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U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici says she will continue to defend the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively, even as a recent decision by the U.S. Supreme Court heads in another direction.

The Democrat from Beaverton spoke last week after she met with representatives from Local 503 of Service Employees International Union, which not only represents the largest group of state government employees but also child and home care workers. They met in Beaverton.

Oregon political leaders remembered the "courageous and remarkable" life of Sen. John McCain after news of his death arrived Saturday.

McCain, 81, died after a battle with brain cancer. A prisoner of war in Vietnam, McCain went on to a decades-long political career that included a presidential run in 2008, when he made a campaign stop in Portland.

Verda Heilman realized she was kicking herself out of her own home when she voted with other members of the Northwest Oregon Housing Authority Board this year to sell a former boarding house in Uniontown to a nonprofit that plans homeless outreach.

Heilman was the last of the building's residents to find a place to live after the sale was finalized. But, she said in July even as she struggled to find a new home, "It's going to a good project. … As much as I didn't want to move, it's for the best of the community."

At my recent visit to Anvil Academy in Newberg, I met a student with a learning disability who is using woodworking skills to start his own business. Another powerful success story came from Tigard-Tualatin Superintendent Dr. Sue Rieke-Smith, who told me about how a student experiencing profound poverty and homelessness was transformed by an auto mechanics class and is now in college studying to become a mechanical engineer.

Reports surfaced this month that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had proposed a significant new use rule (SNUR) for asbestos in June, requiring anyone who wanted to start or resume importing or manufacturing the carcinogenic mineral to first receive EPA approval.

July 17, 2018

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a twelve-hour public hearing on July 17 to hear oral comments on the proposed rule entitled "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science." The proposed rule would require the EPA to only use scientific studies with publicly available data in developing regulations, unless the EPA administrator exempts these requirements on an individual case-by-case basis for significant regulatory decisions that a