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From Willamette Week:  The backers of a Wood Village casino on the November ballot revealed yesterday the project’s scope—and a name: The Grange.  The site of the proposed venture is the old Multnomah Kennel Club greyhound track, a once-vibrant Oregon attraction that is now a decrepit mess overgrown with weeds and blackberry bushes. The Canadian investment group Clairvest […]

From The Central Oregonian: This November, Oregon voters will decide whether businesses continue to collect corporate tax kickers or public education gets the money. Before each biennium, the governor must prepare an estimate of revenues expected to be received by the general fund. Current law requires and automatic kicker refund of corporate income and excise tax

From Fox and Hounds: I showed up to the Oregon capital of Salem to observe the most significant attempt at initiative reform in the United States. A public employee union-backed political committee that’s sponsoring an initiative here didn’t show. Therein lies an interesting story that Californians should know. Since the reform in question could be coming

In an article on voter identity and the potential for attitude change in political views, The New York Times Magazine author Maggie Koerth-Baker cites the Citizens’ Initiative Review as a noteworthy case study in how ordinary citizens form opinions based on hard evidence. From The New York Times: Forget for a minute everything you know about

From KATU2: A panel of citizens has recommended that Oregon voters eliminate “corporate kicker” tax rebates with a ballot measure this fall, even after the initiative’s supporters declined to participate in the process. The 24-member Citizens’ Initiative Review Commission, a new board approved last year by the state Legislature, released its suggestion Friday after spending

From The Cultural Cognition Project Blog: On a weeklong visit to Salem, Oregon, I find myself reflecting on the recent postings about ideology, motivation cognition, and the ability to process information in an unbiased and reflective way. I’m not here to enjoy the Pacific Northwest but to observe an anomalous public deliberation process, the Oregon

From The Register-Guard: By: Saul Hubbard A panel of 24 randomly selected Oregon voters has come out in favor of a ballot measure that would eliminate the corporate “kicker” tax refund, after reviewing the proposal this week in Salem. On a 19-5 split, the panelists recommended that voters approve Measure 85 in the November election. A

From The Statesman Journal: By: Peter Wong A big majority of a citizen review panel backs voter approval of Measure 85. “We believe Measure 85 would be an improvement to the current policy,” said David McCarty of Oregon City, who spoke Friday for the 19 citizen members favoring it. Cheryl Bunner of Springfield read a statement

From The Oregonian: An independent, citizen panel has suggested that Oregon voters support a November ballot measure that would amend the Oregon Constitution and redirect the corporate income tax kicker refunds to K-12 public education. The Oregon Citizens’ Initiative Review Commissionannounced Friday that a panel of 24 Oregonians had voted 19 to 5 in favor of supporting

From NBC: This week, statewide ballot initiatives in both Oregon and California are coming up for formal public review. But those reviews are very different — and the differences demonstrate how Oregon is taking initiatives more seriously than California. On Wednesday morning in Sacramento, a state legislative committee devoted a total of three hours on hearings

From The Statesman Journal: Oregon’s public-employee unions are trying to sabotage voters’ understanding of the initiative process. That’s the one conclusion we can draw from Our Oregon’s unwillingness to participate in a weeklong citizen review of the group’s initiative on the November ballot. Our Oregon, which is financed by public-employee unions, is sponsoring Measure 85. It

From The Statesman Journal: By: Peter Wong Supporters and opponents agreed on one point Tuesday when they pitched their arguments about Measure 85: Oregon’s “kicker” law, which dates back to 1979, leaves a lot to be desired. Two dozen citizen panelists heard the arguments at the Salem Conference Center. They will have their say Friday, when

From The Oregonian: Our Oregon has claimed that the Citizens’ Initiative Review has “zero impact” on voters’ opinions. The basis for this claim is a National Science Foundation-funded report on which I was lead author. As such, I hope to bring some clarity to this matter and respond to The Oregonian editorial on the topic, “A

From The Oregonian: We appreciate the attention that The Oregonian’s editorial board recently gave to Oregon’s new Citizens’ Initiative Review, an innovative program that empowers members of the public to deliberate and offer recommendations on state ballot initiatives (“A bad omen for review panels,” Aug. 2). The Citizens’ Initiative Review is based upon the very simple principle

From The Oregonian: Four dozen ordinary people just wrapped up the best temp job in Oregon. For $150 a day, plus room and board at a nice Salem hotel, they studied politically charged ballot measures for a solid week and gave them a thumbs up or down. It’s not yet clear whether their efforts will help

From The Statesman Journal: By Peter Wong The first of two citizen reviews of statewide ballot initiatives will start today at the Salem Conference Center, where two dozen panelists chosen from around Oregon will hear arguments and draw conclusions about Measure 85. But in a twist from the 2008 and 2010 election cycles, the measure’s official sponsors

From NBC: I’ve just read the official arguments for and against (and the arguments against the for argument and against the against argument) all 11 statewide measures on November California ballot. These are the arguments you’ll see in the voter information guide. And I wish I had that time back. The arguments don’t tell you much. They are political

From The Eugene Resgister-Guard: A year ago, the Oregon Legislature wisely chose to institutionalize a promising pilot project that convenes panels of citizens to weigh the merits and deficiencies of ballot measures and report back to voters. This week, the project has hit a speed bump — one that shouldn’t affect its long-term success, but which

From The Oregonian: To get through the day anymore is to withstand a blizzard of incoming information: from the Web, from electronic and print news providers, from handheld devices and chirping phones, from blaring billboards and drivetime radio, from the dancing teen in the sandwich outfit pointing the way to Subway. Much of it is dismissable.

From The Oregonian: Bob Packwood might be on to something. Speaking to the Portland City Club last month, the former U.S. senator declared that all elections in Oregon should be nonpartisan and that voters will eventually grow tired of partisan bickering. I think we’re there now. I know I am. Reports are that nearly 650,000 eligible

From Oregon Public Broadcasting: A nonprofit group has brought together a randomly selected group of citizens to act as a kind of jury to assess two of the initiatives on this year’s ballot. The nonprofit Healthy Democracy Oregon designed each panel of 24 people per ballot measure to represent the demographics of the Oregon electorate. There are no

From The Oregonian: I recently got together with a diesel mechanic from Klamath Falls, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Bonanza, a former United Farm Workers activist from Salem, and 20 other Oregonians from around the state. The youngest in our gathering was a 19-year-old seasonal worker from Hermiston, the oldest (that anyone would admit to) was

From The Daily Astotrian: Healthy Democracy Oregon is one of the best things to happen to Oregon in the past 20 years. It helps the average voter demystify the confusing world of ballot initiatives. For its Citizens Initiative Review program, Healthy Democracy Oregon brings a group of randomly selected Oregonians to Salem for a week to

From The Statesman Journal: After a week of hearing arguments, asking questions of experts and discussing it among themselves, Rocky Krokus of Portland and Barbara Ogden of Klamath Falls came down on opposite sides of Measure 73 in the Nov. 2 election. Krokus spoke Friday for 21 members of a citizen panel opposed to the ballot

From The Oregonian: Kenny Burke didn’t think he’d be chosen. He had returned the postcard, mostly at the behest of his wife. Only weeks later, Burke learned he’d been selected to be part of a panel that would review a citizen initiative bound for the November ballot. And for the first time, a citizen panel’s opinion