â but they won t be first in line.
The group to receive first priority in Phase 1b will include childcare workers and K-12 school and school district staff statewide. According to Marc Siegel, spokesman for the state Department of Education, Oregon has about 80,000 K-12 staff and 30,000 early childhood education and childcare staff who would be eligible.
Oregon moves to phase out most uses of controversial pesticide by 2023 December 24 2020
After research and input from advisory group, ODA says it will limit the use of chlorpyrifos by December 2023
The Oregon Department of Agriculture says it will begin to limit the use of the pesticide chlorpyrifos and ultimately end its use in two years.
The agency s decision, announced Dec. 15, followed HYPERLINK https://www.oregon.gov/ODA/programs/Pesticides/RegulatoryIssues/Pages/PesticideRulemaking.aspx?utm medium=email&utm source=govdelivery extensive research and input from an advisory workgroup that included leaders and industry experts ranging from agriculture, environmental justice groups, toxicologists, and a farmworker health and safety organization. The ODA HYPERLINK https://www.oregon.gov/oda/programs/Pesticides/RegulatoryIssues/Documents/Documents/2020/ChlorpyrifosRule.pdf submitted rules to significantly limit the use of chlorpyrifos and phase out all its us