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International

Eastern Oregon Moves Closer to Joining Idaho

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4 minute read

From Heartland Daily News

By Eileen Griffin

Eastern Oregon moves closer to joining Idaho with voters in Crook County approving a measure supporting Greater Idaho.

Another county supports the move away from Oregon to join the state of Idaho.

Voters in Crook County, Oregon passed a measure supporting the effort to move the Oregon/Idaho border such that Crook County would become part of Idaho, KTVZ reports.

Passing the measure makes Crook County the 13th Oregon County in favor of joining Idaho.

The Greater Idaho effort has been sweeping through eastern Oregon after years of being subjected to the far left policies driven by the population center of Portland, as Heartland Daily News previously reported.  By March 2023, 11 counties had approved the Greater Idaho measure.

Although the measure is set to pass, the vote will not be certified until June, KREM reports. Approval of the measure does not mean the border will necessarily be moved. It means that the legislature is notified of the preference of voters in the eastern Oregon counties.

With 13 counties voting in support, it is clear the people of eastern Oregon would like to secede from western Oregon.

After the Crook County vote, Greater Idaho Executive Director Matt McCaw issued a statement on the organization’s website.

“The voters of eastern Oregon have spoken loudly and clearly about their desire to see border talks move forward,” McCaw said. “With this latest result in Crook County, there’s no excuse left for the Legislature and Governor to continue to ignore the people’s wishes.”

“We call on the Governor, Speaker of the House, and Senate President to sit down with us and discuss next steps toward changing governance for eastern Oregonians, as well as for the legislature to begin holding hearings on what a potential border change will look like,” McCaw said.

Greater Idaho President, Mike McCarter said, “For the last three years we’ve been going directly to voters and asking them what they want for their state government.  What they’re telling us through these votes is that they want their leaders to move the border.”

If the border is moved, Oregon stands to lose a significant amount of land, including rural country, Newsweek reports. While the state would lose 2/3 of the land, it would only lose 10 percent of the population.

The far more populated areas in the western part of the state drive politics. When most people think of Oregon they think of Portland, not the rural eastern portion of the state. Oregon news stories are dominated by Portland’s problems with crimelawlessness, and anarchy.

“The Greater Idaho Movement is an effort by those dissatisfied with lawmakers in Salem and are hoping to live under Idaho’s more conservative government,” write the news staff of Central Oregon Daily.

“Another right-leaning county in eastern Oregon has voted to secede from the Democrat-run state and join neighboring Idaho, according to reports,” writes Alex Oliveira for the New York Post.

“Backers of the plan argue the more conservative areas of eastern and central Oregon are currently dominated by liberal-leaning cities such as Portland and Salem and argue their interests would be better represented in traditionally Republican Idaho,” Jack Bickerton writes for Newsweek.

“Conservative residents in eastern Oregon have been ready to part ways with their liberal neighbors to the west, looking to secede from the state and join Idaho,” writes Devan Markham for News Nation. “Conflicting views on crime and social policies have created a large divide between the bigger cities and rural areas, sparking efforts to secede.”

Business

Within a month, 6 largest U.S. banks leave UN Net-Zero Banking Alliance

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From The Center Square

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has expressed skepticism about companies claiming to withdraw from ESG commitments, noting there is often doublespeak in their announcements

Within one month of each other, six of the largest U.S. banks left the United Nations Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) not soon after Donald Trump was elected president.

Last month, Goldman Sachs was the first to withdraw from the alliance, followed by Wells Fargo, The Center Square reported.

By Dec. 31, Citigroup and Bank of America left, followed by Morgan Stanley on Jan. 6 and JPMorgan on Jan. 7.

They did so after joining the alliance several years ago pledging to require environmental social governance standards (ESG) across their platforms, products and systems.

According to the “bank-led and UN-convened” alliance, global banks joined, pledging to align their lending, investment and capital markets activities with a net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, NZBA explains.

Since April 2021, 141 banks in 44 countries with more than $61 trillion in assets had joined NZBA, the alliance says. That’s down from 145 banks with more than $73 trillion in assets it reported last month after Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs withdrew.

“In April 2021 when NZBA launched, no bank had set a science-based sectoral 2030 target for its financed emissions using 1.5°C scenarios,” it says. “Today, over half of NZBA banks have set such targets.”

They started to drop off after President-elect Donald Trump vowed to increase domestic oil and natural gas production and pledged to go after “woke” companies.

They also announced their departure two years after 19 state attorneys general launched an investigation into them for alleged deceptive trade practices connected to ESG.

Four states led the investigation: Arizona, Kentucky, Missouri and Texas. Others involved include Arkansas, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Virginia. Five state investigations aren’t public for confidentiality reasons.

In Texas, the state legislature passed a bill, which Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law, that prohibits governmental entities from entering into contracts with companies that boycott the oil and natural gas industry. The law also requires state entities to divest from financial companies that boycott the industry through ESG policies.

