Western Political Review Home Page

Sen. Smith's food plant fined $3,000 for spilling waste
By the Oregonian
Smith Frozen Foods, the Pendleton-area processing plant owned by U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, has paid a $3,000 fine for discharging wastewater into a nearby creek in late July. It marks at least the third time since the early 1990s that the company has been fined for polluting Pine Creek, which runs past the plant located a few miles from the city. The fine is small, but the timing could be a spot of bad news for Smith, who is gearing up for a re-election campaign expected to be among the toughest in the nation. In his first bid for the U.S. Senate against Democrat Ron Wyden, Smith came under fire by environmental groups for the way he ran his processing plant and for previous spills into Pine Creek. The plant's record could become a factor in next year's election as well, said Marc Siegel, spokesman for the Oregon Democratic Party.

Nevada board commutes sentences of illegal immigrants
By the Associated Press, Nevada Appeal
Over objections of the state attorney general, the Nevada Pardons Board has commuted drug-crime sentences of eight convicts, all illegal immigrants, as part of an effort to ease prison overcrowding by deporting illegals. Catherine Cortez Masto said during Wednesday's board meeting that she couldn't support reduced sentences for any inmate convicted of methamphetamine trafficking, adding, "If you deport them, they just will come back." Cortez Masto serves on the Pardons Board along with Gov. Jim Gibbons. Gibbons and all seven members of the state Supreme Court make up the board. In recent months, the Pardons Board has been commuting sentences of inmates who were in the state illegally and then immediately turning them over to federal immigration authorities for deportation. The vote Wednesday will push the total to more than 100.

States join California struggle with EPA
Environmentalists say they'll sue if agency doesn't let states curb emissions
By John Dodge, Contra Costa Times
Several Washington state environmental groups began legal action against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for delaying state legislation to curb auto emissions that contribute to global warming. The groups joined environmentalists in Oregon and California -- two other states with stymied clean air, clean car laws -- in calling on the EPA to issue the necessary waiver to allow the laws to go into effect in 2009 or face a lawsuit. The state legislation is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 30 percent by 2016. In Washington state, transportation sources account for about 50 percent of the state's global warming pollution. California has been seeking the EPA waiver for two years. Twelve other states have similar laws that assert the states' authority under the Clean Air Act to restrict greenhouse gas auto emissions.

Govs: Keep coal in energy mix
By the Casper Star Tribune
Seeking to assure a long-term future for a key industry in their states, Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the governors of Colorado, Utah and West Virginia met here Thursday to discuss policies that could convince investors and utilities to develop cleaner energy from coal. The governors said they hoped to persuade Congress to keep coal power viable amid pressure to limit emissions. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal and the others said federal incentives are needed for companies to invest in carbon sequestration and cleaner coal-based electric generation technologies. Although the Energy Policy Act of 2005 includes provisions for loan guarantees and tax incentives for advanced coal, those provisions have yet to be enacted or funded. "What we're seeing is a complete movement away from coal," West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin, a Democrat, said during a press conference Thursday afternoon. The governors had no specific proposals, but said they intend to develop a detailed message for Congress about how the federal government can provide the economic incentives to help private enterprise commit to large-scale clean coal technologies.

Illegal immigrants from India on the rise
Experts say many come to U.S. legally, overstay visas
By JAMES PINKERTON, Houston Chronicle
The fastest-growing group of illegal immigrants in the United States doesn't speak Spanish. They typically aren't found at day labor sites or streaming across the Southwest border into the U.S. Instead, they're here in America working in tech companies, small businesses, as engineers or other highly skilled jobs. And they're coming from India.

Equal Rights Coalition blasts Colorado nanny bill
By the Western Political Review

The Colorado Coalition for Equal Rights on Monday denounced the state's ban on smoking in public places, saying that data from the state's hurting tavern and bar industry gives the lie to the efficacy of the measure.

According to the non-profit Coalition, OSHA (the federal occupational safety and health administration) typically considers a regulatory action to be economically unfeasible if said action would cause a decrease in related industry or sector revenue of at least one percent or cause a decline in profits in excess of ten percent. Furthermore, says the Coalition, OSHA typically considers a regulatory action economically unfeasible if the action would cause a change in the competitive structure of an industry.

"The Colorado smoking ban violates all three OSHA economic feasibility criteria. As of the first quarter 2007 the Colorado smoking ban has imposed at least $16.8 million in economic damages on bars and taverns in the state, 6.4 percent of previous revenues, and many of our members are experiencing profit declines in the range of fifteen to forty percent," said Allen Campbell, Senior Vice President of the Coalition.

