Happy Friday! Legislators prepare for the February session, beginning next week.

Oregon's Republican legislators say they'll fight the Governor's health care plan unless it includes limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, and turnout for Democrats and Republicans appears to be about the same rate in the CD1 election--though with the large Democratic registration edge, that means many more Democratic ballots are being turned in.

Oregon lawmakers to meet in 'historic' February session
NPR
"Oregon lawmakers are set to return to Salem February 1 for a whirlwind session of budget-balancing and policy-making. It's the first time the Oregon legislature is meeting under a new voter-approved annual sessions schedule. Lawmakers aren't just trying to repair the budget. They also hope to repair the image of lawmaking, given all the strife in Congress. On a November night in 2010 when voters nationwide were sending incumbents packing, people in Oregon voted overwhelmingly to send their lawmakers to the state capitol more often. After a 153 year history of meeting every two years, the state legislature will for the first time convene in a constitutionally mandated annual session."

Schools

Only two in three Oregon high school students graduate in four years
Oregonian
"Oregon high schools again failed to graduate one of every three students last year, figures out today show. More than 11,000 young people in the high school class of 2011 dropped out. State school Superintendent Susan Castillo cheered the increase in the state's on-time graduation rate, which rose from 66 percent for the classes of 2009 and 2010 to 67 percent for the class of 2011. But Gov. John Kitzhaber called the 67 percent rate 'unacceptable.' Most of Oregon's large and medium-size districts failed to get even 70 percent of the students who entered high school in fall 2007 to earn a diploma within four years."

African-American students face big disparity on how often they're disciplined in Multnomah County schools
Willamette Week
"African-American students across Multnomah County are being suspended and expelled from middle and high schools at nearly 3.5 times the rate of white students, according to a report released Jan. 10 by the Multnomah County Commission on Children, Families & Community. The report finds disparity among the treatment of Hispanic and Native American students as well—a trend that's been also been found around the country."

Other headlines

Oregon GOP pushes limits on medical malpractice liability
Associated Press via Statesman Journal
"Republicans in the Oregon Senate say they'll fight Gov. John Kitzhaber's proposed overhaul of the Oregon Health Plan unless it includes limits on medical malpractice claims. But the governor says there's no time in the Legislature's one-month February session to tackle such a controversial issue. Instead, he says he'll invite lawyers, doctors and others to the governor's mansion to hammer out a compromise for the Legislature to consider in 2013."

New report: Undocumented workers pay Oregon taxes
KDRV
"More than a hundred thousand undocumented workers paid taxes worth as much as $300 million in Oregon - that's according to a new report. Officials from the Oregon Center For Public Policy say they want to do away with the myth that illegal workers don't contribute. Those officials say they do, by paying taxes with the hopes of laying groundwork for citizenship down the road. Dragoberto Morales manages the non-profit Unete, which means, 'Join Us'. He looks at the report called 'Undocumented Workers Are Taxpayers, Too', but he knows it well enough from some of the people he works with. 'They pay taxes. They pay social security and they work the same like everybody else. Making a living,' Morales says."

TriMet considering major fare changes, eliminating zones
Oregonian
"TriMet appears to be on the verge of a historic restructuring of bus and train fares to deal with its latest budget crisis, including eliminating zones and single-ticket round trips. According to documents obtained by The Oregonian, a behind-closed-doors budget task force this week recommended that TriMet switch to a systemwide $2.50 flat-rate adult fare. That would be the end of the line for the agency's longstanding zoned rates. The new flat-rate ticket would also be one-way only. 'Making a return trip on a one-way fare is not allowed,' an outline from the proposed fare restructuring reads. 'Transfers are good for two hours in one direction only.'"

EDITORIAL: Transforming health care
Register Guard
"The United States’ health care system offends reason. It consumes one in six dollars generated by the economy, far more than in any other developed nation, yet delivers results no better, and often worse, than those produced by other countries’ health care systems. Employers struggle to pay the cost of workers’ health insurance, and governments can’t keep up with the cost of Medicare and Medicaid. President Obama’s health care reform law, if it survives, will extend health care coverage to many who lack it, but the underlying problem of steadily rising costs is left largely unaddressed."

Roe v. Wade anniversary: Too many politicians still don't get it, 39 years later
Oregonian
"AMY HOJNOWSKI -- Last Sunday marked the 39th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision. This landmark ruling guaranteed that the right to privacy in the U.S. Constitution protects the right of a woman to choose whether to continue a pregnancy to term or have a safe and legal abortion. In other words, the highest court in the land recognized that women and families -- not politicians -- should have the right to make their own medical decisions without government interference. Nearly four decades later, I have to ask: Why aren't leaders listening? A majority of Americans, no matter what they call themselves or where they align politically, support Roe and respect the decision that each woman makes about her own reproductive health and pregnancy. Yet, in 2011, anti-women's health politicians across the country did just about everything in their power to undermine Roe and gut access to safe and legal abortion care along with access to family planning and Planned Parenthood health centers."

Phil Knight's passionate defense of Joe Paterno draws standing ovation at memorial service
Oregonian
"Nike co-founder and chairman Phil Knight got a standing ovation at Joe Paterno's public memorial Thursday for defending the late coach's response to an accusation of child sex abuse against a former assistant. At a ceremony filled with lavish praise that would likely have embarrassed the school's beloved coach, Knight waded into a subject that had been virtually ignored since Paterno died on Sunday from lung cancer -- the immediate cause of his firing after 46 seasons leading Penn State's football team to a record-setting 409 wins."

Knight stirs anger in JoePa's defense
Associated Press via Register Guard
"STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — The near-capacity crowd of 12,000 seemed to be just waiting for somebody to bring up the subject. Finally, when someone rose in Joe Paterno’s defense to argue that he had been made a scapegoat, the audience was instantly on its feet, applauding thunderously. Anger and resentment came spilling out at a campus memorial service Thursday for the football coach, two months after he was summarily fired by the trustees. It was Nike co-founder Phil Knight who broke the dam, defending Paterno’s handling of child-sex allegations that were leveled against a former coaching assistant."

Elections

Party turnout seems closely matched in Oregon's 1st District race
Jeff Mapes on Politics
"I'm having a problem getting a solid picture of ballot returns so far in the 1st Congressional District.  A worker at the Washington County Elections Department said it can't provide a partisan breakdown on returns because of problems with new machinery, but I can't get a call back from someone with the authority to explain what's going on. What I do have are some interesting numbers from the campaign of Democrat Suzanne Bonamici.  Campaign manager Carol Butler says her figures show that as of the end of the day Wednesday, 28 percent of Democrats had returned their ballot as had 27 percent of Republicans."

Oregon Sen. Jason Atkinson faces conservative challenger in GOP primary
Oregonian
"State Sen. Jason Atkinson, who has been seen as a more centrist figure on some issues since his run for Oregon governor in 2006, now faces a Republican primary challenge from a Grants Pass businessman. Herman Baertschiger, the owner of a forestry company, said in an interview Thursday that he wasn't happy with Atkinson's strong support for removing four dams on the Klamath River as well as his sponsorship of a highly controversial -- and ultimately unsuccessful -- bill to ban on plastic checkout bags."