The Roundup Podcast

In today’s episode, I interview Oregon lawyer and lobbyist Mike Freese of Romain Freese, LLC. Mike spearheaded the successful effort in the just-completed legislative to allow all Oregonians to pump their own gas.

We talk about the background on Oregon’s ban on self-service, and how the political stars aligned to allow an end to the ban this year. If you’re curious about how the legislature came to pass a bill that gave more freedom to Oregonians, for a change, take a listen.

Note that the bill awaits Governor Kotek’s signature. It’s been assumed she would sign, but who knows?

https://twitter.com/dirquez/status/1674129163727568896?s=20

Don’t worry, that’s it for self-serve gas content for a while. If you missed it, here’s my, uh, exuberant write-up from the weekend.

Jeff

Happy Juneteenth! I had retired prosecutor Josh Marquis back on the podcast to give provide context for the recent news that the U.S. DOJ has subpoenaed state records pertaining to former Secretary of State and cannabis business La Mota.

How long have the feds been on the case? How likely is the investigation to spread to other state officials, including Governor Tina Kotek? How long is this going to take? All questions I pitch to Josh. I think you’ll find his answers illuminating. I did.

Jeff

Happy Friday, Rounduppers. In this episode of the Oregon Roundup Podcast, I dive into:

* A recent poll by DHM Research showing that over 60% of Oregonians support recriminalizing hard drugs while continuing to target most state cannabis tax revenue at addiction treatment programs. I refer to my argument for the same back in February in “Measure 110 is not part of the solution.”

* Democrats calculated Oregon Senate Republicans would not deprive Dems of the quorum they need to pass a host of extreme bills they knew Republicans hated. They were wrong.

* A brief update on the Democratic Party of Oregon donation scandal.

Finally, I didn’t talk about this in the podcast but this is pretty good, complete with Oregon plates and all:

https://babylonbee.com/news/pathetic-excuse-for-a-subaru-owner-only-has-48-stickers-on-back-of-car

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

Jeff

Before the interview, I talk a little about yesterday’s news that the Oregon Secretary of State has referred to the Oregon Department of Justice a criminal investigation into Nishad Singh, the putative source of a $500,000 donation to the Democratic Party of Oregon in October of last year. The Secretary of State halted its criminal probe into the DPO last week as part of a settlement agreement reducing a civil penalty against it arising from the same donation.

More on that soon.

During the interview, I reference the story that Portland continues to hemorrhage population.

I hope you enjoy the interview. Senator Johnson is, as always, opinionated and colorful. We even talk about the “Tent City Tina” moniker she applied to Tina Kotek because of Kotek’s sponsorship of a bill to make it harder for cities in Oregon to clean up homeless camps.

Cheers, and have a great weekend.

Jeff

The problem of nitrate infiltration of groundwater in Umatilla and Morrow counties is so serious and urgent, Kotek halted the work of the committee studying it to ensure it added a Spanish-speaking member.

Despite snow pack 140% of normal, the drought persists and there’s going to be a heat wave and we’re probably all going to burn this summer. But then, you knew that.

And then there’s this glorious, glorious manifesto of rock-ribbed conservative economic theory from . . . Ted Wheeler.

https://twitter.com/tedwheeler/status/1656389476783112196?s=20

In case you missed it, here’s the piece on Oregon’s culture of political corruption from yesterday I touch on toward the end of the podcast.

And, finally, in the very unlikely event you wondered what I look like when I’m recording the podcast, here you go:

Have a great weekend in Oregon or wherever you call home!

Jeff

In today’s podcast, after some more of my ranting about the mess in the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, I interview Wallowa County native and Republican candidate for Oregon Attorney General Will Lathrop.

Will and I talk about his time spent trying to enforce laws against child slavery in Africa, and, closer to home, his goals of restoring order to Oregon and combating the state’s growing crisis of corruption.

Have a great weekend!

Jeff

According to Morning Consult, Oregon governor Tina Kotek has the lowest approval rating of any governor in the country.

https://twitter.com/horvick/status/1648695465943375878?s=20

Anti natural gas “climate justice” organization Breach Collective lawyer Nick Caleb blocked me on Twitter after I read his tweet about terrifying violence while recording the podcast, so I can’t link to the tweet here.

https://twitter.com/Jeff_Eager/status/1649264413839618050?s=20

Here’s the piece I wrote about Caleb’s opposition to the Oregon domestic terrorism bill that would increase criminal penalties for blowing up natural gas pipelines.

NEVER-ENDING DROUGHT update. KOIN:

“Drought conditions, which covered all of Oregon at the start of 2023, have been slowly clearing up — but that doesn’t mean the whole state is in the clear.”

Yo.

This week’s guest is former Clatsop County, Oregon district attorney Joshua Marquis. Josh, a lifelong Democrat, spent his career on the front lines prosecuting criminals in Oregon. His view of crime in Oregon - from Measure 110 to Measure 11 to lenient prosecutors - is based on decades of experience. He was around for Oregon’s last go-around with a soft-on-crime approach, which he refers to as “hug a thug” in the ‘70s, and sees parallels today.

Here’s an archive of Josh’s many op-eds in Oregon newspapers

Here’s his Twitter feed, which is a good place to stay up on Oregon criminal justice matters. (And while I’m at it, mine, which is a good place to stay up on, well, what’s going through my head at the moment.)

I hope you enjoy the interview!

Jeff

I hope you enjoy the interview!

Prior to the interview I mention my “Wyden received Bankman-Fried family money for over a decade” piece from yesterday. When I took the Oregon Roundup in its quasi-journalistic turn at the beginning of the year, it was this kind of piece I had in mind.

Wyden’s ties to the Bankman-Fried family is newsworthy in Oregon and nationally - he chairs the powerful Senate Finance Committee, which shares oversight of Internet stuff like crypto.

Yet it’s a story that hasn’t been told before now because, quite frankly, Wyden is a Democrat. They’ll never admit it, but the Oregon press simply is not terribly interested in news that casts favored Democrats in a less-than-flattering light. And Wyden, who just won his fifth (!) full six-year term in the U.S. Senate, tops the list of favored Democrats.

Fact is, Oregonians for a long time have been served an unbalanced news diet. Yes, Republicans do stuff that makes them look bad and sometimes is bad. But so do Democrats. Even Ron Wyden.

Jeff

The U.S. Department of Energy now believes Covid more likely than not originated in a Chinese government lab.

Jim Geraghty of National Review Online was way, way ahead of DOE on this. Here’s his latest, but also just Google “Jim Geraghty lab leak” and get really annoyed that people like Jim were called conspiracy theorists and worse.

I’ve brought my considerable scientific acumen (I took biology as a sophomore in high school) to the subject myself from time to time.

Have a great weekend!

Jeff