Congress ekes out wildfire tax relief

By Julia Shumway | Editor

“The obstacle to obtaining that number of signatures with pen and paper, unless one has an existing army of volunteers or the financial wherewithal to hire lots of paid circulators, is virtually doomed.” — Jason Faler, a nonaffiliated voter living in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District who gave up his campaign for Congress after failing to gather enough signatures from voters. While Democrats and Republicans have to pay nominal filing fees — $100 for Congress — and win a closed primary to make it to the general election ballot, nonaffiliated candidates skip the primary but have to gather signatures from hundreds or thousands of voters representing 1% of the votes cast in their district during the last presidential election.

Also in today's edition:

Wyden’s wildfire tax relief bill squeaks through Congress ahead of recess
Appeals court pauses Oregon prison order
Immigration arrests reach new monthly high

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Sen. Wyden’s wildfire tax relief bill passes just before Congress recesses, goes to White House

By Alex Baumhardt

Sam Drevo walks by the burned foundation of his mother’s home in Gates following the 2020 Labor Day fires. (Photo courtesy of Tyler Westfall)

In the final hours of work before members of Congress went on recess for five weeks, a bill backed by Oregon’s U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden to relieve natural disaster survivors from paying federal income taxes on their recovery settlements and lawyers fees passed against unexpected odds.

Nonaffiliated candidate who hoped to challenge Salinas in November ends campaign

By Mia Maldonado

Jason Faler was running as an nonaffiliated candidate in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District race. He had to collect slightly more than 3,500 signatures to qualify for the November ballot, a hurdle he must pass as nonaffiliated candidates rather than paying a filing fee. He is a fourth-generation Oregonian and a military officer, serving in the U.S. Army for almost 27 years. (Photo by Mia Maldonado/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

The nonaffiliated Oregonian hoping to challenge Democratic U.S. Rep. Andrea Salinas in Oregon’s 6th Congressional District has ended his campaign.

Federal appeals court blocks ruling for housing trans women in Oregon prisons

By Shaanth Nanguneri

The entrance of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, Oregon’s only women’s prison. A new federal appeals court ruling weighs in on a case related to the placement of transgender women in Oregon prisons, including in Coffee Creek. (Photo by Ben Botkin/Oregon Capital Chronicle)

A federal appeals court halted a court order that would have forced Oregon corrections officials to ensure they are not relying on men’s prisons to hold incarcerated transgender women.