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/ Megan McMillan has known for a while how important quality child care is, and how difficult it can be to find in the Portland area. The pandemic also taught moms like her how hard it is to go without it. “After enduring attempts to work from home full-time, with two kids under five, I can tell you with no doubt that child care is the work that makes all other work possible,” McMillan said. The growing consensus that child care is a necessary part of a functioning economy — and that Oregon’s patchwork of providers isn’t up to the job — has pressed elected leaders from Salem to Wa...

A Republican lawmaker in the Oregon House of Representatives is facing two criminal charges for letting rioters into the state Capitol in December. State Rep. Mike Nearman was charged Friday with official misconduct in the first degree, which is a class A misdemeanor, and criminal trespass in the second degree, which is a class C misdemeanor. The charges came after months of investigation into what happened on Dec. 21, when rioters got into the Capitol at a time when it was closed to the public and lawmakers held an emergency session on COVID-19 relief. Surveillance footage showed Nearman lea...

Oregon Lawmaker Who Let Protesters Into State Capitol Charged With Criminal Misconduct Oregon state Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican, faces criminal charges for allegedly allowing demonstrators to breach the state Capitol in December. Nearman has been charged with official misconduct and criminal trespass, both misdemeanors, following a probe into his role in a protest that turned violent at the Oregon State Capitol on Dec. 21, according to a court filing (pdf) with the Marion County District Attorney, obtained by OBP. An aide at Nearman’s office did not immediately respond to a request for ...

Two states, Washington and Oregon, have recently advanced bills to make Juneteenth an official holiday. A bill that would make Juneteenth a legal holiday passed in the Washington state Senate with overwhelming bipartisan support on April 9, the day after a similar bill cleared the House in Oregon. “While this is an important day for many Black Americans, this is not a separate history, this is our history,” Oregon House Majority Leader Rep. Barbara Smith Warner said on the House floor on April 8. “This is American history. For far too long, the experiences, contributions and stories of...

Bradley W. Parks Originally published on April 14, 2021 1:27 pm Oregon House Democrats are preparing to ramp up the intensity of an already punishing schedule, pausing many legislative committee hearings in coming days in order to pass bills as Republican lawmakers use delay tactics. “Starting Thursday we’re canceling committees,” House Majority Leader Barbara Smith Warner, D-Portland, said Tuesday. “We’ll just do 8 to 10 hours of floor a day and just keep doing it.” According to the most recent published schedules, the House will meet for much of the day on Thursday, Friday ...