For a list of fall activities, go to the KLCC Shortcut here.
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MICHAEL DUNNE: I'm Michael Dunne. It's fall. There's a chill in the air. The leaves are changing. Football season is in high gear, and National Guard troops are massing in Portland?! Okay. One of these things is not like the others, and it illustrates just how bizarre this fall is for Oregon and the rest of the nation. Today, on the show, we're going to talk about the low lights and highlights of this fall season in our community. First, we'll check in with Senator Jeff Merkley and get his perspective on the government shutdown and the Trump administration's attempt to send troops into the state's largest city. But then we'll change direction and talk about all the good events and happenings in the community this fall with our arts and culture reporter. It's the good, bad and spooky for fall, and it's next on Oregon On The Record. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for coming on.
SENATOR MERKLEY: You bet Michael, very good to be with you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Let's just dive. From your perspective, let's talk about the two big stories, the government shutdown and the proposal to send in or federalized National Guard troops to Portland. What are you seeing? What are you hearing?
SENATOR MERKLEY: Well, the Republican shutdown continues because the Republicans don't want to address what they did in the big, ugly betrayal of a bill that is savaging health care for families across America. In Oregon, it will be about October 15 that all of the new plans will be announced on the exchange we're expecting. It is projected that they'll see some increase of about 68% or $1,300 a person, in the cost of health care, and 68% let's just be clear, people get pretty upset when there's inflation of 5% this is 68% on top of higher grocery costs on top of higher utility costs. The one thing that's happened over the last nine months is Trump has made America poor and sicker, and this attack on health care goes right to the heart of whether or not our families succeed.
MICHAEL DUNNE: The Republicans control all three branches of government, President, both houses of Congress and the judiciary. Yet, you know, they're trying to cast this as it's the Democrats fault. I'd love to get your response to that.
SENATOR MERKLEY: Well, they are in charge, and as Trump said when he was commenting on President Obama being the office is responsible with the President, bring people together. But in this case, Trump didn't want to meet. He finally met once, very briefly under public pressure. The House of Representatives has been out for 19 days, 19 days when they should be here negotiating, and instead there, I don't know. They're vacationing on some Bahama Island or something. I don't know what happened to them, but here in the Senate, we are, we are here, and we are voting periodically on the Democratic plan and the Republican plan. And what's the difference between those plans? The Democrats say, fix these credits so that families don't face vast increases in health costs and realize not just people on the exchange. What we're talking about is the general insurance industry will be raising prices to compensate for the change in the insurance pool, so people who buy regular insurance are expected to have more than 10% increase, and then there will be folks who can't afford the insurance and don't have it. That's bad for them, but it also means that there'll be fewer revenues flowing into our hospitals and clinics, and especially in rural Oregon, that is a big deal. We're often a clinic or a hospital hanging on by a thread.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Right now, polling seems to show that most Americans are putting the blame for the shutdown on the Republicans. And I know it's hard to say you can win a shutdown, but given that they do control the Republicans control so much of the government. Is this an issue that you feel is resonating with Democrats and potential independent voters?
SENATOR MERKLEY: It's very much resonating because every family is affected by health care and also whether they even if their insurance is fine, if, if they employer pays for something, but they still care about whether they have a clinic or a hospital in their community, you lose that, and everybody in the community loses access to health care. But it's also right. Fascinating, because during this year there's felt like there's two to three new issues every day. Maybe it deals with Ukraine or the Middle East or shooting boats in the Caribbean that are coming from Colombia, Venezuela. It's just like every day it's something, its tariffs, 50% tariff on Brazil, and so people just have a hard time keeping up, like, oh my goodness, why didn't we talk about that issue? But today, there's two or three new issues. Now the country is focused on one issue, health care, and that is very good for our nation, for citizens to be able to say, Okay, we're starting to understand this debate. Republicans want to savage healthcare. They proceeded to do it in order to increase tax benefits for the richest Americans. They proceeded to savage child nutrition, to do tax giveaways to billionaires. They proceeded to pile 30 trillion in additional debt on our nation over the next 30 years to do these tax benefits for billionaires. What's going on here? This is a family’s loss, billionaires' win, agenda, and that's crazy. Shouldn't we in a republic be doing an agenda that's more of families thrive and the affluent pay their fair share.
