Oregon

State line pot shops latest flashpoint in Idaho-Oregon border debate

Published

2 years ago

April 1, 2023

State line pot shops latest flashpoint in Idaho-Oregon border debate

Steven Meland, co-owner of Hotbox Farms in Ontario now employs near fifty individuals with plans to rent extra as his enterprise retains increasing.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

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Kirk Siegler/NPR

Steven Meland, co-owner of Hotbox Farms in Ontario now employs near fifty individuals with plans to rent extra as his enterprise retains increasing.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

ONTARIO, Ore. — When Steven Meland and his enterprise accomplice opened up Hotbox Farms within the small japanese Oregon metropolis of Ontario they knew there was an enormous alternative mendacity simply throughout the Snake River.

Ontario, inhabitants 11,600, is lower than an hour’s drive from Idaho’s largest metro space, Boise, inhabitants 700,000 and rising, the place marijuana of every kind – together with medical – is against the law.

“The politicians have been in a position to have this situation the place they are saying that they do not have authorized hashish,” Meland says. “However in all actuality everyone knows there’s authorized hashish in Boise.”

Hotbox Farms is an enormous participant in an financial increase that is occurred since Ontario allowed leisure pot outlets in 2018. There are actually twelve dispensaries on this small farming city as soon as largely recognized for inventing the tater tot. Ontario now sells extra pot per capita than anyplace else in Oregon. The trade employs about 600 individuals. Many get medical health insurance and most – like their prospects – seem like commuting over right here from Idaho.

That is the place Meland is from too.

“There may be over 1,000,000 individuals inside 100 mile radius of the shop,” Meland says. “In fact they’re serving a broader market.”

Ontario, Oregon leads the state in leisure marijuana gross sales per capita.

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Ontario, Oregon leads the state in leisure marijuana gross sales per capita.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

However this increase has shortly grow to be the most recent flashpoint in a bigger political and cultural battle that is been heating up since 2020, when a gaggle of Oregonians from the agricultural japanese aspect of the state first started circulating petitions a couple of proposal to secede from the largely blue state and be part of conservative Idaho.

How “Larger Idaho” took form

People in rural America have lengthy complained about having to stay underneath legal guidelines made individuals by who stay largely in cities. For many years probably the most excessive profile instance within the West has been the so-called State of Jefferson, referring to the largely pure useful resource dependent areas of northern California and southern Oregon the place some individuals have lengthy felt disconnected from highly effective cities like San Francisco and Portland.

Right now, Portland looms giant in a newer push to create “Larger Idaho.”
Some in sparsely populated japanese Oregon say they really feel so divorced from the politics of the liberal metropolis and the West Coast that they are asking for an precise divorce.

This 12 months within the Idaho Legislature – the place Republicans maintain a supermajority – the trouble has gained some traction, these days over what’s been taking place in Ontario.

“We’ve got somewhat little bit of a drug drawback proper on the aspect of our border,” mentioned Rep. Barbara Ehardt, a Republican from Idaho, at a current state legislative listening to over a invoice that will authorize Idaho to start talks with Oregon lawmakers about shifting the border.

“A whole lot of Idahoans are going there [Ontario] and getting medicine, Ehart mentioned, “and that can be pushed tons of of miles away.”

Her Larger Idaho measure not too long ago handed the Idaho Home.

The city rural divide is on the coronary heart of Larger Idaho

Pushing Idaho’s border tons of of miles West is only one of a litany of far proper payments launched in Idaho’s Republican supermajority legislature. Others have included a proposal to make it against the law for medical doctors to manage Covid vaccines or if somebody helps a woman underneath 18 get an abortion.

In contrast, Oregon voters not too long ago decriminalized small quantities of arduous medicine like cocaine and heroin and accepted tighter gun legal guidelines. These scorching button points have lengthy been unpopular within the sparsely populated lands east of the Cascade Mountains.

Many small farming and ranching communities have been hit arduous by dependancy and folk may also let you know it will probably take a sheriff’s deputy an hour or extra to reply to a name. Rural japanese Oregon can be predominately federal public land, lengthy a supply of pressure and even violence on this nook of the West.

