Voter registration for the May primary closes Tuesday, April 29. So far, the Vote OR Vote campaign at the University of Oregon has registered over 3,000 students. Since the beginning of term, Vote OR Vote campaigns across the state have registered 18,000 students total.

“It is important for students to register. Period,” Vote OR Vote member and UO sophomore Rudy Zarosinski said.

According to Zarosinski, the more students who register and vote, the more voice they have in elections and legislation. In 2012, Vote OR Vote registered 50,750 people, distributed 40,000 nonpartisan voter guides and made over 80,000 individual contacts. “There is a direct correlation,” Zarosinski said.

“It is important for students to register to vote because it helps build political power for students,” said Daniel McCall, communications director for the Oregon Student Association. “We know that elected officials are more likely to prioritize student needs when students register to vote and turn out to vote.”

It is important for UO students from out of state to register as well.

“The people that have the most control over how much they will be paying for school are elected in Oregon,” McCall said. “If out-of-state students wish to remain registered in their home state, we always make sure that they know that they have to be registered as an absentee voter in order to receive a ballot from there while they live in Oregon.”

The Vote OR Vote is a nonpartisan campaign run every two years by the Oregon Student Association. The OSA was established in 1975 in order to “represent, serve, and protect the collective interests of students in postsecondary education in Oregon,” according to their website.

Their presence has been successful in increasing student voters.

“Those registered by OSA vote at a much higher rate than those who self-register or are registered with other organizations,” their website says.

During the primary elections, voters will select party nominees and vote on ballot measures and non-partisan races. Ballots can be mailed to in-state voters starting Wednesday, April 30. Election day is Tuesday, May 20.

UO students can register at either of the Vote OR Vote booths on campus, located in front of the Duck Store or outside the Erb Memorial Union. Students can also register online, at county elections offices and through mail-in registration.

You’re sinking farther and farther into the couch. Adventure Time is speaking to you on a deep level. Never in your life have you tasted Cheetos so delicious. Obviously, you’ve ingested some form of marijuana in the last few hours, but what exactly is going on chemically to create this current feeling?

Cannabinoids are the primary active ingredients in cannabis. The main cannabinoid is tetrahydrocannabinol. According to Jeremy Sackett, co-founder and chief science officer of Cascadia Labs, there are up to 50-60 more cannabinoids that induce psychiatric effects. THC has the ability to treat pain, influence appetite and effect sex hormones. Terpenes are what give the cannabis plant its unique scent.

Cannabis has over 200 phytochemicals, according to Sackett. Within the nervous system lies the endocannabinoid system. This system within the brain is involved in appetite, memory, pain and mood. There are two types of cannabinoid receptors, CB1 and CB2.

According to Sackett, cannabinoid receptors have been found in some of the first nervous systems found from around 200 million years ago. Over the years, cannabis plants have evolved along with the cannabinoid system according to Sackett. “It’s really exciting research to be a part of,” Sackett said.

According to Sackett, the previous 20-30 years of cannabis research have prompted “new research and new understanding.”

Some say that the marijuana available today is stronger than what was around in years past.

“I do believe there is some truth to that,” Sackett said. “Though it is purely anecdotal.”

According to Sackett, research has not been focused on the strength of cannabis plants until the last 10 years.

So today you made the fateful decision to smoke or carry pot onto the University of Oregon campus. Now, the University of Oregon Police Department has caught you. What is going to happen to you?

UOPD has either received a report about smelling or seeing smoking somewhere like the residence halls or patrol just saw you.

Since it is your first offense and you have less than an ounce on you, the UOPD officer will likely write you up to the Office of Student Conduct. You will not get a citation as long as you aren’t hostile, lying, being difficult or being non-compliant overall.

Remember: UOPD officers always have the authority to issue a citation.

Some time later, you have met with a hearing officer with the Office of Student Conduct, discussed your options and performed a task — like completing an educational course, writing a paper, performing community service or completing counseling assessments.

After all that, you have decided to risk it again. Someone in your residence hall smells what you are up to and calls it in. Once again, an officer of the UOPD catches you with less than an ounce of marijuana on campus for the second time.

