Jobs and Economy

Reactions from the Oregon congressional delegation on House passage of HR 1595, the SAFE Banking Act, which allows banks to do business with the cannabis industry.

"I've heard from individuals and businesses in Oregon who have serious concerns about their safety and the safety of their businesses and communities because they need to conduct their business in cash. These businesses are legal and shouldn't be forced to operate under dangerous conditions."

Warrenton ceremonially took the wheel at the Hammond Marina on Wednesday, accepting a new potential economic generator that is half empty after not being dredged in more than a decade.

Representatives from the offices of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley and U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, who helped enshrine the transfer in law, were on hand to celebrate, along with state Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission continues to file charges and lawsuits but is not pursuing its mandate to combat discrimination as vigorously as it could because it does not have a full complement of commissioners, experts say.

Federal leaders who enforce anti-discrimination laws assured House members last week that they're still committed to protecting workers' civil rights despite lawmakers' criticism about the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC's) decision not to collect pay data—broken down by job category, race, sex and ethnicity—in the future.

EEOC last year logged the fewest investigators to probe civil rights complaints in at least nine years, POLITICO's Rebecca Rainey reports. The investigators numbered 741 in April 2018 and averaged 758 during that fiscal year. By comparison, during the last four years of the Obama administration there was an average of 825 EEOC investigators.

Several years ago, Washougal Mayor Molly Coston, then the president of the Columbia Gorge Refuge Stewards, was approached by Chris Collins of the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership (LCEP), a Portland-based environmental protection nonprofit coalition of public and private groups.

Collins told Coston about the agency's plan to reconfigure the Port of Camas-Washougal's existing Columbia River levee system to reduce flood risk, re-connect 960 acres of Columbia River floodplain and increase recreation opportunities at the Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge.