Free Republic

Trader Joe’s wanted to build a new store in Portland, Oregon. Instead of heading to a tony neighborhood downtown or towards the suburbs, the popular West Coast grocer chose a struggling area of Northeast Portland.The company selected two acres along Martin Luther King Blvd. that had been vacant for decades. It seemed like the perfect place to create jobs, improve customer options and beautify the neighborhood. City officials, the business community, and residents all seemed thrilled with the plan. Then some community organizers caught wind of it.The fact that most members of the Portland African-American Leadership Forum didn’t live in...

It would seem that if one place in the country could get a working health-care insurance exchange up and running it would be progressive Oregon. As the old tourist campaign used to say, “Things look different here.” No, that’s not a Portlandia episode. That’s a real slogan. Gov. John Kitzhaber is a former doctor who had pushed the implementation of the Oregon Health Plan during his first term. This was going to be the signature achievement this time around. The state, which received a $300 million grant from the Obama Administration to implement the plan, possessed all the ingredients to...

One lawmaker has blown the whistle on deceptive reports sent to the federal government that allowed Oregon to get tens of millions of dollars from Washington for the project, allegedly including dummy web pages intended to fool HHS into believing that Cover Oregon development was on schedule. Let’s make sure to note that this doesn’t appear to be a very effective fraud, except when targeted at the truly ignorant. After all, an agency that’s certifying work for a state exchange should have the wherewithal to check the actual functionality. If a bunch of non-functioning web pages was enough to fool...

The Obama administration’s indictment of critic Dinesh D’Souza on campaign finance law violations is a reminder that it’s dangerous to be in the opposition when the president is a lawless strongman who knows the media will protect him no matter what. Democratic malefactors remained at large on Friday as D’Souza pleaded not guilty to charges that he directed two individuals to each make $10,000 donations to the campaign of Wendy Long, an unsuccessful Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, on the understanding he would reimburse them, which he did not long after.The court in New York reportedly imposed unusually tough...

Conner Mertens, a redshirt freshman kicker at D-III Willamette University in Oregon, did something on Monday night that no college football player on any level had ever done before. He came out, while still an active player. First to his coach, then to his team, and now Conner Mertens is coming out publicly. “I'm bisexual,” Mertens told head coach Glen Fowles via Outsports.com, who informed his young kicker prior to his message that all the coach cared about was his kicker's accuracy. His off the field actions wouldn't affect his playing time, Fowles told Mertens. In fact, when Mertens asked...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)Video: Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits.Public opinion on same-sex marriage has shifted so dramatically in recent years that Democratic groups now see the issue as a critical way to mobilize voters in a slew of races up and down the ballot. Just a decade ago, widespread opposition to gay marriage did just the opposite, allowing Karl Rove to mobilize conservatives in 13 states and help reelect George W. Bush as president. The changing political dynamics were on full display...

Keeping the peace is no easy task at Eugene’s Nobel Peace Park. The 24 plaques at the park that feature the American Nobel laureates have attracted attention from visitors and vandals alike since it opened in Alton Baker Park last spring, and the plaque representing the nation’s most recent laureate, President Obama, has been a prime target. “It got vandalized, I’d say, five, six, seven times,” said Roger Durant, the project’s development director, of the Obama plaque. Nearly “every two or three weeks, there was a new mark that we had to try to take off and rub out,” he...

The Justice Department should cross marijuana off the government's list of most dangerous drugs, says a House Democrat now trying to build congressional support for the action. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) is making the case to remove pot from the list of "Schedule I" drugs, a day after Attorney General Eric Holder revealed that the Justice Department would adjust existing rules to allow legal marijuana businesses to access the banking system. Recreational pot use became legal in Colorado this month, and 20 other states allow it for medicinal purposes. Blumenauer said the Obama administration was “unquestionably making the right call”...

The 25-year-old meth addict stepped into Squid's Smoke Shop toting a wadded sweatshirt concealing a pistol. She probably gave little attention to the hundreds of students streaming out of nearby H.B. Lee Middle School, excited for a weekend that promised snow. She was intent on trading with "Squid," the long-haired man behind the Gresham smoke shop's counter, or his crew. They paid her $520 in cash and two cartons of Marlboros for the Makarov semi-automatic pistol. Roughly a month later, in March 2011, she learned Squid was no underworld buyer of guns and drugs. He was a special agent with...

An Oregon bakery stands by its decision to deny a cake for a same-sex wedding. The owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa tell KATU-TV that their religious beliefs have not changed after Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries determined the Portland-area bakery violated the civil rights of a same-sex couple. Owner Aaron Klein says it almost seems as if the state is hostile toward Christian businesses....