MICHAEL DUNNE: The President has also made overtures that this shutdown gives him an opportunity to fire a bunch of people in the federal government or not return people who are furloughed. I'd love to get your comments on that.
SENATOR MERKLEY: Well, this plan to fire was going forward with or without a shutdown, and it's in their project 2025, and of course, it did tons of firings before the shutdown. There's no legal power that changes under shutdown. In fact, it becomes legally harder to fire, because there's laws that say you put people on furlough, not firing them during a shutdown. And to fire, you have to have this process, this extensive process, where you submit a plan for reduction in force or a RIF. And those plans, making those plans is not essential, so that work is not even supposed to be done during a shutdown. So legally, our workers are more protected now than ever. But listen, it is a huge imposition on our workers that their paychecks are frozen. I'm having my paycheck frozen in partnership with those who are experiencing this. But let's recognize what the head of OMB said as he was putting this plan together during the interim during the Biden administration under his project. He said, hey, I want to traumatize our federal workers, and I want them to feel so bad about themselves, that they don't even want to come to work, that that is the philosophy guiding this attitude towards our workers. I have a very different attitude. I so much appreciate people, whether they're working in our national parks, they're working keeping our communication system going, whether they're working in the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau getting fairness on financial products or our consumer safety division, or any of all the work that's done to build our infrastructure and process our permits, all the work, I thank our federal employees for their hard work to make Our nation better.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Let's switch gears and talk about what might happen in Portland. If you could give us, you know, the best intelligence you have on where what's happening and what might happen with regard to federalizing National Guard troops to deploy in Portland.
SENATOR MERKLEY: Well, the President put out a completely fake story about Portland. There were over several months, there were a few scuffles that the local police handled, just like they handle other police work. But what Trump is trying to do is recreate what happened in 2020 when there was a lot of conflict between federal forces and citizens, because his plan is to create a justification for the insurrection act in which he can send troops into our cities. And to have that justification, he needs violence. So, he sent these folks out saying, basically, attack the peaceful protesters. And we've seen this both on reporting by Oregon Public Broadcasting. We've seen it also reporting the Oregonian of the reporters themselves witnessing peaceful protesters being attacked by these federal forces. And then on top of that, they proceeded, a few nights ago, to say to protesters, you've got to move three blocks away. And the protesters did. There was no interaction between the protests rather than commentaries, but not physical interaction. March them three blocks away, had a line, had professional videographers behind them, and then they proceeded to say, Okay, do it. And they throw down flash bangs, which sound like gunfire going off, and pepper balls and tear gas. And of course. Disperses a crowd, and they filmed this trying to make people in America think they were disrupting a riot. This type of fake presentation, kind of a wag the dog scenario of the government faking a riot, or not a war, but a riot. This has never been done in America. To my knowledge, this is a new level of the administration lying to the American people, putting out disinformation and trying to do it in order to justify sending the military into our cities. Understand how dangerous this is. This is the power of an authoritarian government that says we want to get the military accustomed to being deployed internally against Americans, and we want court decisions that give deferential interpretation to the president, so even if there is no rebellion or insurrection, they hope for a court decision that says, if the President says there is we'll allow him to do this that opens The gate to enduring authoritarian control of our government. I just want to emphasize on ringing the alarm bells. This is incredibly dangerous territory we are in, and I'm saying to the protesters, don't take the bait. They want violence. Don't give it to them, and they've been incredibly disciplined so far. So, minor skirmishes, okay, nothing the police can't handle. But I'm encouraging people to protest away from the federal agents, because they are trying to provoke violence to justify authoritarian control, and we do not want to help them achieve that aim,
MICHAEL DUNNE: Senator, I know your time is very tight. If I could ask one last question, which is, what have been some of the conversations perhaps you've had with Governor Kotek and people on the ground, the mayor of Portland, in terms of how you from the federal government can help in what they're trying to do at the local level.
