Governor facing more heat to resign

Coast Radio News
Local News
21 January 2015

The heat is on in Salem.

Members of John Kitzhaber’s own party are now publicly calling on the embattled Democrat to step aside amid a growing scandal.

Senate President Peter Courtney said he and House Speaker Tina Kotek both asked Kitzhaber to give up the office.

Kotek said the growing scandal about charges of influence peddling have – quote – “undermined the governor’s ability to focus on his work”.

Kotek and Courtney’s statements came just hours after Secretary of State Kate Brown, also a Democrat, said she had a – quote – “Strange” and contradictory conversation with Kitzhaber about succeeding him as governor.

The secretary of state is next in line should an Oregon governor step down or die in office.

A bill to renew federal subsidies to timber counties has been filed in the U.S. Senate.

The Secure Rural Schools program made up for federal timber revenues that declined as environmental protections reduced national forest logging, but it expired last year. Efforts to renew it failed in the lame-duck session of Congress last year.

The latest version was filed Thursday by Oregon Democrat Ron Wyden and Idaho Republican Mike Crapo (KRAY-poh).

It calls for sharing $360-million with more than 700 counties across the country. The program has been particularly important in Oregon counties, which shared nearly one-third of the total.

The bill would restore funding for three years at 2011 levels. And it would provide full funding of the Payment in Lieu of Taxes program, which expired in 2013.

Radio listeners in the Florence area will be hearing something a little different today and tomorrow.

More than 150 different items, all from KCST and KCFM advertisers, will go on the auction block in the semi-annual Coast Radio Auction.

Coast Radio General Manager Jon Thompson says a lot of people in the area associate auctions with benefits. This is what he calls a “listener benefit”. He expects bidders to save somewhere between 40-and-50 percent overall on the items they buy Friday and Saturday.

Products up for auction include kitchen appliances, golf packages, restaurant gift certificates and power tools.

Some of the more unique or interesting items… a 48-inch tall Harlequin Doll from New Orleans and two different osprey mobiles… one made of paper; the other hand crafted from glass.

The auction runs today; then again tomorrow from 9 to 11.

A ten-thousand-dollar grant from the Three Rivers Foundation will help the Reedsport Rotary Club continue a clinic that provides free dental care to children and adults from low income families.

Dr. Gerhard Goorhuis (gurr-HEEZ) and his assistant, Bonnie Gentle, have been providing the clinics three to four times each year. Dr. Goorhuis said he was “excited” to learn of the additional funding. Because of the grant, he said he’ll be adding more clinics; possibly as often as once a month.

The next free dental clinic for low income residents residing in the Reedsport School District will be the 20th and 21st of this month. The Family Resource Center in Reedsport processes applications for those seeking treatment.

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