Ridenbaugh Press

Nah, not expecting that they will. But be it noted that the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (which for some time has, of course, had a web site) has launched a blog. No, nothing too exciting yet; the main post up so far reviews the reasons why self-serve liquor isn't legal in Oregon. And the writer ends his post, "respectfully." But we'll check back in from time to time. Notable quote: "Alcohol...

There are three U.S. House races in the Northwest this year which bear serious watching, one in each of the three states. And now the national Democratic House organization - the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee - is dumping $2.6 million into those three seats. There will be (and to a small extent have been) contributions from the Republican counterpart, the National Republican...

Washington's top-two primary leaves some issues for newspaper endorsers, among which, do you endorse one candidate or two? Some of the thining behind what we may see in the next few weeks showed up today on the Vancouver Columbian's editorial page. Their conclusion seemed to be, take the races one by one, and go where the clearer opinion leads: "The Columbian will be making single...

The new Oregon voter registration stats, for June, are similar to the recent rounds in that Democrats have been making persistent gains. (There's currently a Democratic advantage of more than 200,000 voters over the Republican numbers.) But what do those translate to locally? We did a couple of things with the breakdowns. First we compared the counties in June this year to June of 2004 -...

The Oregon Senate campaign overall seems to have developed a more energetic and edgy feel in the last month or so, maybe either reflecting or influencing some of the polling suggesting a tightening in the race. A lot of that has to do with the Gordon Smith campaign, but there's been an internal change on the other side of the fence, not much publicly noticed in Oregon, that maybe also bears some...

This site has for some time taken a more skeptical view than some that Idaho politics will be upended this year, that Republican dominance in the state will be seriously cracked. The reason is not so much the candidates or the headlines, but rather the attitudes of the people who cast the votes. This was captured recently in fine focus on the Idaho blog the unequivocal notion, who included a...

The Starbucks list is now out - the list, that is, of hundreds of Starbucks around the country the coffee giant, based in Seattle, plans to close before long. A few words about the Northwest selections. For the most part, the numbers aren't all that large. In Idaho, just two Starbucks will close - one in Boise on University Drive (take a look at the area and you can see how that location might...