Sen. Boquist: Greater Idaho, gun rights, OLCC more…

By Oregon State Senator Brian Boquist,
Highlights, excerpts from Sen. Boquist newsletter

— Greater Idaho conversations are ongoing: “The Idaho House of Representatives voted in February to support the nonbinding Greater Idaho bill, which means their lawmakers can conduct formal talks with their Oregon counterparts about shifting the state line westward to the Cascade Mountains, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.”

— There’s been quite a bit of drama around the OLCC in the past few weeks. It is common practice that when a new governor takes over, they bring in new agency heads. The OLCC director, who resigned amid the storing fancy bottles of bourbon scandal, even said in a statement that he understands Gov. Kotek wants to have someone else run the agency: “Because I believe that the Governor is entitled to have her own management team, I will honor that request.”

— The MSM should be worried more about how the OLCC spent a TON of money to build a new HQ. Is that a good use of taxpayer dollars? It seems very extreme to get the AG involved to bolster the “internal investigations”.

— Craig Prins, who has been inspector general of the Oregon Department of Corrections, will take over as interim executive director after a unanimous approval vote from the board.

— The Guardian reports: “An Oregon court dealt a blow to the state’s “second amendment sanctuary” movement, deciding on Wednesday that local governments cannot ban police from enforcing certain gun laws in a ruling that could hold national ramifications for anti-gun control efforts… The gun sanctuary movement, which first took off nationwide in 2018, had not yet faced a major legal challenge. The ruling will have wide implications in Oregon, where multiple localities have declared themselves second amendment sanctuaries. The state attorney general has sued two other counties that declared themselves sanctuaries. One of those counties eventually rescinded their ordinance.”

— Koin reports: “Amid a renewed nationwide focus on police qualifications following the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols, an Oregon lawmaker Sen Lew Frederick has introduced a bill that would require law enforcement officers to complete at least two years of higher education.”

— Push to ban natural gas in new construction ignites debate.

— Oregon Capital Chronicle reports on a study showing Oregon’s semiconductor industry would grow quickly with state investments. The economic study comes as lawmakers mull options for $200 million in investments to spur the semiconductor industry’s growth.

— The Oregon Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would require landlords to allow child care services to operate in rental homes when tenants meet certain requirements.

— PODCAST: Interesting interview on the Megyn Kelly podcast with Dr. Roland Griffiths, Director of the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, to talk about the history of psychedelic drugs, how caffeine is one of the most-used addictive drugs in the world, how “psilocybin” research started and how it is conducted. Oregon is mentioned as it was the first state to legalize psilocybin, with Colorado following closely behind.

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