Last year, I had the opportunity to sit down one-on-one with candidate John Kroger and talk to him about the Attorney General’s office, where I saw things that needed to change, what he wanted to do in the AG’s office, etc.

Right from the beginning, Kroger was friendly and a great listener. He listened to what I had to say, and then told me his goals for the office and how he thought the issue should be approached.

One of my biggest issues has been consumer protection.

We have one loan bill that we’re behind on by one payment (it’s a long story that I won’t go into now…).

So, every month we get calls from the lender regarding the late payment. And I’m not talking about a call a week, or even a call a day. I’m talking about up to 40 calls per day, every day. Sometimes minutes apart. When I do talk to them on the phone, they refuse to stop the calls unless we’re caught up.

There are national and state laws to stop this kind of harassment. However, they only apply to outside collection companies. If a lender (or hospital, credit card company, or whatever) start their own internal collection process, they are exempt.

So they can call all day, every day, yell at you, keep your phone tied up, threaten you, etc. (all things outlawed for outside collection companies), and there is nothing that can be done. This was confirmed by the federal agency that deals with these complaints as well as the Oregon Attorney General’s office. Apparently it’s a loophole. Companies used to outsource much of this, but now they’ve gone internal since it means they don’t have to worry about the law and its consequences. Right now, if an external company called me 40 times a day, they could see fines for every call, have to pay restitution to me, etc.

When I brought up this situation, Kroger listened closely, asking questions throughout. Once I was done, he said this was an example of how he thinks the AG office could change. Updates need to be made to laws to fill loopholes, new rules need to be added, etc. The AG should be pro-active on these things, going to the legislature with updates to laws and new laws that need to be passed (much like Secretary of State Bill Bradbury does). He understood that times change, and people and companies can find ways around laws, and therefore they need to be kept up-to-date.

It impressed me that he understood this, as it’s not something the current AG’s office seemed to care about (I asked them why the law hadn’t been updated, since these practices were obviously supposed to be covered by the law, and I could not get an answer).

Beyond listening to what my biggest concern was, Kroger told me about his plans around identity theft, drug use, environmental protection, and more.

Living in an apartment complex, identity theft is a constant worry for me. We have those large groupings of mailboxes that are easy to break into. Not only that, but the key for each box is not unique – each key opens multiple boxes in each bank of boxes. So it’s not uncommon for mail to just disappear – or selected pieces to disappear, as some smarter thieves realize you’ll notice if all the mail is gone.

Environmental protection has also been a long-time issue of mine. As a young girl and teenager, I was involved in environmental groups. My winning science project was on acid rain, its causes, and its effects on plants. A bayou runs alongside the back of our family’s property in Texas, and on multiple occasions we had men in special suits pumping toxic substances out of the bayou that had been dumped during the night. We lived in a rural area, so it wasn’t that hard to go to a place where no one would see them dumping substances into the bayou.

Extremely rare types of cancer would make their way through our community. One was a good friend’s mother. Others were teenage girls that I knew and were friends with – they all died of a rare bone cancer within months of each other. Cancer clusters in this part of Texas are the norm, not the exception.

Not too far from where we lived was the Brio Site, one of the nation’s Superfund sites. This location had all types of toxic materials under ground. An entire community was built on top of it, including a school, fire station, etc. People began getting sick, and they found out the chemicals were leeching into everything in the community. These people couldn’t sell their homes and move – plus there was little they could take with them, including furniture and clothes.

Starting in the late 90s, we started having brown days. At first, it was a few here and a few there. It was like there were fires burning in the distance, causing a very noticeable brown haze. Then it got so bad that the haze went on for days and weeks at a time. This wasn’t smog like we get in the Willamette Valley on warm days or when the wind dies down during the cold winter. The sky turned brown at the horizon and went a good halfway up or more. It very much looked like there were fires burning constantly in the distance, filling the sky with dark brown smoke.

