One Week to A4D’s Garden Party Celebration
RSVP Now!
Next Tuesday, August 22, A4D members will gather for our annual garden party. Please join us!
On the lawn of a beautiful Irvington home, we’ll celebrate past achievements and gain inspiration for the work that lies ahead. Come for the camaraderie, enjoy good food, and take advantage of the opportunity to speak with elected officials.
Festivities get underway at 5:30pm. For details and to RSVP, click here.
Tired of GOP Walkouts?
COIN is hosting a COINversation on Tuesday, September 12, at 7:00pm with State Representative Khanh Pham to explore a citizen’s initiative petition to change Oregon’s antiquated quorum rule and prevent future walkouts. Sign up here to attend.
Portland Civilian Police Review Board Members of the Charter Commission who drafted an amendment to give the Civilian Police Review Board broader powers are now facing complaints that the language they used was too broad to reconcile it with a proposed new ordinance. Regrettably, the ordinance ignores some elements of the new charter amendment and instead recycles language from the current rule, i.e. the same language that has rendered the committee powerless for decades. The charter amendment language was intended to give the board and City Council maximum flexibility to enact the best possible ordinance to empower the new board. However, some are already interpreting that leeway in a constrictive sense, and the proposed ordinance is already a pale comparison to civilian oversight boards in other cities. The City Council will review this ordinance at a workshop on September 25. Please call the Mayor’s office and the Commissioners to tell them that Portland deserves a Civilian Police Review Board with meaningful investigatory tools and, at minimum, the ability to issue disciplinary recommendations to the chief of police. You can find contact information here and here, and read more about it here.
Our Neighbors in Oregon District 5 We are privileged to be represented by Democrats in Congress, but our neighbors in CD5 are not so lucky. They have to contend with Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer. She’s a MAGA politician who consistently votes for extremist outcomes, yet she represents herself as a moderate candidate for 2024 and works hard to win over the very constituents she consistently betrays. For the past several months, an A4D member has been working with COIN (Consolidated Oregon Indivisible Network) to create a webpage to disabuse voters of the false notions that Chavez-DeRemer fosters. Don’t let anyone fall for Lori’s Lyin’! Whenever you hear or see Lori being represented as a moderate, check out the true facts at the links below:
COIN Oregon - Tell The Truth Lori
Lori’s Mega MAGA Votes
Lori’s Lyin’
Lori’s Flip Flops
Let Everyone Vote! In the decade since the SCOTUS’ Shelby County decision gutted the Voting Rights Act, GOP-controlled legislatures in 29 states have passed more than 100 laws making voting harder, especially for communities of color and low-income voters. At least 29 of those laws were enacted in states that previously required Department of Justice approval (which prior to the Shelby decision had blocked more than 3,000 proposed voter suppression laws). The ACE Act (HR4563), a nasty MAGA voter intimidation bill, is now on the House floor. Please contact your Members of Congress and ask them to do everything in their power to prevent its passage while making it clear that only Democrats protect the freedom to vote, which is the foundation of American democracy. Then contact your Senators and thank them for co-sponsoring the Freedom to Vote Act, which guarantees our voting rights and restores confidence in our elections. Contact and background information can be found here. Some Good News
One week ago Ohio voters defeated GOP-led Issue One by more than 14 points, an initiative that, had it passed, would have undermined the principle of “one person, one vote” and served as a major obstacle to abortion rights.
With dogged determination, the ACLU is playing a major role in winning the fight to defend trans rights. In states across the country, judges are blocking bans on gender-affirming care and drag performances. You can read more here.
A new national monument spans one million acres of sacred Indian land, linking Indian reservations to the Grand Canyon. The newly named Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument protects thousands of cultural and sacred sites that are places of great natural beauty.
Over the past fourteen years, India has reduced its emissions rate by one third and is on track to meet all of its targets! Read about it here.
According to Guoliang Liu, a researcher at Virginia Tech University, a common plastic waste can now be turned into soap. Details here.