Medical marijuana was approved by Oregon voters in 1998, and the possession and use of recreational marijuana has been legal in the state since mid-2015. (Malheur Enterprise) U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland has proposed loosening the illegal status of marijuana at the federal level – but that doesn’t mean the federal government now condones recreational or medicinal use in the many states that have legalized the drug. Moving marijuana from the government’s list of the most dangerous and least useful substances, Schedule I, to a less serious Schedule III category was a clear s ..read more

From left, Salem business analyst Tim McCloud, state sen. Dennis Linthicum of Beatty and Beaverton real estate broker Brent Barker are running for the Republican nomination for secretary of state. (Campaign photos) Three Oregon Republicans running to control the state’s elections have all stoked false claims of voter fraud and indicated they want to end Oregon’s decades-long tradition of running elections by mail.  State Sen. Dennis Linthicum, Beaverton real estate broker Brent Barker and Salem business analyst Tim McCloud are vying for their party’s nomination for secretary of state, an ..read more

From left: Brian Duty, Pete Grabiel and Shannon Jones Isadore, candidates in the Democratic primary race for the state House District 33 seat. (Campaign photos) Three Democratic candidates are running in the primary for the Portland district seat now held by Rep. Maxine Dexter, who is running for Congress. One is an attorney, another is a physician and the third is a behavioral health provider, and they are all political newcomers seeking to represent House District 33. The district spans much of Portland and stretches northwest along Forest Park and into Washington County communities and is ..read more

The outside of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville on Friday, Aug. 18, 2023. The facility is Oregon's only women's prison. (Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle) The Oregon Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the immediate release of a woman from state prison, finding she was illegally imprisoned after Gov. Tina Kotek ordered her return to prison without the legal authority to do so. The court’s order frees Terri Lee Brown, 48, from Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, the same women’s prison that Kotek has ordered to make reforms. It ends a three-month ordeal that s ..read more

Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, R-Oregon, participates in a roundtable on homelessness in Oregon City on Jan. 25, 2024. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) Republican U.S. Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer continues to court organized labor, this week notching an endorsement from Oregon’s Teamsters union in her unopposed primary bid. Teamsters Joint Council No. 37, which represents roughly 20,000 workers in various industries across Oregon, Idaho and southwest Washington, is Chavez-DeRemer’s 10th union backer. The union hasn’t supported a Republican congressional candidate in more than 20 years. Chavez ..read more

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf testifies before the U.S. Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (Screenshot from Senate livestream)  WASHINGTON — The commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said at a congressional hearing Wednesday the agency is preparing for the possibility the strain of avian influenza affecting dairy cattle could jump to humans, though he cautioned the probability is low. Robert Califf told senators on the panel in charge of his agency’s funding that top officials from the FDA, A ..read more

State Treasurer Tobias Read, pictured on April 3, 2024, is running for secretary of state. (Julia Shumway/Oregon Capital Chronicle) After eight years leading the Oregon State Treasury, Tobias Read says he’s ready to bring a steady hand to the Secretary of State’s Office. With two political scandals that led to then-Secretary of State Kate Brown becoming governor after John Kitzhaber resigned in 2015, and Secretary of State Shemia Fagan stepping down last year, and the death of former Republican Secretary of State Dennis Richardson in 2019, Oregon has had six secretaries of state and two actin ..read more

Fentanyl awareness campaigns launched in Oregon on Tuesday to educate youth, adults and teenagers about the lethal risks of the illicit drug. (Getty Images) A national nonprofit organization released a new program on Tuesday to help families navigate the hazards of fentanyl and prevent deaths of young people as Oregon continues to battle the lethal drug epidemic.  Song for Charlie, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness about fake fentanyl pills, launched The New Drug Talk Oregon, an educational web-based platform with free information about the risks of fentanyl and the dangers of sel ..read more

TikTok Inc., the U.S. company that operates the popular social media service, and ByteDance, its parent company, filed suit Tuesday, May 7, 2024, in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit over a law requiring ByteDance to sell its subsidiary or face a ban from U.S. app stores. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images) TikTok and its Chinese parent company on Tuesday challenged a recently enacted federal law banning the short-form video platform from the United States if it is not sold to a non-Chinese owner. TikTok Inc., the U.S. company that operates the popular social media servi ..read more

President Joe Biden seen speaking from the White House on Feb. 8, 2024. Biden warned in a Holocaust remembrance speech Tuesday of rising antisemitism. (Nathan Howard/Getty Images) WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden warned Tuesday of rising antisemitism in the U.S. and said too many are forgetting the attack on Israel in October. During a Holocaust memorial speech at the U.S. Capitol, Biden stressed the importance of honoring the 6 million Jews who were killed in the Holocaust, and the victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack in Israel that sparked the Israel-Hamas war. “Now here we are, not 75 years la ..read more