“The partisanship has grown and simply the cultures have grown aside,” says Matt McCaw, an Oregon resident and spokesperson for the group Residents for Larger Idaho.

The group helped persuade eleven japanese Oregon counties to cross resolutions in assist of being annexed into Idaho.

One in all them is Malheur County, the place Ontario is, and the place very long time native Ron Jacobs sits on the county fee.

Commissioner Ron Jacobs, a retired civil servant, in entrance of the Malheur County fee within the small farming city of Vale, Oregon.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

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Commissioner Ron Jacobs, a retired civil servant, in entrance of the Malheur County fee within the small farming city of Vale, Oregon.

Kirk Siegler/NPR

“We simply really feel like our conservative values are completely different than theirs,” Jacobs says. “They cross so many legal guidelines over there that they do not even take us into consideration we’re type of a step little one over right here in japanese Oregon.”

Whereas Idaho entrepreneurs are eager on crossing the Snake River over into Oregon to start out marijuana companies, Jacobs sees a development going within the different course. Farmers and ranchers, he says, are more and more trying to relocate some or all of their enterprise in Idaho.

“We’ve got farmers shifting throughout the river to get their residency in Idaho to maintain from having to pay [higher] inheritance taxes,” he says, including that it is serving to some households to maintain from promoting their farms.

Jacobs says most of his constituents really feel extra politically aligned to Idaho. However the ask can be sensible: components of Malheur County are thought of adjoined to the Boise metro space, dwelling to the area’s main buying, leisure and airport.

Is Larger Idaho actually a chance?

Jacobs is aware of Larger Idaho is an extended shot. Even when each state legislatures have been to approve it, it might nonetheless take an act of Congress to start to maneuver ahead.
However he believes it is began an necessary dialog.

So too does Steven Meland, the proprietor of Hotbox in Ontario, albeit for a far completely different motive. He thinks the revived debate inside his dwelling state’s legislature may very well backfire and find yourself constructing extra assist for legalizing marijuana in Idaho.

The trade is betting on the cultural and political divide over authorized pot evaporating within the face of one other conservative worth – the free market.

Malheur County joined near a dozen different japanese Oregon counties passing symbolic resolutions in favor of becoming a member of “Larger Idaho.”

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Kirk Siegler/NPR

Malheur County joined near a dozen different japanese Oregon counties passing symbolic resolutions in favor of becoming a member of “Larger Idaho.”

Kirk Siegler/NPR

“Keep in mind that Ontario was conservative proper wing Ontario only a couple years in the past as properly, they at all times mentioned they’ve by no means ever legalize,” Meland says.

However right now the city brings in properly over two million {dollars} a 12 months in taxes from dispensaries like this.

“Folks do not discover hashish to be this massive scary factor that traditionally politicians have made it out to be,” Meland says. “When given the chance to vote on authorized hashish the overwhelming majority of instances they select to have it.”

And in Ontario anyway, marijuana is beginning to look fairly mainstream. Among the dispensaries assist with city clear up tasks and accomplice with native charities for Covid reduction and coat drives. There are additionally two extra dispensaries set to open.

That may quickly convey the full working right here to 14, a minimum of for now.

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Oregon

People with disabilities are extra vulnerable in major disasters like wildfires, says Oregon advocate

Published

3 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

People with disabilities are extra vulnerable in major disasters like wildfires, says Oregon advocate

FILE – Scorched wheelchairs rest outside Cypress Meadows Post-Acute, a nursing home leveled by the Camp Fire on Dec. 4, 2018, in Paradise, Calif. The staff was able to safely evacuate all 91 patients.

Noah Berger / AP

Jake Cornett, Executive Director and CEO of the advocacy group Disability Rights Oregon, says he will forever be haunted by Ashlyn Maddox’s death during the 2021 Oregon heat wave.

The Portland woman, 36, was disabled and living in a group foster home. She was dropped off by a medical transport company, but the company didn’t make sure she made it safely into her air-conditioned home. She ended up wandering around for hours in the heat, and died only 50 feet from safety.

