6-28-2021 Newsletter

 

Oregonians rallied in Salem to speak with legislators on Clean Energy Jobs Lobby Day,  February 6, 2019 CLIMATE WIN IN OREGON Saturday was a historic day for energy policy and environmental justice in Oregon. The Senate passed House Bill 2021 C, the 100% Clean Energy for All bill that the Oregon Clean Energy Opportunity campaign and coalition partners have worked so hard to move this session. This bill requires Oregon's electricity to be emissions free by 2040 and bans the siting of new fossil fuel power plants. INCO was among the numerous groups and individuals who made this happen, including all of you who contacted legislators, wrote letters to the editor, and informed your community and decision-makers about this monumental piece of legislation. Special thanks to Eric Halperin for being INCO's climate organizer and guide over the last few years. Thanks to the Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility for these bullet points: This is the fastest U.S. state timeline for a clean electricity standard so far, and the policy includes the nation's best labor standards for clean energy jobs and job training as well as the first statewide ban on new or expanded fossil fuel power plants. The bill also invests $50 million in community-based energy projects including disaster resilient systems like solar-plus-battery storage projects.  House Bill 2842, the Healthy Homes bill, which invests $10 million in home repairs and retrofits for low-income renters and homeowners. Projects may include weatherization and energy efficiency upgrades, smoke filtration and fire resilience improvements, and lead and mold abatement. Click here to learn about how home improvements like these are a great climate justice measure.

PASS - FAIL FOR OREGON DEMOCRACY AND ELECTIONS The 2021 Oregon legislative session ended yesterday. Thanks to David Delk for this overview of key bills related to democracy and elections. The legislature enacted:  requirement that voters cannot be moved to inactive status due to voter not voting or updating voter registration. Requires county elections official to notify voter if they have been moved to inactive status. (HB2681-A) Bill (HB3291-2) which allows ballots posted marked no later than election day to be counted if received within 7 days of the election date  Bill (HB2323) which penalized false info regarding an election  The legislature has failed to act on: limits on campaign finance contributions (HB3343, SB336) system of public funding of candidates for state offices (HB2680A) use of Ranking Choice Voting (or STAR Voting) (HB2678, HB2685, HB2686) allowing same day voter registration (HJR11) allowing felons to vote while still in jail/prison (SB571-3) allowing 17 year-old to vote (HB2689) creation of independent redistricting committee (HJR7) Likely future action: Initiative campaign to enact effective limits on campaign contributions. This is being worked on by Honest Elections Oregon Initiative campaign to enact Ranked Choice Voting. This will be worked on by a coalition of Ranked Choice Voting advocates Initiative campaign for creation of independent redistricting committee. An initiative has been filed with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, ##16, People Not Politicians. More info on initiative petitions is available on the Oregon Secretary of State’s website for petitions here.

Lady Liberty and INCO's Vote Boat crew paraded in Seaside's celebration, July 4, 2018.

DEADLINE FOR DEMOCRACY A number of GOP-dominated state governments are passing laws to restrict and interfere with the right to vote. These barriers put our democracy at risk. S.1 the For the People Act, and HR4 #VotingRightsAct will project our constitutional right to vote. COIN is partnering with pro-democracy groups around the country to get this legislation passed. Click here to see how you can help. Please thank Senators Wyden and Merkley and Congresswoman Bonamici for their work to pass S.1. Contact info is here.

COIN is people from all over Oregon. See the larger map on the COIN website.

WHAT DID THEY SAY? We need more wisdom than ever these days, so help spread it with INSIGHTS from the INCO newsletter. We can email you the collection (a free Word doc) of each year's quotations from 2017 - 2020. Contact Laurie at incoregon@gmail.com and specify which year(s) you'd like.

HAPPENINGS VIRTUAL  Tuesday, July 13 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, July 12 for your Zoom link. Saturday,  July 17 - INCO North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11 a.m - noon. Contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link if you haven't attended a previous meeting. Write To Voters. Special elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org or for general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.

INSIGHTS "Freedom means freedom from oppression, but not freedom from obligation." —Sebastian Junger, author, in a radio interview about his book, FREEDOM, 5-17-21

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. INCO Weekly Newsletter  June 28, 2021

6-21-21 Newsletter

 

CONGRESSWOMAN BONAMICI TELEPHONE TOWN HALL Tuesday, June 22 at 6 pm "Hearing from you is critical to my work in Congress. Please join me for a telephone town hall meeting next week on Tuesday, June 22, at 6 p.m. PT. I will discuss how the American Rescue Plan is already helping families, and I’ll explain the work I’m doing to increase access to child care, get more people into paid on-the-job training, and address the climate crisis. I will also answer questions live on the call." -- Representative Suzanne Bonamici Sign up here:  SIGN UP FOR A CALL

Celebrate freedom. Now we must guarantee everyone's right to vote and everyone's vote to be counted.