This time, since your previous punishment hasn’t affected your decision making, the UOPD officer cites you for the Eugene Municipal Court and sends you to speak with the dean of students.

Let’s rewind a bit. The first time the UOPD catches you this time you, as a minor, have alcohol on you rather than marijuana. The process you go through is practically the same as long as it is your first offense. The UOPD officer will write you up, send you to the Office of Student Conduct and you will perform what you are assigned.

“We want it to be an educational situation,” UOPD public information officer Kelly McIver said. “This kind of behavior has an overall negative impact on campus.”

Something very important to keep in mind: If you are found by the Eugene Police Department, they do not have the same option UOPD has of writing you up and issuing a warning to the system.

If EPD catches you either in possession of marijuana or alcohol as a minor, they have the ability to cite you, give you and Minor in Possession and send you to Eugene Municipal Court.

Just a reminder: Recreational marijuana is currently illegal in the state of Oregon.

Currently, the U.S. Supreme Court is deciding whether or not to allow businesses to choose which parts of the Affordable Care Act they provide to employees based on the company’s religious standing. If the Supreme Court decides to allow this, businesses and corporations would be granted the ability to pick and choose which health care they provide to their employees under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 in the future.

Due to the family-run business Hobby Lobby’s religious beliefs, they do not want to provide contraceptives such as Plan B or IUDs to its employees.

On March 25, the U.S. Supreme Court heard testimony for the Hobby Lobby vs Sebelius case. Kathleen Sebelius has been the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services since 2009.

The Hobby Lobby website says, “We believe it is by God’s grace and provision that Hobby Lobby has endured. He has been faithful in the past and we trust him for our future.”

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley has been vocal the case. On April 4, Merkley came to BRING Recycling in Eugene and spoke along with BRING Recycling’s Executive Director Julie Daniel and employee Carolyn Stein.

“Our bosses don’t need to be in our bedrooms,” Merkley said.

Outside of just the personal interference, others take issue to the interference of health care decisions in general.

“I don’t consider it the purview of the business to make health care decisions for employees,” Daniel said. “Access to birth control is a basic right. I wouldn’t consider offering an insurance policy that did not include it.”

Oregon has it’s own health care benefits that could be affected if the court rules in favor of Hobby Lobby.

“They would invalidate the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, but probably also invalidate the provisions of our Oregon law that have made access to contraceptives universally available,” Merkley said. “It has been extremely well received that our policies offer basic preventative care. To have the Supreme Court potentially reach out and say that a boss can dictate essentially both their religious values on their employees and violate this fundamental access to preventative care just seems wrong.”

Merkley encourages people to take action in this issue.

“It’s time for folks to stand up and say that we should not live in a world where our bosses determine whether or not they have access to inoculation, whether or not we have treatment for HIV/AIDS and whether or not we have access to contraceptives. That, in a for-profit organization, to have the board of directors dictating health care decisions for employees is wrong,” Merkley said.

The University of Oregon Health Center offers contraceptives to its students.

“As a comprehensive health center we want our students to be well informed about their choices regarding contraception,” said Health Promotion specialist Renee Mulligan.

The health center sells Plan B without a prescription and Ella, which is a pill similar to Plan B. It offers a longer window of opportunity to prevent pregnancy with a prescription and provides HIV testing, HPV vaccines, pregnancy testing, STI testing and free latex barriers including condoms. Appointments for students are $15.

In Eugene, there are about 300 calls dispatched daily by Eugene’s approximate 157,986 residents. The total number of sworn in officers to respond to work patrol, investigate, enforce traffic and perform administrative work is 190.

“Oregon officers per 1,000 population are lower than national average. Lane County Corrections and district attorney staffing is abnormally low for a county our size. This has an impact on policing in terms of what types of crimes will get prosecuted and result in jail time,” Melinda McLaughlin of the Eugene Police Department said.

The EPD received a budget of approximately $46.7 million for the 2013 fiscal year. In addition to the 190 officers, the department houses 140 civilian employees who perform work in records, communications, crime prevention and administration support. The EPD has approximately 37 volunteers. Twenty-five thousand cases are handled in Eugene each year.