Schools in Houston bought meters to tell them when it was safe for kids to play outside. Anyone with asthma or other breathing problems were encouraged to stay indoors with the windows shut. Going outside didn’t mean a bit of irritation when you breathed – for some it could mean death.

Houston was exceeding air pollution levels set by the EPA on an average of 4-5 times a month. These are levels you’re allowed to exceed three times in four years, and they were going over between 45 and 60 times a year. Other Texas cities, Dallas-Ft. Worth, El Paso, Austin, San Antonio, etc., weren’t far behind. And why were things allowed to get so bad? Oh yea, that’s right – George Bush had been governor for years and didn’t care about things like pollution. The EPA and Bush had been in fights for years over Texas and its pollution. Rules were ignored, companies never fined. And of course, with it being expensive to make their companies more environmentally friendly, they were going to pollute as long as they were allowed to get away with it.

In 2000, I moved to Oregon. I’d visited with my husband in 1997 and 1999, as he grew up in Sandy, Oregon and his family lives here. When we had the opportunity to move to Oregon, I jumped at it. I’d loved how green things were, how committed to the environment people were, and the like. Imagine my surprise to find out the true status of things. The Willamette is so polluted that it has problems with high mercury levels, human waste, etc. Currently there are 82 such sites listed for Oregon – there were 252 in all of Texas (just over three times as many). But there are 20.85 million people in Texas – only 3.42 million people in Oregon. Texas is second in the nation in both population and size. The Houston area has 5.63 million people by itself. In land area they’re closer in ratio (268,820 square miles to 98,466 sq mi), but Texas has a huge pollution creating industry – such as the oil refineries in Texas City, Houston, Pasadena, and Baytown. So how could a state so much smaller, without all the refineries, and with a bigger environmental crowd have so much pollution, I wondered.

That’s when I found out that things weren’t so different between Texas and Oregon. Companies who were doing the polluting had often been doing it for a long time. They’d seen little to no real consequences to their action, and therefore kept doing it.

Kroger talked about how he wanted to change that. He too comes from Texas, so I know that he understands what can happen when pollution is allowed to go unchecked. He wants to give real consequences to polluting. Go after them when they pollute, make them clean it up, and bring criminal charges when needed.

I want my daughter to be able to grow up in a cleaner and better environment than I did. If actions like those above aren’t taken soon, I don’t think that is possible.

By the end of the discussion, I was seriously considering voting for Kroger. But I still needed to learn a little more about the race, do some consideration over time, etc. But the more I learned, the more evident it became clear that things would continue as they have if Kroger isn’t our next Attorney General.

Oregon can’t afford to have things continue as they are. It needs John Kroger as its next Attorney General.

I was reading news stories and comments on this ballot measure’s win, and everyone seems to be harboring the false idea that this was a metro-yes rural-no split. That’s far from the truth. Counties changed how they voted, in some cases dramatically. While almost no county voted against M37 (my numbers show one – Benton County), my numbers show 22 of the state’s 36 counties voting for Measure 49. A few others are close , and we’re awaiting results from 9 counties.

Clatsop County, for instance, appears to have completely switched its vote. In 2004 it voted 62% in favor of Measure 37. Results thus far have them voting 63% in favor of Measure 49.

Lane County voted 56% in favor of Measure 37 and thus far is voting 65% in favor of Measure 49.

Marion County voted 62% in favor of Measure 37 and is voting 67% in favor of Measure 49.

Polk County voted 60% in favor of M37 and 65% in favor of M49.

Tillamook County voted 58% in favor of M37 and 60% in favor of M49.

Union County voted 65% in favor of M37 and 56% in favor of M49.

Washington County voted 61% in favor of M37 and 68% in favor of M49.

Yamhill County voted 65% in favor of M37 and 64% in favor of M49.

The fact is that people across Oregon saw the truth – it wasn’t M49 that was pulling the wool over people’s eyes. It was M37 that did that. And people around the state realized it and voted in favor of Measure 49.