Cornett says, “These deaths are preventable with the right planning, the right strategy for mitigation, the right preparedness and a response plan that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and respects the needs of people with disabilities.”

Jake Cornett, executive director and CEO of Disability Rights Oregon.
*Courtesy of Ramsey Cox*

Cornett spoke with “All Things Considered” host Geoff Norcross about Oregon’s ability to help people with disabilities during a natural disaster, such as the deadly wildfires burning in the Los Angeles area.

This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

Geoff Norcross: If we were to transport those fires in Southern California here, would we see a similar catastrophe for people with disabilities?

Jake Cornett: Surely, we fear that the same disasters we’ve seen play out in the catastrophes in the lives of people with disabilities in LA would play out right here in Oregon as well. And I don’t think this is just a theoretical question. It’s only a matter of time before we have major wildfires along Highway 20, very close by in Portland and in other major cities throughout our state.

Norcross: What is the obligation of local governments to provide for people with disabilities when disaster strikes? I guess I’m asking if the Americans with Disabilities Act applies here.

Cornett: Absolutely. The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that cities, counties, the state and the federal government are taking into account what the needs are of people with disabilities, and providing accommodations for those needs when engaging in disaster planning.

Norcross: Getting information out to people quickly in a disaster is so critical, especially for something that’s as fast-moving as the LA wildfires. For people who are deaf or blind, can you talk about how that’s extra complicated?

Cornett: Absolutely. You know, emergency response notification systems that happen on your phone are a great tool if you have a phone, or if you have the technology to make your phone provide you the information you need. And that’s particularly important for folks who are blind.

I think about a blind person who may not have the same visual access to information as others. If police run around your neighborhood and put a notice on your door that says “get out of town, there’s an evacuation order, you’re under wildfire threat,” that notice on your door might not be enough because you can’t access that information.

And this is where cities, counties and the state really have an obligation to adjust to how they communicate so that it’s effective for all people with disabilities.

Norcross: And again, when you say obligation, you mean a legal obligation, not just because it’s the right thing to do.

Cornett: Absolutely. There’s a legal obligation to do that under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Norcross: Even if an evacuation order gets to affected people quickly, there’s this expectation that most people will get in their car and they will leave. How does that expectation leave people with disabilities in even greater danger?

Cornett: Yeah, that’s another huge issue for people with disabilities, especially when it happens quickly like the LA fires. People think evacuating is getting in the car, driving quickly away to safety.

But many people with disabilities don’t have access to a car, or they can’t physically drive a vehicle. They’re totally reliant on others to transport them to safety. So just providing that notice is not an adequate way to ensure that we are saving the lives of people with disabilities in the way it needs to be done.

Norcross: Is there an event here in Oregon that you can point to that shows us how situated we are to help people with disabilities when disaster strikes, good or bad?

Cornett: Here in Oregon, we’ve seen hundreds die or have serious injuries because of heat in the past few years. Climate change is real. We live in a warming environment, and it’s having a really disproportionate impact on seniors, on people with disabilities and people with underlying medical conditions.

And I’ll forever be haunted by a story of a 30-something year old woman who was dropped off by a medical transport company, but didn’t wait in their air-conditioned van to make sure that she got inside her home where there was air conditioning. Instead, they took off. She wandered around for hours before dying of heat, just 50 feet from her adult foster home.

These deaths are preventable with the right planning, the right strategy for mitigation, the right preparedness, and a response plan that complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and respects the needs of people with disabilities.

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Oregon

Oregon State MBB Fall To San Francisco 81-70 As Dons Drain 13 3’s

Published

11 hours ago

January 19, 2025

Press Room

Oregon State MBB Fall To San Francisco 81-70 As Dons Drain 13 3’s

On the heels of a milestone victory over Gonzaga on Thursday night, the Oregon State Beavers could not capture the same magic Saturday in San Francisco.

The road issues again reared their ugly head as OSU fell to USF 81-70, dropping the Beavs to 14-6 overall and 4-3 in conference play.

OSU have just one true road win this season, which came against Pacific on January 11. They are 1-4 in that category.

