Earlier this year, a ballot initiative was filed in Oregon to place a measure on the 2014 ballot to allow public sector union members to opt out of mandatory deduction of dues from their paychecks.

The American Lands Council recently came to Oregon to discuss the dichotomy between Eastern and Western states in the percentage of land owned by the federal government.

Cover Oregon, the bi-partisan state health care exchange set up under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), is facing more trouble.

As I wrote earlier today, the expansion of Medicaid under Obamacare has come with all sorts of surprises and unintended (or perhaps intended) consequences. Medicaid expansion creates a two-tier medical delivery system that forces all but the most well-off into a single-payer system.

We all know that Nancy Pelosi said "we need to pass the bill to know what's in it," but one of the more insidious problems with Obamacare relates to the rules already in place for Medicaid, and the attempt to move as many applicants to Medicaid as possible.

The following email was received this week by the employees of a large insurer located in the Northwest. Specific details were removed to protect individual identities.Subject: Changes in Individual Underwriting due to ACA implementation

We all know that communism is evil, socialism is bad, big government reduces personal liberty and central planners can't plan their way out of a wet paper bag. But we don't often examine why.

October has not been kind to Obamacare. The first of the month was the date under the law when we were to see the exchanges in place, and when we were supposed to be able to see all the savings created by the law. And yes, all of this was going to happen under the promise that if you liked your doctor and your health plan, you could keep them.

One of the fondest memories of my childhood, growing up in the idyllic countryside of Connecticut, was the crisp air of autumn days, the smell of dried leaves from the maple and walnut trees on our farm, and the crackle of a fire in our woodstove or fireplace warming our colonial era home.

If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.