There still isn’t much in the way of good news for ObamaCare proponents coming out of Oregon, a state that was once so eagerly confident in their collective ability to deliver an exchange that was supposed to be a model of ease and efficiency for insurance-seeking Oregonians. Their exchange’s price tag upon the October launch date was sitting somewhere around $160 million, but the website has yet to successfully process a single customer, and the administration has since burned through another $40 million of their allotted $305 million from the federal government scrambling to fix it, according to one local...

The On Your Side Investigators revealed the colossal cost of Cover Oregon for the first time Monday and it shows how much of your tax money has been spent on the failed website. KATU learned Cover Oregon and the Oregon Health Authority collectively spent just shy of $200 million on its Cover Oregon website, which has been plagued with problems for months and still hasn't enrolled a single Oregonian for health insurance since the site launched Oct. 1, 2013. The state health insurance exchange's top dogs have been back and forth for months, extending the date when the website likely...

The facts 1. There are 21 US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2014 election. 2. There are nine US Senate seats held by Democrats in the 2016 election. This is likely to be 10 due to a special election in HI in 2014. 3. Republicans need to pick up six senate seats to have a majority. The Analysis The failures of ObamaCare and broken promises by Democrat senators create a target rich environment in 2014. This is a year Republicans have to do well. Winning a majority in the senate by only one seat or maintaining the status...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A federal appeals court ruled Friday that bloggers and the public have the same First Amendment protections as journalists when sued for defamation: If the issue is of public concern, plaintiffs have to prove negligence to win damages. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new trial in a defamation lawsuit brought by an Oregon bankruptcy trustee against a Montana blogger who wrote online that the court-appointed trustee criminally mishandled a bankruptcy case.

A mass shooter forgot the important functional rule for successful mass murderers: only attack in disarmed victim zones, sometimes called "gun free zones".   From KGW.com:  The shooter hit three people, prompting a person in the bar to return fire, hitting and critically injuring the suspect. "The shooter came in and just started shooting without any kind of warning," victim Gonzalo Zamora-Hernandeza told KGW Monday. Brian Rizzo, a 26-year-old security guard from the club, was hit by the shooter at the front door and was still in critical condition with life-threatening injuries Monday. Fortunately, Oregon is does not prohibit citizens...

The prospects for single-payer health care -- adored by many liberals, despised by private health insurers and looking better all the time to others -- did not die in the Affordable Care Act. It was thrown a lifeline through a little-known provision tucked in the famously long legislation. Single-payer groups in several states are now lining up to make use of Section 1332. Vermont is way ahead of the pack, but Hawaii, Oregon, New York, Washington, California, Colorado and Maryland have strong single-payer movements. First, some definitions. Single-payer is a system where the government pays all medical bills. Canada has...

A pimp is suing Nike for $100 million -- and says that its Air Jordan shoes failed to include a warning on them that they could be used as dangerous weapons after he used his own pair to beat a man.Sirgiorgiro Clardy, 26, alleges Nike is partially responsible for Clardy's 100-year prison sentence for beating a man in 2012, The Oregonian reports. Clardy, a Portland-based pimp, was wearing a pair of Jordans when he stomped on the face of a man who was attempting to leave a hotel without paying Clardy's prostitute, the paper adds. Clardy was found guilty of second-degree assault by...

A Santa Clara University student is recovering at an Oregon hospital after officials say someone ran him over on purpose. Conor McMahon, 20, was visiting his family in Portland for the holidays. After a New Year's Eve party, McMahon and a few friends were walking down a street in North Portland when a man in a mini-van or small SUV pulled up and offered them a ride. McMahon’s parents say their son and his friends declined and the man drove away. But he made a U-turn, sped into the wrong lane, and hit McMahon from behind. McMahon suffered a broken...

North Carolina Rep. Mike McIntyre and New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy will not seek reelection this year, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with their plans – marking a blow to Democratic efforts to win control of the House. The 57-year-old McIntyre, who was elected in 1996 to the Wilmington-area congressional seat, narrowly defeated Republican state Sen. David Rouzer in 2012 and was poised to face him in a 2014 rematch. His retirement from the heavily Republican district will further thin the ranks of Blue Dog Democrats. It comes less than a month after another Blue Dog, Utah Rep. Jim...

The Republican National Committee unveiled a slew of new radio ads Tuesday targeting vulnerable Democratic senators and Senate hopefuls on Obamacare -- including in two races where major would-be Republican challengers have yet to join the race.The ads are set to air in 40 media markets nationwide, including in New Hampshire, where Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is seeking re-election, and Virginia, where Democratic Sen. Mark Warner is running for a second term. Neither seat had been seriously considered to be in play, but a prominent Republican is now weighing a bid in each race: former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown in...