According to McLaughlin, previous studies documented low ratio officers per thousand in Eugene. This in turn, results in fewer officers on the street, lower response times, the prioritizing and limiting calls which officers respond to as well as the department’s ability to adjust to things like neighborhood needs and crime trends.

“With annual reductions to the city budget projected for the next two years, the department does not have the ability to address the shortage of officers,” McLaughlin said.

Compared to other cities in Oregon, EPD does not appear that far behind. Salem’s population of approximately 157,429 has 187 sworn in officers, 116 civilian employees and a budget of about $36 million.

The Portland Police Department, who serves about 603,106 people, has 986 sworn officers, 226 civilian employees and a budget of $165.4 million as of 2013.

The University of Oregon Police Department serves the main UO campus in Eugene, UO Portland and the Oregon Institute of Marine Biology in Charleston. The UOPD has 18 sworn officers, including supervisors and command staff, 10 public officers, six security officers and managers, and 18 civilian employees. The approved budget for the current fiscal year is $5.6 million. The budget includes the $1.2 million the UOPD provides to the Parking and Transportation Department.

“We work very closely with the Eugene Police,” Communications Director and Public Information Officer Kelly McIver said. “Our presence means they don’t have to come up here and deal with things as much as they would otherwise.”

According to McIver, the UOPD is able to investigate smaller occurrences,  such as arrestee transportation and minor crimes like theft,  that the EPD normally wouldn’t be able to address due to bigger cases. UOPD also has the ability to treat occurrences like minor in possession as educational opportunities and, on first offenses, have the ability to write the students up to the Department of Student Conduct and Dean of Students.

According to the UOPD’s website, “While UOPD works with Eugene Police and other agencies to prevent and solve crime, UOPD exists to serve students and campus community members, and can prioritize issues important to the campus community.”

Oregon’s minimum wage is one of the top in the nation at $9.10. However, other states are not so lucky — the federal minimum is $7.25. HR 1010, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013, seeks to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10.

University of Oregon freshman Carly Gough works part-time at Dairy Queen earning minimum wage. Gough works while attending school because “loans are crazy, books are so expensive and I wanted to load up on savings.”

It is a struggle to live comfortably off a student paycheck. “I would have to work more, and even then I’m not sure. In the summer I was almost full time, even then I only made about $500 a paycheck,” Gough said.

Representatives Peter DeFazio, Suzanne Bonamici and Earl Blumenauer from Oregon are co-sponsors of the bill. DeFazio first cosponsored HR 1010 when it was presented on March 6, 2013.

“Right now, the federal minimum wage of $7.25 is leaving 25 million American workers behind, all while lining the pockets of the people at the very top. It’s time for the rest of the country to adopt what’s already happening in Oregon: tying the minimum wage to inflation. Giving workers a long-overdue raise would lift millions of Americans out of poverty. That’s not only good for the workers, but also for the U.S. economy and its long-term growth,” DeFazio said.

Gough’s typical paycheck ranges from $150 to $220 and she receives them twice a month — one at the start and one at the end. Gough’s duties include cleaning, serving ice cream orders, taking orders and working the cash register.

“I know for a lot of people fast food is their career, so it (the current wage) kinda sucks there. It is fine for what I need,” Gough said.

Gough has the Pathway Oregon scholarship, which covers her tuition and fees, leaving her to cover her living and book expenses. She puts most of her paycheck into savings and use it for books, plus the other necessities that scholarships don’t cover. “My parents help where they can,” Gough said.

“I would love that (increase in minimum wage), but I don’t know that it is necessary. It’s hard to say. It would bump prices for Dairy Queen, so then everything could just balance out,” Gough said.

HR 1010 currently has 196 cosponsors. The latest action with the bill took place on Feb. 26, 2014 when it received a Motion to Discharge Committee.

HR 1010 will amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and increase the minimum wage gradually. It will start with an increase to $8.20, three months after the bill is enacted.

After one year the wage will then increase to $9.15. The wage will reach the $10.10 increase after two years. After three years, the Secretary of Labor will determine the amount of minimum wage based on the Consumer Price Index. The Secretary of Labor will continue to decide the minimum wage annually after that point.