For comparison, here are the results from the Measure 37 vote along with the numbers thus far on Measure 49:
(bolded numbers are new additions)

As updated results come out through the week, I’ll update the table above.

We’re working our way through the last day at the Summit. Right now we’re sitting in a beakout session on armchair activism, which includes blogs, Youtube, MySpace, Facebook etc.

This morning we heard from state legislators on Measures 49 and 50. Later today we’ll hear from candidates for the U.S. Senate Steve Novick and Jeff Merkley.

Representative Greg Macpherson began the talk on the ballot measures, going over some of the claims that are already in the works, and the truth behind the lies that opponents have been pushing in advertising, literature, etc.

In his discussion on the claims, he compared M37 to Little Red Riding Hood. Oh what big eyes you have. Oh what big teeth you have…

There are over 7,500 claims in Oregon, from billboards to strip malls, to mines, to huge subdivisions.

In Klamath County, which already has water shortage problems, there are three claims for a total of 24,000 homes.

In Cannon Beach there is a claim for a hotel that would block public access to the beach.

In Washington County, the claims would double the size of the county’s urbanized areas.

Several lies have been pushed by the measure’s opponents, which Macpherson debunked. They include:

No public hearings – they actually had nine hearings in the Fairness Committee, in which they heard 369 testimonials from the public.

The process was done in secret without any ability for changes – it actually went through three rounds of amendments

Macpherson said if this measure fails, changes to M37 will be closed down for at least a decade.

State Rep Brian ClemNext, State Representative Brian Clem spoke on agriculture and M49.

He said this measure has been an opportunity for Democrats to be able to build a coalition with farm communities. After all, conflicting use in agricultural areas is not good.

There have long been stories about informal and formal conflicts where agricultural use meets residential use. Examples include irrigation being turned off at night because of it being too loud.

Clem gave a personal story about a neighbor complaining because his tractor was too loud and was kicking up too much dust.

He said that Marion County is especially affected by agriculture meeting M37. There is already areas with severe water shortages in the county. A claim that was approved for 40 homes has already run neighboring wells dry after only two houses being built.

In the upper Hood river valley, there are already claims on about half the orchard land in the area. This is a big issue, because not only would condos and homes in the middle of orchard land cause huge conflicts, but it also heavily affects the growers co-op the famers all participate in. These claims being approved would mean the failure of the remaining farms because the co-op would no longer be large enough to survive.

M49 is supported by farmers and farm organizations, as evidenced by the “Yes on 49″ signs along the way to the Summit that were often found in agricultural fields.

The Farm Bureau, for instance, was neutral on M37, but voted 15-2 to support M49.

State Senator Ben WestlundNext, State Senator Ben Westlund spoke on M50, the Healthy Kids initiative.

He said that cigarettes are the most deadly drug out there. Illicit drugs kill 19,000 people per year. Alcohol kills 80,000 people. Tobacco, however, kills 400,000.

Every pack of cigarettes sold costs society more than $11 per pack, according to the CDC. $5.50 of that is in lost wages and productivity. More than $5.50 is in direct medical costs.

If M50 passes, the taxes on a pack of cigarettes will be a little over $2, which means taxpayers still subsidize smokers by $3+ a pack.

The biggest claim that opponents bring up about the measure is that 70% of the money doesn’t go to kids. Technically, this is true the first year, said Westlund.

Ten percent of the money goes to tobacco use reduction.

Some funds are used to bring approximately 15,000 of the 70,000+ adults kicked off the Oregon Health Plan because of a lack of funds.

The remaining money not immediately spent on kids is placed into a savings account. This is because it will take approximately a year to get all the kids on the system. In the meantime, the funds will be in a savings account.

As to the stability of the income, Westlund said that the tobacco tax is one of the most stable revenue sources in the entire state. It’s like the Rock of Gibraltar, he said.