The ban has had an abundance of critics both professional and public. Many bar and tavern owners, and even some restaurateurs, have been saying that their business has suffered because their patrons who are smokers feel their civil rights have been violated and they will just go home and enjoy not only their smoking, but also their imbibing and eating there, too.

Smokers have consistently said that they can understand a high-end restaurant choosing to ban smoking on its premises, but that it's traditional for smoking to take place in places like taverns and that it should be the non-smokers, not themselves, who should have to make the choice to take their business elsewhere if they don't like a smoky room.

Frohnmayer preps for Senate race
By Jeff Mapes, The Oregonian
John Frohnmayer, the former head of the National Endowment for the Arts, looks like he's going to launch his independent candidacy for the U.S. Senate next week. Frohnmayer has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Wednesday at Portland State University and will also meet with the media at the state Capitol later that day. On Thursday, he will be in Eugene and Springfield and on Friday in Medford and Ashland. Frohnmayer had a contentious tenure as NEA administrator in the elder Bush administration and is the brother of Dave Frohnmayer, the University of Oregon president and former state attorney general.

Loren Parks funds more initiatives
By The Oregonian
After spending more than $1.6 million on Oregon's 2006 elections, Loren Parks already has paid another $800,000 for initiatives that Kevin Mannix and Bill Sizemore are trying to place on the 2008 ballot. Initiative campaigns trying to make next year's statewide ballot in November have until 5 p.m. on Monday to report their fundraising and expenditures for signature-gathering through Sept. 1. But the reports filed by Friday afternoon already show that Parks is again spending piles of money. Parks is in his 80s and is the owner of an Aloha-based medical equipment company. He's also the top donor to political causes in Oregon history. He moved to Nevada about five years ago, after spending more than $5 million on Oregon campaigns, most of them conservative.

Eyman again targets taxes
By CHRIS McGANN, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The initiative offers voters a 15-page laundry list of new requirements that lawmakers would have to satisfy if they decide it's time to increase taxes or fees. The initiative states that it would "protect taxpayers by creating a series of accountability procedures to ensure greater legislative transparency, broader public participation, and wider agreement before state government takes more of the people's money."

Texas agencies blame archaic systems in immigrant license scam
By EMILY RAMSHAW, Dallas Morning News
State officials and federal investigators are well aware that a driver's license scam also allowed illegal immigrants to create falsified identities, with Texas car insurance, vehicle registrations and inspection stickers. But none appears to have a concrete plan to prevent it from happening again.

Kinky Friedman eyeing gubernatorial bid as Democrat
By the Associated Press, Houston Chronicle
Kinky Friedman is considering entering the campaign for Texas governor in 2010 as a Democrat. Friedman said the Democratic party, which hasn't won a statewide election in more than a dozen years, could use a nontraditional approach to connect with voters. "I consider myself a Democrat in the mold of JFK, (former Texas Gov.) Ann Richards and (journalist) Molly Ivins," Friedman said. During his campaign for Texas governor last year as an independent, Friedman couldn't overcome the financial and logistical clout of the two major parties, which he compared to the Crips and Bloods street gangs. Friedman, an entertainer and novelist, finished behind Gov. Rick Perry, Democrat Chris Bell and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, the Republican state comptroller who ran as an independent. "If God was running as an independent (in 2006), he couldn't have beat Rick Perry," he said.

California congressman wins Texas GOP's straw poll
Thompson, Paul trail California congressman at scaled-down event
By WAYNE SLATER and CHRISTY HOPPE, Dallas Morning News
California Rep. Duncan Hunter won a scaled-down Texas Republican straw poll Saturday, and Fred Thompson surged to an unexpected second-place finish – a possible momentum boost as he prepares to join the presidential race.

Judge tosses indictment against business group
By the Associated Press, Houston Chronicle
A judge threw out another felony indictment Friday accusing the Texas Association of Business of illegally using corporate money for political campaign advertising in 2002. State District Judge Mike Lynch, who dismissed a similar indictment against the association in June 2006, said in his latest order there is "muddled case law" on the subject and serious problems with the relevant statutes. "Regardless of the nature of the conduct alleged, due process and the rule of law dictate that the indictment be quashed," Lynch wrote. The Texas Association of Business is the state's largest business lobbying group.