West
Territorial 'tug of war' rages out west as blue state residents say enough is enough
Oregonians who are fed up with the blue state’s policies are seeking to relocate the Beaver State’s border to neighboring Idaho, where the red state policies “actually match their values.”
The Greater Idaho Movement’s Executive Director, Matt McCaw, told Fox News Digital that the movement to shift Oregon’s border 200 miles west was created to bridge the growing “tug of war” in the Beaver State.
“The state of Oregon is divided geographically by the Cascade Mountain Range and that geographic divide is also a huge cultural divide,” McCaw said. “So, on the west side of Oregon you have a different climate, it’s a different economy, it’s a different culture and more urban. It’s a very different place than the east side, where there are agricultural people who are very conservative and traditional.”
“You have these two very different groups of people in Oregon that try to play tug of war over state government,” he said.
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The Greater Idaho Movement seeks to shift the Idaho border west and move the Oregon border 200 miles west. (Greater Idaho Movement)
Matt McCaw, the executive director of the Greater Idaho Movement, discussed with Fox News Digital the grassroots movement to shift Oregon’s border. (Fox News Digital)
The political “tug of war” in Oregon has created a dividing conflict in the western state – aggravated by residents who have different values and needs from their elected officials.
“Eastern Oregonians are very different from western Oregonians,” McCaw said. “And you can take almost any issue that is a political hot topic, whether that’s immigration or taxes or abortion or gun rights or drug criminalization or decriminalization, you can take almost any issue, and what the people of Eastern Oregon want for their communities is different from what the people of Western Oregon want.”
The Greater Idaho Movement seeks to shift Oregon’s border and join the more conservative Idaho. (Greater Idaho Movement)
The Greater Idaho Movement hopes to bridge the gap by shifting Oregon’s border.
“Why don’t we find a long-term solution to allow people who are different to get different policies for their communities that make sense for them? That will lower political tension, it will lower political conflict. And it’s what people repeatedly say they want out of their politics,” McCaw said.
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“People are not looking for partisan bickering,” he said. “What most people want are bipartisan solutions that create win-wins for everybody involved. That’s what our solution does, that’s what Greater Idaho does.”
“It creates a situation where the people in eastern Oregon get the government that they want and what the people in western Oregon get the government that they want and vote for,” McCaw added. “And all that political tension that comes from sharing the same state goes away.”
The western side of Oregon is rainier and denser in population, while the state’s eastern side has a drier climate and is more rural. (Greater Idaho Movement)
The executive director of the Greater Idaho Movement explained that the “urban rural divide” has been in Oregon “since the beginning.”
“Since this state was created, you were always going to have this difference between the east side and the west side. And a lot of that is just straight up geography. The west side of Oregon has a completely different geography and climate than the east side of Oregon, and people are going to make their livings a different way.”
Many residents in eastern Oregon were soured by Oregon state’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. (Greater Idaho Movement)
McCaw said that the difference between the west and east sides of Oregon were only exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic and helped “supercharge” their movement.
“During COVID, the state of Oregon was one of the most extreme. They closed businesses across the state, they closed churches across the state, they closed schools, they imposed mask mandates and later vaccine mandates,” McCaw said. “This was all state policy handed down through the government institutions like the Oregon Health Authority, which made these policies for the entire state.”
“It was very heavy-handed, and here in eastern Oregon, people [here] did not want those policies,” he said.
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“You had just this amazing amount of conflict and frustration out here, tension, because these policies were being forced on the east side of the state that we didn’t want. And all along, just to our east in our neighboring state, Idaho, you had a completely different government response from the state,” McCaw said.
McCaw said that many residents in eastern Oregon saw the pandemic as a wake-up call for residents to want politicians who reflect the community’s values.
“And those policies that happened during COVID were so impactful and so negative that I think that it kind of supercharged this movement,” he said. “It made people realize that the government can have a massive impact on my life in a really negative way, so we need to make sure that that government matches our values, matches our community’s values, so that the next time something like this comes along, we know our government response is going to be the kind of response that our community wants.”