SENATOR MERKLEY: There's such unity between the city and the Governor and Senator Wyden myself and our congressional delegation all very aware of the tactics the government is employing and why they're employing them. All very aware that the standard, for example, defining rebellion is a large organized armed group trying to overthrow the government. Having a couple protesters holding flower signs outside ICE is the furthest thing away from that but we understand what Trump is trying to do. He's trying to create a pathway for authoritarian control by being able to use the military domestically, and that our collective response is to keep people calm, try to make sure they understand what the administration is up to. To certainly exercise your voice and your right to protest, but do it in a way that does not help the authoritarian breach our fundamental constitutional rights of freedom of expression, freedom of assembly, freedom of press, and stand together to save our republic.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Senator Merkley, always great to talk to you. Thanks so much for carving out some time to talk with us.
SENATOR MERKLEY: Thanks very much. Michael
MICHAEL DUNNE: Our arts and culture reporter is going to join us now for some much needed positive reporting about fall happenings in the community. Kendra Schertell, our arts and culture reporter, thanks so much for coming in and talking to us.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, thanks for having me again.
MICHAEL DUNNE: So yesterday, it's like fall really asserted herself. It went from like 80 the day before to cloudy and stuff. So, fall is in the air. Are you excited?
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Wonderful. It's my favorite season.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Is it? You know what's so funny? I think a lot of people say that. I think growing up, it was like, Oh, well, summer schools out and stuff. But I love fall, especially here. It's just wonderful.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: It's so beautiful. This is, like, one of the best states for fall, I think.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yeah, and then leaves are changing, and I'm glad. I mean, I love summer weather, okay, but hey, you know what? It’s time. We're all ready to, you know, get out the sweaters and the coats from us from our closets and whatnot. So why don't we start with this kind of, maybe take us through some of the, you know, the events you got, you got kind of, kind of marked. What can folks expect from this most, shall we say, unusual fall here in the Pacific Northwest?
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Well, I mean, of course, it's October, so there's plenty of Halloween activities.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, talk about, yeah, let's, let's start there, and then we can kind of back in because, I mean, Halloween, I don't know. I've never been a big Halloween guy. I know, but I know that it's, actually, it seems like it's a holiday that you really like, whether you're an older person or a kid, there's something for you to talk about some of the things that are sort of out there.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: It's a big one. So, a lot of cities have their own little Halloween trick or treating. Springfield has one in their city hall, and that's actually on Halloween from 330 to 5pm so you got that? It. Eugene downtown has their trick or treating this year. It's on Saturday, October 25 Okay, from 12 to four, and there are little locations where you can get maps and things and go all around. And I'm pretty sure KLCC is doing a thing.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I believe we are. I love you know, when they can incorporate downtown into a celebration. Because obviously, you know, I think, you know, downtown Eugene and Springfield, to some degree, I know there are a lot of people that are like, Oh, I don't know about coming downtown or something like that, having an excuse, especially on Halloween, to come down and really see that it's wonderful. And, you know, sure, there are some problems and whatnot, but it's great when you can kind of have that moment where maybe you haven't been downtown in a while, you have this great excuse to bring the kids and see what it's all about.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: We have a great downtown area in Eugene, and I think that parade, we had a bright parade, and that kind of showed how wonderful it is and bringing the community together. So I think a lot of people really enjoy trick or treating downtown,
MICHAEL DUNNE. Talk about any other kind of I don't know if there are restaurants that are doing special things, or bars or those sorts of things.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: So many bars, okay, pretty much every bar Halloween thing going on. I know there's Halloween drag night, yeah. Actually, you know what's really cool, what really stood out? Okay, here in Eugene. Sorry, again in Eugene, the Shelton McMurphy Johnson house is hosting a Halloween Victoriana party…
MICHAEL DUNNE. Victoriana? Okay, I assume that's a Victorian era type look.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: It is. So, it's on October 31 on Halloween, and tickets are still on sale. I think it's kind of limited, but at 7pm you dress up in your best Victorian era style. And they have like, games, traditional games, Mystic fortune telling stories that sounds really fun.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And that house is so beautiful. And it's, it's, it's a wonderful Victorian house, but on Halloween, it just has that great sort of, it's not a haunted house, of course, but it has that look, has that vibe, definitely. So that would be fun. Yeah. Are there some other places, you know, whether it's the coast or Central Oregon, are there some other places that have some celebrations of Halloween as well.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah. So there's Jacksonville, and they offer history walking tours like haunted history walking Wow. So that's fun. And then Corvallis is also doing haunted ghost and true crime history tours. So, if you enjoy a little spooky ghost story that's for you.
