The Roundup Podcast

Gov. Tina Kotek and U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer: Portland has a drug crisis and it’s not our fault. If you missed it, my piece on the allegations that Jesse Lee Calhoun may have killed four women in the Portland area after he was released early from prison and allowed to stay out of prison in spite of violating the conditions of his release: “ Four women dead, one ideology exposed .” Willamette Week...

Happy Friday! Today’s episode is split into two parts: snorting and not snorting. Snorting : Multnomah County pauses plan to distribute paraphernalia, including “snorting kits” to fentanyl addicts. Secret Service closes White House cocaine investigation for lack of physical evidence. Not snorting : I am heat wave, call me Cerberus ! “ PETA offers rewards for information on stolen chicken truck. ”...

Gavin Newsom visited Bend Saturday, July 1. Then Boise . Then Montana, then Salt Lake City and presumably back to California. Why? Politico “ Gavin Newsom’s Red State Hustle ” Biden teetering on the brink. Not great , Mr. Burns: Oregon public employees get big raise . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oregonroundup...

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 t...

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...

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 calcu...

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 red...

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 glori...

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 cri...

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....

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...

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 F...

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...

Nishad Singh pleads guilty to federal charges including conspiracy to defraud federal regulatory agencies by pretending to be the source of campaign donations that were actually from other people.* *That’s a crime under Oregon law too. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oregonroundup.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode we tackle this serious stuff: * The Biden Administration’s ominous pattern of pretending a national security problem is not a national security problem until it’s so obvious it’s a national security problem and then they react haphazardly to bad effect. * Multnomah County, Oregon reported homeless people continue to die there in ever-increasing numbers , and decriminalized drugs li...

So, I inadvertently sent out the unedited version of today’s podcast early this morning. Listen to this one instead! Sorry for the duplicate emails and for my technological ineptitude! Jeff This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit oregonroundup.substack.com/subscribe

Fagan Files III : Since Fagan Files II (our series into the law-bending and partisan behavior of Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan with regard to activities in her agency’s Elections Division) there have been, as they say, developments. Fagan, having forced the resignation of her former Elections Division director Deborah Scoggin after Scoggin refused to violate agency rules to allow the publ...

There’s no guest this week, so it’s just Jeff left to his own devices. The results are predictably unpredictable. First, Jeff responds to some reader comments about yesterday’s piece on our coming crisis of population decline . Then there’s Oregon Treasurer Tobias Read pushing back on progressive legislators who want the state to divest its retiree pension program from fossil fuel companies, teein...

Kevin Dahlgren, a veteran in homeless policy, homeless outreach and addiction and mental health counseling, took a video with his phone of a Portland homeless woman named Wendy saying, among other things, “it’s a piece of cake” to be homeless in Portland. The video went viral on Twitter (over 2 million views worldwide and counting), and in today’s episode I interview Kevin about Oregon’s homeless...

If you’re like me, you didn’t know that a man named Mohammed Adan in June 2022 allegedly killed his girlfriend, Rachael Abraham in their children’s bedroom while their children were in the house. That Adan allegedly continued to stabb and beat Abraham even after she had died. That the children were, apparently, in the house with Adan and Abraham’s corpse for hours until the police arrived. That th...

Josh Lehner is an economist in the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis. In this episode, we discuss a wide range of topics about Oregon’s present and future, including the meaning of Oregon losing population between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022. Why are people leaving and what will be the economic effects of temporary or long-term population loss? Also, Josh describes the process of developing eco...

Merry Christmas Rounduppers! The holiday season keeps churning out intriguing developments within the ever-changing bounds of the Oregon Roundup beat: Oregon hemorrhages over 16,000 residents between July 1, 2021 and July 1, 2022, wiping out almost all population gains from previous two years . The important thing is the state’s carbon footprint should decline. Oregon’s Election Division head was...

The first EVER guest on the Oregon Roundup podcast is none other than Congresswoman-Elect Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Lori, a Republican, was elected to represent the redrawn 5th Congressional District of Oregon last month. She breaks a 26-year stretch in which Democrats have held all but one of Oregon’s U.S. House districts. Lori and I talked about her background as a small business owner and mom, her c...

Happy Friday! Turns out one-time federal funding only comes one time while huge pay increases to state employees continue. Oregon is facing yet another self-inflicted budget crisis . Why are so many working age dudes not working? You know the answer(s) but this article is designed to make you dumber. Ted Wheeler wants City of Portland employees to return to work in the office at least half-time, i...

Happy Saturday! In today’s episode, we dive into the near-term prospects for Oregon Republicans following a solid, if disappointing, performance in 2022. There are reasons for Republicans to optimistic, but also some significant headwinds heading into the presidential contest of 2024. And who remembers the regrettable “Send our Bunns to Washington” ad from two Oregon congressional campaigns in 199...