It’s critical we pass this measure, he said, and it’s not just because of the money. One of the biggest blocks to kids starting to smoke is the cost of the cigarettes. The more expensive they get, the fewer kids will ever start smoking.

Molly Ivins, who had fought cancer twice already, had been diagnosed with breast cancer for a third time late in 2005.

She was well known in progressive and democrat political circles, often known for calling Bush “Shrub.”

She was an outstanding woman, and as a fellow Texan I sure am going to miss her.

You can read more about her life here.

Upon arriving on Friday afternoon, I did see KATU doing some interviews of people around the convention. And that evening there were numerous tv cameras in the back of the room when Howard Dean spoke. However, they seem to have missed the purpose and intent of the weekend, as well as blatantly lying about what occurred during the weekend.

The biggest mistruth I found was regarding Governor Ted Kulongoski. Now, I’ll admit right up front– I did not vote for him in the primary– I voted for Sorenson. But just because I am unhappy with him on some issues doesn’t mean that I’ll go along with the MSM lying about situations involving him or not vote for him in November– he definitely has my vote.

The Register-Guard, which had really good coverage of the convention, was one of the worst when it came to Kulongoski. Their story in Saturday morning’s paper said:

Kulongoski leapt to his feet from a seat on the platform from where Dean spoke and pumped his fists in the air. But the crowd’s enthusiasm failed to match that of their party’s candidate. After countless standing ovations earlier that night for other party leaders, only one person in the crowd stood while the governor was greeted with polite applause.

This is an outright lie. There was more than one person on my row who stood up multiple times in support of Kulongoski– and I was on the front row. Having looked back a few times, I do know there were even more behind me.

The others who received standing ovations were also typically speaking on a topic that got people excited— Kulongoski did not speak Friday night, as he was the keynote speaker at Saturday’s dinner.

The biggest applause that night, in my opinion, came not for a party leader, but for someone who has been working hard to change the public view of the Democratic Party– Adam Klugman. His animatic on the Party was wonderful, and I hope to see it this fall on tv.

While they were sure to cover the supposed lack of interest and support of Kulongoski, they didn’t cover the support, applause, and standing O’s he got during his keynote speech Saturday evening. I wasn’t able to attend the dinner, as even with the grassroots dem discount it was out of my price range, but I did hear from a lot of people who attended. They were very enthusiastic after his speech and had a lot of great things to say.

The paper also talked about Oregon Republican Chairman Vance Day’s statement on Dean and the convention. Their report made it seem as if Day was responding to what Dean, Wyden, DeFazio, and others had said during the evening’s speeches. In reality, the statement had already been released before Dean ever spoke– the Oregonian reported this in Saturday’s paper. It’s likely that it was written and sent to the media outlets before the speeches even began that evening. The ORP’s response was just their typical rhetoric that had no facts behind it:

“The raw facts are that Ted Kulongoski’s only accomplishments are an economy that lags behind the rest of the country, natural resources that have been mismanaged and a broken down relationship with the Legislature,” Oregon Republican Party Chairman Vance Day said. “For Ted to bring in to their convention a lightning rod like Howard Dean shows that the Democrats are only interested in hypercharged rhetoric and not an honest discussion of the issues.”

His statement also criticized Dean for calling for change nationally while “hypocritically singing the message of status quo in Oregon.”

Apparently the poor and the middle class have become the status quo. Who knew?

I’ve been looking for a full copy of the release from Day, but I haven’t located it yet. They don’t have it on their web site– but I did notice they’ll be having their state convention at the same place as we did later this summer.

I think everyone who attended the convention needs to write to the newspapers and let them know the truth behind our convention.

They want to focus on a supposed lack of support for Kulong’oski and what the R’s have to say about our convention, rather than all the hard work we did this weekend to train our activists and volunteers, passing platform and legislative items that support hard working Americans, our troops, and our constitution, etc.

If they don’t print your letter, feel free to come over here to the blog and post it for all to see.