March 3, 2014 House Bill 3460 went into effect. The bill regulates medical marijuana dispensaries by way of involving the Oregon Health Authority to implement a registration system to monitor and authorize the transfer of marijuana plants.

“The implementation of HB 3460 has gone just fine thus far,” co-author and lobbyer for HB 3460 Sam Chapman said.

The transition hasn’t been totally problem free however. According to Chapman there have been a few facilities within 1,000 feet of the school that now have to shut down, and some of the testing requirements have created a challenge. “As with any new law, issues are always bound to arise,” Chapman said. “A lot of people who have been operating prior to 3460 passing are just now discovering what impact the new law will have on their businesses.”

According to Chapman the Oregon Health Authority received over 300 applications in the weeks since the bill went into effect. “They are doing an excellent job working with the resources they have,” Chapman said.

Chapman anticipates problems that have arisen since the implementation “will be taken up in the next legislative session among many other much needed fixes to 3460.”

“There are a handful of facilities that have been operating within 1,000 feet of a school, which means then will need to shut down immediately as to not risk being shut down by the OHA or other enforcement agencies,” Chapman said.

Another issue that has arisen, according to Chapman, is the difficulties some of the new required testing. “The new testing requirements have certainly been a hurdle for some facilities, but I would say there are plenty of facility operators that have been testing for some time in anticipation of new testing rules coming out with 3460,” Chapman said.

“Looking back we could have most certainly laid out further regulations for testing facilities to adhere to,” Chapman said.

Chapman is a part of New Economy Consulting and said that they currently have “four clients that have either received their actual license or a provisional license in the mail, and a handful of others awaiting word from the OHA.”

At the first of the year, Colorado became the first state to allow legal sales of marijuana for both medical and recreational use. Colorado had their own version of HB 3460, HB 10-1284, which regulated medical marijuana before it was legalized in the state.

In November 2012, Measure 80, Oregon’s own attempt to legalize marijuana, failed on the ballot.

HB 3460 was signed by Gov. John Kitzhaber on August 13, 2013.

The Federal Government granted Oregonians another 30 days to apply for health care through Cover Oregon. It also canceled the federal penalty for enrolling after April 30.

Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley worked to make small business tax credit available to Oregon businesses under the new health care law. Tax credits were previously being received by small businesses since 2010, in order to aid with health care coverage of employees.

Since the change in 2014, these tax credits were made available only to small businesses that received health insurance from a federal or state small business health options program. The exchange has not been functioning in Oregon due to Cover Oregon’s website issues, according to Merkley’s office.

“Small businesses and their employees should not lose access to quality health insurance because of a broken website,” Merkley said. “I pushed to make this right because helping small business owners to provide affordable health insurance is a win-win.”

The original deadline for the open enrollment was March 31. Many issues with the website caused frustration across the state.

“While Cover Oregon was in general a good idea, I think it has been a massive failure execution wise,” Sierra Sweigert, junior at the University of Oregon said. “There seem to be more problems than solutions with trying to enact it.”

“I know that for too many Oregonians, the Cover Oregon website and its ongoing technical problems have created delays confusion and frustration,” Gov. John Kitzhaber said in a press release.

Oracle, the company originally in charge of the website creation and function, came to an agreement with Cover Oregon earlier in March due to the issues that have come up since the website went live. Oracle has claimed a cost of $69.5 million for work in technology development from November 2013 through Feb. 28, 2013. Under the agreement, Cover Oregon is withholding $25.6 million from the claimed cost, which will not prevent Oracle from continuing work on the site during the open enrollment and transition period.

According to a Cover Oregon press release, “despite ongoing technical problems, there have been more than 123,000 enrollments in health care coverage through Cover Oregon.”

Cover Oregon is now planning on maintaining the current working technology of the site, while contracting a different developer.

“Governor Kitzhaber directed us to create a plan for the remainder of this open enrollment period, and create a path forward for the next. This agreement will allow us to continue enrolling Oregonians now and to create a smooth transition,” Interim Cover Oregon Director Dr. Bruce Goldberg said in a press release.

