Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, M.D., in an announcement today at the state capital, said he will put a temporary reprieve on executions in the state, including the pending execution of Gary Haugen, convicted of two murders in 1981 and 2003. The governor, in an unexpected addendum to his announcement regarding Haugen, also said he will not sign any death warrants while in office.

Oregon voters re-instituted the death penalty in 1984 and has executed only two inmates, both “volunteers” who gave up their appeal rights, since then. Both executions were on Governor Kitzhaber’s watch; he served from 1993 to 2003.

“It is time for Oregon to consider a different approach,” Gov. Kitzhaber, a Democrat elected last fall, said in remarks delivered in Salem on Tuesday afternoon. “I refuse to be a part of this compromised and inequitable system any longer; and I will not allow further executions while I am governor.”

Kitzhaber, in today’s announcement, provided personal reflection on his earlier decisions to execute two men.

“They were the most agonizing and difficult decisions I have made as governor and I have revisited and questioned them over and over again during the past 14 years,” Gov. Kitzhaber said. “I do not believe that those executions made us safer; and certainly they did not make us nobler as a society. And I simply cannot participate once again in something I believe to be morally wrong.”

No commutations were issued today to specific inmates. Haugen’s reprieve is temporary. Kitzhaber called on the Oregon legislature to act on a system he called “broken.”

Kitzhaber said while he did not intend to go against the will of the voters, he did not think the voters intended a system in which the actual sentence was never carried out.

He said he hoped Oregonians would reevaluate the current policy on capital punishment.

Just as US Attorney General Eric Holder announces that he will shortly “clarify Department policy” on marijuana dispensaries in states where laws allow them (Rhode Island in particular) United States Attorney Dwight Holton rounded up all but two of the District Attorneys in Oregon to sign a letter about the Feds’ zero tolerance policy:

“The sale of marijuana for any purpose—including as medicine—violates both federal and Oregon law and will not be tolerated,” says the warning from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. “People and businesses that conduct sales of marijuana face the risk of prosecution, civil enforcement action and seizure of assets.”

The letter is also signed by the head of the Oregon Sheriffs Association and the Oregon Chief of State Police. Missing is the signature of the Multnomah (Portland) County District Attorney:

One notable absence from the list of co-signers is Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schrunk. He tells WW his office has different priorities.

“I don’t like to threaten things that we realistically are not geared up to do,” Schrunk says. “We’ve been at the forefront of trying to do rehabilitation for drug offenders. We have one of the oldest drug courts in the country. I think we’ve tried to have a progressive, realistic view.”

US Attorney Holton’s letter (at Willamette Week here) follows the familiar, sweeping format of other heavy federal warnings to “owners, operators and landlords of Oregon marijuana dispensaries.” It’s the first of its kind in Oregon. Since the invented terror beat may be unraveling for Holton, the US Attorney may think it’s time to crack down on the other evildoers amongst us: sick people who need the medicine their own doctors have prescribed that fixes what ails them.

Because that’s how our federal government needs to occupy its time. Right?

Add another state to the list of those whose biggest health insurer wants a double-digit premium increase: Oregon.

Oregon’s largest health insurer, Regence BlueCross BlueShield, wants to raise premiums by more than 22 percent for 59,000 customers with individual coverage.

Exciting news, though:

Oregon’s Insurance Division will hold a rare public hearing on Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon’s 22.1 percent rate increase request.

How rare is rare?

The rate request hearing is the state’s first in more than 20 years.

“This request stands out in both size and the size of the audience” it would affect, said Cheryl Martinis, a division spokeswoman.

Regence BC/BS feels people’s pain:

“Premium increases are difficult for the entire community, but especially those members who must bear the cost of individual policies,” the company wrote. “At Regence we are focused on increasing efficiency, reducing administrative costs and holding true to our nonprofit mission as part of a larger strategy to reduce costs to members. Health care costs for our individual pool are increasing, while the number of people sharing the burden of those costs is shrinking.” …

The public hearing is June 2nd.

The hearing will be from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in the Portland State Office Building, 800 NE Oregon St., Portland. Once Regence outlines its proposed increase, public testimony will be accepted.

OSPIRG, an advocacy group the division funds to comment on behalf of consumers, will be invited to submit questions in advance and the division will request that Regence respond to those questions. OSPIRG will also be invited to testify at the hearing.