LAST TRAINING FOR SHARING PROGRESSIVE VALUES  Join other Indivisibles for tips on the listening, curiosity, conversation, and practical skills needed to  have meaningful conversations to move folks toward progressive values and action in your community. You're invited to attend the last session: Wednesday, June 23, 2021 08:00 PM REGISTER HERE:  ttps://indivisible.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsdeCqpzkiEtePpwmAUE0wT6TJ7sEnVJC3

ELECTION BILLS IN SALEM CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM - If you want limits on campaign contributions, especially from corporations and large interest groups, please tell state legislators that you want them to enact two of the most promising bills, HB3343 and SB336. If these bills do not have Work Sessions and positive votes in both the House and Senate, they will die. Contact info for legislators is here. RANKED CHOICE VOTING - Did you know New York City's mayoral election is using ranked choice voting? In Oregon there are three bills (HB2678, HB2685, HB2686) in the House (Introduced by Rep. Rayfield), all referred to House Rules Committee but no hearings have been scheduled on any of them.  Being in the Rules Committee means they are not likely to move. They should be considered dead.  Proponents are planning on an initiative campaign. Decision will happen after the end of the legislative session.

Indivisibles and other constituents gathered with Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici outside the Barbey Center in Astoria on June 14, 2019. The topic: the previous guy's impeachment.

HAPPENINGS VIRTUAL  Tuesday, July 13 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, July 12 for your Zoom link. Saturday,  July 17 - INCO North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11 a.m - noon. Contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link if you haven't attended a previous meeting. Write To Voters. Special elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org or for general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.

INSIGHTS "I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it's much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong." --Richard Feynman, Nobel Physics Prize Laureate

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. INCO Weekly Newsletter  June 21, 2021

6-14-21 Newsletter

 

PROGRESS!  Thanks to all of you who asked your state legislators to vote for SJM 5. State Representative Suzanne Weber has signed on as a co-sponsor. The measure passed the state senate, 23-5. State Senator Betsy Johnson was excused from voting. It's currently in the Rules Committee, but no hearings have been scheduled.  So it is still alive but needs a push to get scheduled ASAP.  Please push!  State Representative Weber: 503-986-1432  SJM 5 is a bipartisan resolution endorsing a proposed climate change bill in Congress, the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act (EICDA). This resolution is part of a nationwide effort to show support from state legislatures and their constituents for the EICDA.

ELECTION BILLS IN SALEM RANKED CHOICE VOTING - there are three bills (HB2678, HB2685, HB2686) in the House (Introduced by Rep. Rayfield), all referred to House Rules Committee but no hearings have been scheduled on any of them.  Being in the Rules Committee means they are still alive but . . well, not likely to move.  They should be considered dead.  Proponents are planning on an initiative campaign.  Decision will happen after the end of the legislative session.   TAG Lines required on political ads - HB3233 - Requires paid-for-by tagline on political communications by candidate to identify top five large donors to candidate's principal campaign committee. This bill is dead.   Thanks to INCO activist David Delk for this legislative update.

2 POSTCARDS. 2 MORE DEMOCRATIC SENATORS. Don’t you wish we had two more Democratic Senators?  We would if heavily Democratic DC were a state.  DC residents deserve equal representation in Congress.  Send a free postcard to Senators Wyden and Merkley to thank them for co-sponsoring S.51, the bill for DC statehood. Our postcards show them just how many Oregonians support DC statehood.  INCO will mail you 2 stamped postcards, the senators' addresses, and talking points. Then you write 1-2 sentences about why DC statehood matters. Get your postcards by sending your name and mailing address to incoregon@gmail.com.

WE MUST DEMAND CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM  Now is the time to tell state legislators that you want to enact effective limits on campaign contributions in Oregon with two of the most promising bills, HB3343 and SB336.  If these bills do not have Work Sessions and positive votes in both the House and Senate, they will die. Contact info for legislators is here.

Wearing colorful headbands made for us by activist Carolyn Vena, INCO marched with Astoria Pride, June 8, 2019.

PROGRESSIVE VALUES BELONG IN RURAL OREGON  Join other Indivisibles for tips on the listening, curiosity, conversation, and practical skills needed to  have meaningful conversations to move folks toward progressive values and action in your community. You're invited to attend one or both of the last two sessions:  Jun 16, 2021 08:00 PM   Jun 23, 2021 08:00 PM REGISTER HERE:  ttps://indivisible.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJEsdeCqpzkiEtePpwmAUE0wT6TJ7sEnVJC3

HAPPENINGS VIRTUAL  Saturday,  June 19 - INCO North County Community Group Zoom meeting, 11 a.m - noon. Contact incoregon@gmail.com to get the Zoom link if you haven't attended a previous meeting. Tuesday, July 13 - INCO South County Community Group Zoom meeting, 6:30 - 8 pm. Please RSVP to Kathleenannmacdonald@yahoo.com thru Monday, July 12 for your Zoom link. Write To Voters. Special elections and issue campaigns need you year-round. INCO encourages you to sign up to write to voters at www.postcardstovoters.org or for general Get Out the Vote campaigns, sign up at Vote Forward. For supplies or information, contact incoregon@gmail.com.

INSIGHTS "Defeatism about the past is a grievous error; defeatism about the future is a crime." --Philip Noel-Baker, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

Comments, news, and photos to INCO at incoregon@gmail.com.  Resources and other information at www.incoregon.org and www.indivisible.org. Encourage others to sign up for the INCO newsletter at our website or here. INCO Weekly Newsletter  June 14, 2021