The change now enables qualifying businesses to claim tax credits of up to 50 percent for the cost of health plans outside of the SHOP exchange. According to Merkley’s office, these plans are identical.

The Comprehensive Veterans Health and Benefits and Military Retirement Pay Restoration Act of 2014, an act which would have provided additional education and job-training benefits for veterans as well as improved health care, was rejected by senate in March.

The bill included Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley’s Spouses of Heroes Education Act, which would provide education benefits to spouses of soldiers who die in the line of service. The act would also amend the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill to expand the Fry Scholarship, which provides full in-state tuition and fees to children of those who died in the line of  duty, to include spouses.

According to Merkley’s office the act would also help the Veterans Administration work on eliminating the backlog of claims for benefits as well as improving care.

Sean Hanson left the University of Oregon to join the army in 2003 and returned to his studies at Lane Community College with the help of the Post-9/11 G.I. Bill.

Hanson can collect the benefits of the bill for 36 months, which includes a monthly housing allowance based on zip code — which, according to Hanson, varies from $1,100 to $1,200 per month. The benefits also include compensation for tuition and a book stipend, which is about $150 per term.

“I wanted a way to pay for college,” said Hanson, who spent four years in active service which ended in August 2008. Hanson served in Iraq for 15 months from June 2006 until September 2007. Once he was out of the reserves Hanson decided that “now was the time” to return to his education. Claiming the benefits was a “fairly painless process.”

“Sometimes I wish that everyone was a veteran,” Hanson said. “I appreciate the education more. I appreciate the opportunities. (The service) helped me nail down a work ethic.”

Hanson could be receiving veteran’s health care but opted out due to the shakiness of the program. “I don’t feel comfortable,” Hanson said, and cited the death of a veteran, Ray Velez, who died after going to the Roseburg VA hospital for a routine hernia surgery but suffered complications that went undetected. 

“We had a really bad regional director for the VA who should have been fired or retired decades ago … and the former director of the hospital, who was also bad news,” Congressman Peter DeFazio said.

According to DeFazio and Merkley, the bill was rejected by the republicans.

“It was shot down in the senate by the republicans and they say their concern is they didn’t like the way it was paid for,” DeFazio said.

 “Supporting our veterans should not be a partisan issue. Our men and women in uniform have stood up for us, and we must stand up for them. Unfortunately, the republicans are putting politics over good policy for our veterans. Oregon’s veterans deserve better,” Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said in a press release.

 The Veterans Services of Lane County serves approximately 35,000 veterans and dependents in Lane County. The organization provides applications for VA Health Care, VA Education Benefits and Surviving Spouse Benefits as well as filing for disability claims and obtention of military records.

March 5, 2014 Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden made the announcement that new funding, made available by the US Army Corps of Engineers, will go to fund dredging operations at ports up and down the Oregon Coast.

The total funding will give ports $19 million. $4.5 million will go to six smaller ports and $12.5 million in additional funds for the purpose of reconstruction of the jetty and dredging along the Columbia River.

The six smaller ports receiving funds are Bandon, Depoe Bay, Port Orford, Gold Beach, Garibaldi and Umpqua. Without the funding, which now has been made available, the six ports would not have received any federal funding.

The ports in Chetco and Siuslaw will get additional funding to support their dredging operations. Chetco would have originally received $21,000 and now get an additional $696,000. Siuslaw would have originally received $32,000 in federal funding, and now will have an additional $698,000.

According to Merkley’s office “dredging has long been underfunded at Oregon’s small ports.”

Dredging — the excavation of sediments and the disposal of them elsewhere — is done for the purpose of maintaining the navigability of waterways.

“Our smaller ports will gain much-needed essential maintenance and improvements, and the start of repairs to jetties at the mouth of the Columbia River is extraordinarily important to our entire state economy,” Merkley said in the annoucement.

The following monetary amounts provided for the six smaller ports are as follows:

Bandon: $413,000

Depoe Bay: $380,000

Port Orford: $1,262,000

Gold Beach: $638,000

Garibaldi: $659,000

Umpqua: $861,000

“Oregon’s small ports are the economic engines of the coast,” Wyden said in the annoucement.