Last weekend, I began looking for potassium iodide (KI) in case the reactors in Japan spew radiation that reaches the West Coast; I now live in Portland, Oregon. I won’t take it now: I know to wait until just before the radiation cloud arrives, if it ever does. But I have a right to prepare.

I started looking for KI because I do not believe official pronouncements that America’s west coast is not likely to be affected by Japanese radiation. In the opinion of people paid by the nuclear industry, it’s probably not going to happen. In the opinion of commentators on the cable network co-owned by the manufacturer of the Japanese plants, I’ll be fine. In the opinion of people who work for the nuclear industry’s trade association, I’m being alarmist to even consider this purchase.

I don’t expect those people to help me find KI if and when I need it; they are paid to have their opinions. I need to look out for myself and my family.

Here’s why the federal government needs to provide very clear information: there is no KI available anywhere right now. Not from drugstore dot com, which now promises delivery “sometime after March 31.” Not from nuke pills dot com; they promise “delivery sometime in April.” Not from our local compounding pharmacy: even by prescription, they say they never stocked KI and won’t stock it now. Not from our local Walgreens, where a pharmacist technician told me Saturday that they would try to get it. Today, the pharmacist told me that “Walgreens’ vendor has sent its entire supply to Japan.” They don’t know when they’ll have any. Fred Meyer’s pharmacist thinks I am asking about a nutritional supplement.

Last night, we got an email from CVS dot com, where we placed an order online last Saturday, intended for arrival tomorrow. They are now completely out and have refunded our money since they don’t know when they’ll restock.
Read the rest of this entry →

photo: travelportland via Flickr

Sounds like last week’s FBI Terror Theater™ didn’t go all the way to convince Portland’s Mayor, Sam Adams, that the city must re-join the Joint Terror Task Force. Especially because the City Commissioner who voted against the idea, who Mayor Adams took the Police Commissioner job away from earlier this spring, has asked for discussion of the matter at the upcoming (12/8) City Commission meeting.

A couple of hours after Commissioner Dan Saltzman said Portland should rejoin the federal government’s Portland Joint Terrorism Task Force, calling for city council vote on the controversial issue next week, December 8, Mayor Sam Adams poured all kinds of cold water on the idea.

When asked outside the federal courthouse if he supported Saltzman’s timeline, Adams’ response was fairly curt: “Not at this point.” Although, soon after, the mayor did allow: “That doesn’t mean that I won’t in the future.”

Mayor Adams now seems to have downgraded the five-months-long discussions with the Feebs to ‘sporadic.’

Portland in 2005 became the first city to pull its police officers from a task force—partly because of constitutional concerns arising over how the Bush administration was sidestepping courts, and also because of jurisdictional concerns in lending out its officers. (Then-Mayor Tom Potter also apparently was peeved he only got “secret” clearance, instead of cooler-sounding “top secret.”) But at the time, Saltzman was the only commissioner to say no.

Ironically, it was Adams this weekend—firmly in the majority in 2005—who first raised the issue of rejoining, noting he had had talks with Police Chief Mike Reese after Reese expressed an interest. Adams today said those talks were “sporadic,” and that he had other issues to focus on when he became police commissioner: guns, human trafficking, and hiring more cops.

Of course, it’s not like Team Obama’s record on civil liberties is really any better than the Bush/Cheney crew.  . . . Read the rest of this entry →

Jeff Merkley is a new Senator for me, although I was proud to be a supporter-from-afar when he ran for the Senate from Oregon in 2008. He defeated the odious two-faced Gordon Smith, thank goodness for small favors.

I like Merkley’s taking-questions-from-constituents YouTubes and was happy to see Atrios feature one of them on his Eschaton front page.

The Senator makes the case for Elizabeth Warren at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau simply and succinctly: she’s earned the right, as head of TARP Oversight, to inaugurate the agency she envisioned. America deserves her at its helm. A point he does not make, but probably should: time’s a-wasting, since Tim Geithner heads the agency in the interim period and he’s likely staffing it with Timmy acolytes, hardly likely to welcome Bureau Head Warren.

Do it, Obama. Do it now, so we can start bugging you about something else, please….