Free Republic

This week’s revelation that a Chinese billionaire and member of its Communist Party is the second-largest foreign owner of farmland in the US sparked outrage among politicians, who want to know why Chen Tianqiao’s $85 million purchase was a secret for nearly a decade. Chen, a co-founder of Shanda Interactive Entertainment, bought nearly 200,000 acres of farmland in Oregon in 2015 at about $430 an acre, according to the Land Report, a magazine that focuses on private land ownership in the US. However, his purchase of the acreage does not appear in government records of land ownership by foreign investors,...

Oregon officials contacted a family to let them know that their relative had been found dead from a drug overdose, but months later, they admitted they had made a mistake. On Sept. 11 the family of Tyler Chase was told that he had died and the body was cremated on Oct. 1. The Multnomah County Medical Examiner's Office issued a death certificate after identifying him. The family received the ashes of someone whom they believed was their relative. Three months later, on Dec. 19, officials told the family that they had made a mistake and that Chase was still alive....

The second-largest foreign landowner in the U.S. is a Chinese billionaire who it has been determined is a member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of Chinese-language news reports. Chen Tianqiao, the founder, chairman and CEO of global investment firm Shanda Group, owns approximately 200,000 acres of land in Oregon, according to Land Report. Chen also has extensive ties to the Chinese government, ranging from CCP membership to executive roles in CCP-affiliated organizations, according to a DCNF review of Chinese-language media reports. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: GOP Lawmaker Urges Biden Admin To Investigate CCP-Tied...

Oregon's Supreme Court said Friday that it would not hear a challenge from five voters seeking to keep former President Donald Trump off the state's 2024 Republican primary and general election ballots, citing the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take up the issue of Trump's eligibility. The Oregon voters, represented by the liberal advocacy group Free Speech for People, asked the state high court in early December to direct the secretary of state to disqualify Trump from the primary and general election ballots, arguing he is constitutionally ineligible for the president under the Constitution's so-called insurrection clause. Their request to...

The Supreme Court agreed on Friday to weigh in on whether homeless individuals have the right to camp on public property. The issue is the biggest SCOTUS case in decades on the rights of the homeless, and the decision has the potential to impact how cities across the U.S. handle the homelessness crisis. Grants Pass, located in southwestern Oregon with a population of nearly 40,000, requested that the high court review a lower court decision that ruled it unconstitutional to punish homeless residents for camping on public property when no shelter alternatives are unavailable. According to court filings, there are...

The gun controls in Oregon’s Ballot Measure 114 (BM 114) were permanently blocked via a General Judgment entered January 9, 2024, by Harney County Circuit Court Judge Robert Raschio.Raschio initially blocked the gun controls just days before they were to go into effect.

Portland, Oregon has a serious homeless problem and now it’s about to get worse. Much worse. The disease of Shigella is spreading in the city, mostly through the homeless population, and to make matters worse, it spreads in a disgusting way, through fecal matter. Aside from the ethical matter of allowing people to live on the street, one of the biggest issues is the threat to public health. This is why you don’t want a large population of people living in tents and using streets as a bathroom. FOX News reports: Portland health officials report waste-borne illness rampant among city’s...

Another land grab by the Feds/Oregon Forestry Board and the patriots fighting bacck

ODOT awarded Portland $2 million in 2022 to clean up graffiti, and then another $1 million a year later, and now the fund is empty. As the recent Portland photo shows, you cannot tell that any extra $3 million has been spent. Now Governor Kotek has pledged an additional $10 million. Portland chose to de-fund police and stop prosecuting people for minor crimes like graffiti, property damage and vandalism. They said it was a victimless crime. The liberal mindset gave way to using tax dollars to solve the runaway graffiti problem, because liberals view most problems can be solved by...

2023’s most-liked memes featured on Oregon Catalyst based on views.

A highly contagious infection that is spread through tiny particles of fecal matter has broken out in Portland - with officials warning that the homeless population are most at risk of catching the illness. Shigella is a bacteria that spreads through human feces. People transmit the infection after getting the microbes on their hands and then touching their mouths. People can also spread the intestinal infection through sexual intercourse. Multnomah County in Oregon has warned that homeless people and same-sex male partners are most at risk because of their lack of access to hygienic facilities. In the last month, 45...

