The Portland Business Alliance opposes Voter-Owned Elections and the Yes on 26-108 ballot measure campaign. The top donor to the PBA’s political action committee is – wait for it – Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield, the same insurance giant the recently came under fire from the Obama administration for its sudden, stupendous increase in premiums. Regence recently stopped providing coverage to children under 19 just before the federal law prohibiting this action went into effect. Janice Thompson with Oregon Common Cause sheds some light on the shadow world of corporate donors, business PACs and elections. Here’s ‘The Business’: Friends Voter-Owned Elections (Yes on 26-108) 2236 SE 10th Ave, Portland; phone: 503-489-8166; info@yesforportland.org
Going National Now:
The new millenium is off to a shabby start if people are too intellectually lazy or simply lack the imagination to levitate the Pentagon. Instead today’s legions of the Deeply Disgruntled resort to shooting at it. Someone fired shots at the Pentagon early this morning while Oregon lay sleeping under its binky of patchy freezing fog. The Pentagon entrances, roads and pedestrian walkways – everything was shut down after a civilian reported he may have heard shots at about 5 a.m. on the south side of the facility.
And Finally:
And if all that isn’t enough to raise your hackles, then Get This: We might be obliterated by a comet tomorrow. Now I’m not promising anything. But why not wear a helmet to work just in case…For a few nights at mid-week, Comet 103P/Hartley 2 will be perfectly placed in the bright circle of stars that form the constellation Capella. It will be visible in the northeastern sky and makes its closest approach to Earth tomorrow (Oct. 20), though it may be difficult to spot without clear conditions well away from city lights.
- KBOO