The Greater Idaho Movement argues that a border is an “invisible line.” (Greater Idaho Movement)
“The people shouldn’t be serving this invisible line. The invisible line should serve the people,” McCaw said, referring to the border.
“This is an idea that is not crazy, we move invisible lines all the time in our country to get better representation for people,” he explained. “We redistrict every ten years, and we change that every ten years. Nobody blinks an eye about that.”
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McCaw argued that moving Oregon’s border would “actually make sense.”
“Let’s take this invisible line. Let’s move it to where it actually makes sense, where it actually would represent the people and group similar peoples together who want the same kind of government. And let’s use it to lower political tension, solve problems rather than make problems worse,” he said.
Matt McCaw told Fox News Digital that the Greater Idaho Movement has gained steam since its creation four years ago. (Greater Idaho Movement)
McCaw said that since the Genesis of the movement, just four years ago, it has gained traction from residents and local officials.
“We have gone to 13 counties in eastern Oregon and asked voters directly, ‘Do you want your elected leaders to pursue making this border change happen?’” McCaw said. “We’ve won in all 13 of those eastern Oregon counties, so we are looking at moving, in total, 17 full or partial counties into Idaho.”
“The people of Eastern Oregon want to have this conversation, and the people of Eastern Oregon deserve to have their elected leaders have this conversation on their behalf,” he said.
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Golden Gate Bridge fireworks will be a rare patriotic event
This year on July 4th, for the third time in history, an organized fireworks display will be held at San Francisco’s iconic Golden Gate Bridge. This only happned in twice before in 1987 and 2012 for the bridge’s 50th and 75th annivesary. Expect crowds to be massive and public transportation, ride shares and simply walking is highly recommended.
SAN FRANCISCO – San Francisco is preparing for its major July 4th fireworks display on Saturday night, an event expected to draw massive crowds as pyrotechnics are launched directly from the Golden Gate Bridge for only the third time in history.
Will crowds flood Marina?
What we don’t know:
To pull off the event, the Golden Gate Bridge, major roadways, and key parking lots at Marina Green and Crissy Field will be shut down.
Several neighborhood streets will also be blocked off, creating significant traffic hurdles. Officials are strongly advising spectators to utilize public transit due to severely limited parking.
Local residents in the Marina District have expressed concern over the impending chaos as crowds flood the neighborhood.
“I’m a little worried, yeah,” said nearby resident Michael Zoboski. “I think it’s gonna be definitely hectic. I don’t know where people are going to park, it seems like it’s taking up a large amount of the streets up here. I think it’s going to be a little crazy.”
To manage the influx, access to many surrounding neighborhoods will be strictly limited to local residents.
Checking IDs
What we know:
Law enforcement officers will be checking IDs and questioning drivers to verify residency. According to the district supervisor, there will be 10 police officers deployed per block in the Marina.
Road closures will stretch from Baker Street to Van Ness Avenue between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m.
Portions of Fisherman’s Wharf are scheduled to shut down even earlier, starting at 1 p.m. Saturday afternoon, with much of that neighborhood also restricted to local access. The Golden Gate Bridge itself will close to traffic starting at 9 p.m.
Additionally, roads will be closed in the Presidio and Richmond District. To encourage the use of public transportation, Muni is providing special shuttles to help transport spectators to the viewing areas.
The Source: Marina neighbors, Muni, San Francisco city website
There have been many great offensive linemen in Denver Broncos history, so this list is likely going to vary greatly from person to person. In fact, my take might be a little too bold, but I’m sticking with it.
At the top spot, I think Garett Bolles has earned it. Since coming into the league as a first-round pick in 2017, he has grinded through one of the worst periods in Broncos’ history and grown from beleaguered oft-penalized first-round bust into a perennial All-Pro caliber left tackle. Even more, he has stayed a Bronco through his entire career. The rest of my list speaks for itself and is a throwback to Super Bowl greatness.
Here’s where our Mile High Report staff landed on the top five for offensive line:
Scotty Payne: Tom Nalen was the leader of Mike Shanahan’s offensive line, Ryan Clady was a top LT on a Hall of Fame career before injury and Stink was a key member of the Broncos Super Bowl winning OL back in the 90s. I included Bolles and Meinerz since both will be on this list once their successful careers are over with.