The biggest blows to the Beavers’ efforts came from beyond the arc. San Francisco made 13 of 22 three-point attempts, while OSU made just one on nine attempts. Malik Thomas was the game’s leading scorer with 24 points and four three-point makes.

Michael Rataj led the Beavs in scoring with 18 points, also grabbing six rebounds and two assists. As a team, the Beavs shot 44.4% on the night making 24 of 54 field goal attempts.

Oregon State will have several days off before hosting Pepperdine on Thursday, January 23.

Rataj with 13 points on the night pic.twitter.com/joCchI2YVp
— Oregon State Hoops (@BeaverMBB) January 19, 2025

Oregon

3 things to watch as Iowa women’s basketball looks to stop skid at Oregon

Published

19 hours ago

January 18, 2025

Press Room

3 things to watch as Iowa women’s basketball looks to stop skid at Oregon

IOWA CITY — Following an uncharacteristic run of home struggles, the Big Ten schedule now takes Iowa women’s basketball as far away from Carver-Hawkeye Arena as possible in the league.

The Hawkeyes (12-6, 2-5 Big Ten Conference) are set to begin their first West Coast conference swing, beginning with Sunday’s 4 p.m. game at Oregon (13-5, 4-3) on BTN+. Iowa will then head to Washington next Wednesday for an 8 p.m. showdown. The Hawkeyes are desperately trying to end a four-game losing streak that suddenly has them flirting with the NCAA Tournament bubble.

With that, here are three things to watch ahead of Sunday’s showdown.

Can the Hawkeyes productively channel their desperation?

Everyone inside the program understands the current situation and how it needs to change. But the Hawkeyes can’t let that pressure generate more tight play on the court, an ongoing theme throughout this four-game losing streak.

“We really are just one or two possessions away,” assistant coach Sean Sullivan said Friday. “With a team like this who’s continuing to fight, we just need one win. We just need one to get going because these kids really do believe.

“Everyone knows their role. Everyone is supporting each other, and that’s the best thing you can do at this time during a four-game losing streak. We’re not going down that black hole. We see the light. We’ve just got to get there.”

Until revealed otherwise, expect another tense affair with plenty of late-game opportunities for Iowa to find a better conclusion. The Hawkeyes need to bring this one home.

How does Iowa handle Oregon’s full-court pressure while potentially leaning more on its own press?

Iowa had some trouble in December with pressing teams, most notably Tennessee and Michigan State, that resulted in heavy turnovers and late struggles. On the flipside, the Hawkeyes have implemented their own press, just sporadically, mainly in moments of desperation.

Iowa leaned on more pressure in Thursday’s loss to Nebraska with some success. Could Sunday be a moment to match the Ducks’ energy there?

“Oregon is going to be pretty intense with ball pressure. That’s not what we do, but we’re slowly doing a little bit more of a press,” Sullivan said “First we did a press break of some type of 2-2-1. Now we’re like, ‘OK, let’s change it up a bit. What do our players feel comfortable with?’ (Thursday) night, we had a lot of success. We’re starting to see what they’re good at.

“Now, we’ve just got to have fun with it. Let’s start doing some random things because when you do something consistently, it’s easy to scout. But when you start changing things up, Nebraska didn’t handle our pressure well. And that builds us confidence. So I think for the future, you’ll definitely start to see some more stuff.”

What does Iowa have in store for Ava Heiden in her Oregon homecoming?

Even as far back as media day, Ava Heiden’s excitement for the Oregon trip was apparent. Her hometown of Sherwood, Oregon, sits about 100 miles north of the Ducks’ campus, so expect a strong cheer for Heiden when Iowa takes the floor Sunday.

“Ava is so athletic,” Sullivan said. “She can jump out of the building. She can get rebounds. And that’s what we’ve got to start figuring out. How can we utilize her a little bit more too?

Heiden’s minutes have been up and down this year, more down lately as Hannah Stuelke has shifted back to the “5” position for more consistency. Heiden didn’t play against Nebraska but could certainly see more usage Sunday.

Dargan Southard is a sports trending reporter and covers Iowa athletics for the Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.

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