*sorry the sound is so quiet at the beginning. It gets better*

Live from yet another weekend protest, we are calling on our community to give public comment at Salem City Council Monday Night at 6 PM. The Council will be entertaining a motion to reaffirm our status as a sanctuary city, but honestly, WE NEED MORE. Our community needs more. Here are our ideas:

1. Suspend FLOCK camera surveillance programs. Many cities in and around Salem have done this already.

2. Declare a State of Emergency. Follow Woodburn's lead and open up funding to support Latino owned small businesses impacted by the ICE raids and loss of revenue. Open up funding to support local nonprofits providing emergency aid to families who cannot leave their homes to get groceries, take their children to school, etc.

3. Suspend all impound fees on vehicles impounded due to an ICE raid.

4. Provide a list of resources for the community prominently displayed on the City of Salem website.

5. Reaffirming our status as a sanctuary city is the bare minimum.

Email your city councilors here

Support our work and let's get Virginia elected!

Note: Stories in this pod are true as remembered by the hosts and guests.

Our pod this week continues our series on Measure 11 and Restorative Justice. Our guest is Victor Gonzales. Victor entered the criminal justice system when he was a young teenager, serving time in many institutions across the Valley. At the age of 22, Victor was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his involvement in the murder of a childhood friend. Victor shares with us the choices he made that led to an early life of crime and the personal transformation he experienced while incarcerated for nearly two decades total. Victor's story is one of those that sticks with you-it has us asking how we can do Criminal Justice better in Oregon and beyond.

Learn more about the Oregon Justice Network

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This week on the pod we have Salem's own Carlee Wright, creator of Press Play Salem (the magazine), the city’s go-to guide for arts, entertainment, and culture, where storytelling meets community and curiosity fuels discovery.
We discuss all things Salem culture, arts, politics, roller derby, and the hopes we have for the Salem ahead of us.

McKay Holiday Market Vendor Info

Info on donating to Coral House:

2550 Coral Ave NE (it runs parallel with Lancaster).

People can drop off foods between 8 AM and 5 PM.

Text Five Zero Two-307-1872 prior to drop off to let them know you are dropping off items.

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Representative Willy Chotzen (Portland), joins us in the studio to talk all about his work as a public defender, legislator, and generally awesome human. The Oregon prison system is imperfect and we know there is room for improvement. We talk more about how Measure 11 has disproportionally impacted people of color and how we might use practices of restorative justice to improve our society and prison system as a whole.

Learn more about Measure 11

Learn more about the Oregon State Penitentiary

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Kyle Hedquist received clemency in 2022 for a life sentence he was given for a crime he committed when he was 18. In this episode Kyle tells us all about the work he did while serving his time in the Oregon Department of Corrections, the horrible conditions many prisoners find themselves living under, and the important work of restorative justice he has done as a policy advocate since his release. 

Interestingly enough, Kyle's redemption and lived experience is not enough for our mayor's office and they are seeking to remove him as a volunteer from the Police Accountability Review Board. If you feel this is unfair, please submit public comment to the City Manager's office, the mayor's office, and the full city council. The meeting where this will be discussed is November 5th from 4-5 PM . If this committee approves Kyle's removal, it will have to go to the city council for a full vote. 

Council Boards & Commissions Appointments Committee meeting

• Date:11/05/2025 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM 
• Location:Parkway RM PA4-309 ⁠440 Church Street SE Salem, Oregon 97301⁠

November 5, 2025, ⁠Agenda⁠⁠ ⁠

 This is a hybrid meeting, and will also broadcast live via YouTube at ⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQLj9RKZNHu4wfYcs_TC0TA?view_as=subscriber⁠

⁠Add to my Calendar⁠

⁠Contact your mayor and city councilors here⁠

[email protected] 

[email protected] 

This is what we know; Locking people up with no resources is not working. It's also terribly expensive. Something about this system needs to change. 

⁠⁠Learn more about Kyle's story here⁠⁠

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Kyle Hedquist served 28 years of a life in prison, without parole, sentence for a murder he committed when he was 18 years old. So how is he in our podcast studio talking about the very problematic ballot Measure 11 (a bill crafted by Representative Kevin Mannix in the 90s) and our broken prison system? You'll just have to stay tuned for part 2 to find out. In this first part, Kyle shares with us what his time in prison was like, some of the work he did while inside, and helps us understand the legislation that got us here in the first place. This is what we know; Locking people up with no resources is not working. It's also terribly expensive. Something about this system needs to change.

Learn more about Measure 11

Learn more about Measure 15

Learn more about Kyle's story here

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Hopefully this is the last time we have to talk about this (fingers crossed). In this episode, Brian Hines, an avid writer and community member who filed the official ethics complaint against Mayor Julie Hoy with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission, joins us to discuss his take aways from this six month process. Brian truly exhibited some hero behavior in his efforts to hold the mayor accountable.

We also touch on this last Monday's City Council meeting, where Salem Soup Squad turned out in numbers to raise their deep concerns about the mayor's new ballot petition and a gift the council voted to accept from the business community to fund two new police officers.

⁠Read the petition here. ⁠

Read Brian's Blog Here

Statesman Journal Article

OPB Article on new ballot petition

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In case you missed it!

Heads up--transcript might be auto detect her language perfectly.

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Just a little yapping about the issues with guests at Virginia's kick off party for State Senate District 11 this last Friday night. Special shoutout to the more than 100 people who attended!

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In this extended bonus we cover last weeks very long City Council meeting as well as a deep dive into the laws around enforcing camping on Oregon's public properties. Our mayor has a long history of speaking ill of the unhoused (see City Council public comments over the last few years) and we are not surprised she has now made herself a chief petitioner on a prospective ballot measure filed last week that seeks to give cities more authority to enforce anti-camping laws. Learn all about it and what you can do if you disagree.

Some sources for today's pod:

We already have a lot of rules about camping in public places: 

Current City Code: (May 2023)

• SRC 95.720 - Prohibits camping on all public property.

• Current camping prohibition is not practically enforceable.

• Ordinance 6-20 - restricts sitting and laying on sidewalks during daytime hours. Effectiveness conditioned on a determination that adequate shelter and restrooms have been provided - Not currently enforced.

• SRC 95.730 - prohibits leaving personal property unattended on a sidewalk for two hours or more. Hasn’t been enforced and may violate ORS 195.500.

  Revise SRC 95.720 and repeal 95.730 and Ordinance 6-20, and replace with:

  Camping restrictions in many areas: parks, near vision clearance areas and building entrances, residential zones, near existing shelters, and areas designated by City Manager as no camping.

  Camps required to maintain a 36-inch ADA pedestrian path.

Read the petition here.

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