An emergency phone call between a distressed woman put in danger by a home intruder and a 9-1-1 operator who says she has no officers to dispatch perfectly illustrates the importance of gun ownership. In the 9-1-1 phone call going viral on social media, a woman who locked herself inside her home explains to the operator her angry violent ex-boyfriend who has hospitalized her in the past is outside her home attempting to break in. [snip] “My ex-boyfriend is trying to break into my house. I’m not letting him in, but he’s like trying to break down the door and...

Marguerite Merritt is the Cheese Emissary for Rogue Creamery. Larry Sidor is the founder and master brewer for the Crux Fermentation Project. They decided to work together to develop a limited-edition lambic-style ale — a blue cheese beer. “I think we handled a healthy dose of skepticism even from our blue cheese devotees,” Merritt told KOIN 6 News. “When I told my brewers what we were doing, they pretty much laughed. They thought, ‘no way, this will not work,'” Sidor said. The collaboration brings together 2 Oregon icons for an unusual but tasty product. A tasting event is set for...

Multnomah, Washington, and Clackamas counties have reported 45 cases of the bacteria in December, with nine different strains observed in the Portland metro area since October. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Multnomah County is encouraging residents to watch their hygiene after a boost in shigella cases was observed in Old Town Portland. Shigella is a bacteria that spreads via fecal matter, and creates symptoms that include fever, stomach cramps, vomiting, and diarrhea. It can last anywhere from three to 10 days. “Shigella spreads when one person’s infected poop gets into another person’s mouth through food or water, from objects or surfaces with shigella bacteria...

Colorado completed the transfer of 10 wolves into the state last week after the animals were captured in Oregon. For the people involved, it was framed as a success, a joyful occasion at an invitation-only event. For the rest of the public, the release details were kept secret, and many livestock producers were in the middle of a meeting with state wildlife officials when it was announced that the release of the first five wolves had taken place. Step 1: Ignore History On Monday, Dec. 18, Colorado Governor Jared Polis declared, “Today, history was made in Colorado. For the first...

Oregon has the second highest rate of homelessness in the nation, trailing only California, according to a new federal count of homeless individuals in 2023. And Oregon has the highest rate of families with children and unaccompanied youth experiencing homelessness of any state. The lack of affordable housing is a significant factor.The new count found there are 48 unhoused Oregonians for every 10,000 people in the state – or 20,142 unhoused people total. Experts agree the numbers are likely an undercount. The phenomenon is not new, but it is quickly getting worse.

Imagine an election in which the presidential candidate from the opposing party doesn't even appear on the ballots of the most states. Colorado’s Democrats announced that they get to determine who the Republican presidential candidates can and can’t be. California is trying to follow suit. California may be the next state to ban former President Trump from its primary ballot over 14th Amendment concerns. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis (D) requested Wednesday the state look into “every legal option” to do just that. “Based on the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling … I urge you to explore every legal option to remove...

Two wolves released on Dec. 19, 2023, in Grand County, Colorado, 2302-OR, a juvenile female, black color, 68 pounds, and 2303-OR, a juvenile male, gray color, 76 pounds, come from the Five Points Pack. According to Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife Livestock Depredation Investigations, Five Points pack wolves injured one calf and killed another in separate depredations in July of 2023; killed a cow on Dec. 5, 2022; and injured a 900-pound yearling heifer on July 17, 2022. ... On July 21, OFW authorized the killing of up to four wolves from the Five Points Pack after two attacks...

The Oregon Court of Appeals on Wednesday invalidated the state's landmark Climate Protection Program (CPP), which aimed to slash greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel companies by 90 percent by 2050. The state's rulemaking failed to "substantially comply” with the requirements for disclosure when adopting rules under the federal Clean Air Act of 1970, a three-judge panel of the state appeals court said. "We conclude that the CPP rules are invalid," reads the ruling, authored by Judge Jacqueline Kamins. The ruling follows a legal challenge by farmers, fossil fuel companies, and others, and comes as a setback to the Oregon...

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Jim Risch, following the release of the Biden administration’s Columbia River Basin announcement, doubled down in his opposition to dam breaching and reiterated that it is solely Congress that could remove the federal dams in the Columbia-Snake River System. “Congress—and Congress alone—can authorize removal of the dams on the lower Snake River. Bureaucrats, activist litigation, nor this administration’s radical agenda will determine the fate of any of the Northwest’s federal dams,” said Risch. “This litigation effort was useless: It occurred behind closed doors, between two parties who wanted the same end result—to tear out our dams,...