To date, 17 companies and 353 publicly traded investment funds are on Texas’ ESG divestment list.

After financial institutions withdraw from the NZBA, they are permitted to do business with Texas, the office of Texas Attorney General says.

However, Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has expressed skepticism about companies claiming to withdraw from ESG commitments, noting there is often doublespeak in their announcements, The Center Square reported.

Notably, when leaving the alliance, a Goldman Sachs spokesperson said the company was still committed to the NZBA goals and has “the capabilities to achieve our goals and to support the sustainability objectives of our clients,” EST Today reported. The company also said it was “very focused on the increasingly elevated sustainability standards and reporting requirements imposed by regulators around the world.”

“Goldman Sachs also confirmed that its goal to align its financing activities with net zero by 2050, and its interim sector-specific targets remained in place,” EST Today reported.

Five Goldman Sachs funds are listed in Texas’ ESG divestment list.

While announcing it was leaving the alliance, a JPMorgan spokesperson also affirmed the company’s commitment to reaching net-zero emissions. “We aim to contribute to real-economy decarbonization by providing our clients with the advice and capital needed to transform business models and lower carbon intensity,” the spokesperson said, Reuters reported.

Yahoo!Finance also notes that JPMorgan will continue to work with Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. “We will also continue to support the banking and investment needs of our clients who are engaged in energy transition and in decarbonizing different sectors of the economy,” the spokesperson said.

Citigroup and Bank of America also remain committed to net-zero objectives, including continuing to report on efforts to achieve 2030 net-zero targets and reducing CO2 emissions associated with corporate lending, FiNews reported.

The Comptroller’s office remains committed to “enforcing the laws of our state as passed by the Texas Legislature,” Hegar said. “Texas tax dollars should not be invested in a manner that undermines our state’s economy or threatens key Texas industries and jobs.”

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International

Three major wildfires rage in Southern California, killing two and destroying homes

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From The Center Square

By 

Three major wildfires are tearing through Southern California while firefighters struggle to contain them with major Santa Ana winds getting up to 100 mph.

As of Wednesday morning, two people have been killed and over 1,000 homes, businesses and other buildings have been destroyed in Los Angeles County.

“Last night was one of the most devastating and terrifying nights that we’ve seen in any part of our city in any part of our history,” Los Angeles City Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson said during a Wednesday morning news conference.

The City of Los Angeles has declared a state of emergency and the national guard has been deployed to assist the hundreds of firefighters tackling the fires.

The fire in the Pacific Palisades was the first wildfire to break out after the weather alert warnings, burning over 11,000 acres in 24 hours and tens of thousands of local residents having been evacuated. The Pacific Palisades is home to some of the most expensive homes in the state and now thousands of these multi-million-dollar homes have burned to the ground.

A second fire broke out Tuesday evening in Eaton Canyon near Pasadena and has burned over 10,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, forcing tens of thousands of individuals to evacuate and burning numerous buildings.

The other major fire – the Hurst fire – has burned around 700 acres. The wildfire located in San Fernando was discovered late Tuesday night and continued to spread, forcing the evacuation of those living in the Sylmar neighborhood.

During Wednesday morning’s press conference, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone emphasized the importance of evacuating when the orders are in place, reporting a “high number of significant injuries” to those who didn’t evacuate.

None of the fires have been contained with firefighters being stretched thin, working 48-hour shifts. A combination of increased vegetation, dry conditions and extreme winds created a perfect storm for weather that the National Weather Service said is “as bad as it gets.”

“The preconditions for a January fire in Southern California couldn’t be much worse. After two years of generous moisture (especially in 2022-23), the state’s 2024-25 wet season has gotten off to an intensely bifurcated start: unusually wet in NoCal and near-record dry in SoCal,” wrote meteorologist Bob Henson in Yale Climate Connections. “On top of the unusually dry conditions for early January, we’re now in the heart of the Santa Ana wind season. These notorious and dangerous downslope winds, which occur when higher-level winds are forced over the coastal mountains and toward the coast, typically plague coastal Southern California a few times each year.”

Approximately 10% of Los Angeles County schools have been closed including the entire Pasadena Unified School District and numerous roads including much of the Pacific Coast Highway, 10 Freeway going westbound, Topanga Canyon Boulevard, parts of Angeles Crest Highway and the 210 Freeway going westbound.

Gov. Gavin Newsom urges all of those near evacuation zones to stay vigilant as the worst still may be yet to come as the Los Angeles Fire Department has issued a red flag warning to last through Thursday evening in some areas.

“This is a highly dangerous windstorm that’s creating extreme fire risk – and we’re not out of the woods,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re already seeing the destructive impacts with this fire in Pacific Palisades that grew rapidly in a matter of minutes.”

Newsom announced Tuesday that he was able to secure fire management assistance grants from FEMA for both the Palisades and Eaton fires.

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