Chris Hart: This position group was one of the toughest to come up with a top five. Denver has an incredible history of top-tier offensive lineman. There are several players I left off who were certainly deserving. I posted Tom Nalen as my top guy because he was a stalwart at the pivot for many years for the franchise. We all know what Gary Zimmerman and Mark Schlereth provided on the field and they are both Super Bowl champions. The last two spots go to two recent Broncos, left tackles Garret Bolles and Ryan Clady. Bolles, a decade into his career, continues to play at a high level and Clady was a fantastic blindside protector whose career ended earlier than it should due to injury.
Ian St. Clair: For the first time in Elway’s career, he had a blind-side protector. And Zimmerman is one of the best to ever do it. Same for Nalen, who should be in the HOF. Clady was special. Bishop was the first Broncos offensive lineman in franchise history to get a Pro Bowl invite and provided one of the best in-game quotes ever when he said in Denver’s endzone at old Cleveland Stadium before hiking the ball at the 2-yard line in what would become The Drive, “We got ‘em right right where want ‘em.” And Schlereth helped lock down the left side of the line that was one of the best in league history.
Sadaraine: The top 3 are largely indisputable, other than maybe swapping Schlereth and Zimmerman. Ken Lanier started 178 consecutive games, which is nuts for an OT, and appeared in 3 Super Bowls. Garret Bolles has crafted himself into an all-time great at tackle and may move up the list.
Ross Allen: The Hall-of-Famer Gary Zimmerman was everything you could ever ask for in a left tackle and was a huge reason why John Elway and that 1997 team was so dominant. Schlereth also gets his credit as he was a massive contributor to Denver’s Super Bowl successes. There’s a strong case for Tom Nalen deserving a spot in the Hall of Fame too. And for the past two years I’ve become a huge spouter of Bolles being destined for the Ring of Fame. He’s an incredible talent as has been the cornerstone of this team for a while now. I just hope he gets his Super Bowl.
Joe Mahoney: Top 3 are a no-brainer. Bolles will finish his career with more starts on the OL than any other Bronco. The man he will pass is Ken Lanier. Since stats from Lanier’s era don’t exist we only have starts to go off, but Lanier was an iron man. He started 167 NFL games and 165 were for the Broncos.
There is a bit of variation here, but a general consensus of who should be in the Top 5. I loved the throwback to Keith Bishop who was a big part of the John Elway fourth quarter magic back in the day.
Who gets into your top five offensive lineman list?
SEATTLE — Fireworks are set to light up the sky above Lake Union on Saturday night as Seattle marks America’s 250th birthday on the Fourth of July.
Crews are preparing more than 7,000 pounds of fireworks for the Seafair show over the water, with hundreds of thousands of spectators expected at Gas Works and Lake Union parks.
This year’s festivities come as visitors from around the globe are in Seattle ahead of another World Cup match featuring Team USA on Monday.
One major change for this year’s celebration is that Gas Works Park will be gated off and will require tickets for entry. Seafair organizers say the new system is intended to help manage the expected increased capacity and keep spectators safe.
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Planned activities during the day on Saturday include an interactive Seafair coloring wall and all-American games, where people can compete in a pie-eating contest, sack races, and a water balloon toss. Musical performances are scheduled to start at 5 p.m.
Free parking is available in the surrounding Gas Works Park neighborhood, but finding a spot is expected to be difficult. Organizers are urging people to give themselves extra time and consider rideshare, carpooling, or public transportation.
Fireworks sales and setting off fireworks are illegal in many areas of western Washington, making large public shows a safer option for many people.
Spectators at Gas Works Park will notice some changes this year. The city recently removed ladders, catwalks, and platforms from the structures there after the death of a 14-year-old last summer.
The teen’s family said the city failed to address dangerous conditions around the park’s towers despite years of warnings and several injuries.
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The Lake Union fireworks are expected to start at roughly 10:15 p.m. Saturday.
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