Tag Archives: John Kitzhaber

A False Choice: Teachers or Cops

It’s a sad sight when adults sulk like 4-year-olds. When the adults are members of a school board, it’s disturbing. Yet there sat Bobbie Regan this week as the Portland Public Schools Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve a budget that nobody liked. “I want us to remain UPSET so we can take this […]

Surrendering to Drugs

Just say no to drug enforcement. That’s what the Oregon legislature is contemplating if it wipes out regional drug task forces. Why don’t lawmakers admit that the war on drugs is over; the dealers and their drugs won. The timing’s good, what with all the attention that Whitney Houston’s death is receiving. The co-chairs of […]

Taking Risks With Crime

Like a burglar creeping outside a house testing the windows, Gov. John Kitzhaber has been trying to find a way to get inside the minds of Oregon voters and persuade them to stop locking up criminals. It costs too much, he says. In his corner, Kitzhaber has the Commission on Public Safety, which he created […]

Questions for the Living

If you were murdered, would you want your killer executed? Murder can be a terrible way to die. Even if it’s quick – and it often isn’t – murder is a crime that is stuck on rewind. The killer can revisit his victim’s final moments in his mind anytime he wants to. He can relive […]

Same Faces, Same Problems

Gov. John Kitzhaber could have created a more credible Commission on Public Safety had he and legislative leaders randomly picked names off the state’s voter rolls. Instead, they ended up with Chief Justice Paul J. De Muniz, who most recently distinguished himself by vacating a Death Row inmate’s execution date – even though the inmate […]