MICHAEL DUNNE: I've never quite gotten into true crime, but I know that that is a passion for Oh,
KENDRA SCHERTELL: So, if you like that, then that's for you too. Okay, Okay, nice. Coos Bay also has an annual trick or treat on their streets, where their businesses will put up orange pumpkin posters on their windows. Wow. And that's on Halloween too, okay, three to five.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Okay, well, that's great. There's a lot going on in terms of Halloween. Are there other things? Maybe not so much Halloween centric, but more fall centric that we can talk about?
KENDRA SCHERTELL: So, I think mushrooms are a big thing. So, we have the mushroom festival coming up, yes, October 26.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Yes. And for folks that maybe don't know, the mushroom festival is enormous. And so, understand, if you go to the mushroom festival, you're going to park a long way away and walk, but it's worth it. But it just, understand that it is, it is one of the biggest events.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: I've heard. I haven't been yet, okay, I definitely want to go this year. Okay, I've heard it's amazing, and I've heard that KLCC might be there.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, I'm sure that there will be KLCC people there, because it is, it's very cool. It's not just, oh, here's some mushrooms. It really is just a fabulous kind of celebration of all things mitochondrial. I can't pronounce that mushrooms, that word, yeah.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: And also, I mean, Fall is a great time to go hiking. I know you love hiking. I'm sure you could list a lot of places, but some of the big ones for fall are Watson falls. Okay, Clear Lake Scott mountain loop, and maybe you can find your own mushrooms.
MICHAEL DUNNE: Well, a thing I'll say about that, because I am, I am a hiker, and the shoulder season of Fall is a wonderful time to hike, but it's also important to realize this is the time of year where weather can change in an instant. So, if you're going to go out and you're not used to hiking in our fall weather, make sure that you almost over prepare. Bring extra layers and clothing and water and food and those sorts of things, because you don't want to get stranded out there when it could be beautiful you could start your hike and it could be 70 degrees, and then, boom, it hits 30 in the afternoon.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: That's true. Yeah. And so, I guess, for those of you who are a little bit more hesitant, there's also covered bridges. I think that's a very fall thing, is to go and see covered bridges with trees and leaves falling all around it. And Cottage Grove is the covered bridge capital of the West. So I feel like that's a very fall activity or esthetic.
MICHAEL DUNNE: And, you know, there's, I think, places like Cottage Grove. There's a lot going on there. I think a lot of people can kind of think, oh, you know, maybe there's not so much because it's a smaller town. But some of our small towns really do an amazing job for fall and the holidays.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: They have a lot of stuff for sure, yeah. And then, of course, you can visit pumpkin patches. Local farms have hay rides, corn mazes and other autumnal festivities. Some of the bigger ones are a Thistle Down farm and Dietering orchards. But there's so many local, small, family-owned farms too, that do stuff, the cultural events for each town, they have their own little thing, and it's just good to go out and do stuff. I couldn't tell you one specific thing, because I just, I love fall and I love Halloween. So they all sound like really cool haunted houses. I mean, the Florence Event Center has a haunted house. Okay, I love that too. I would love to go to that.
MICHAEL DUNNE: All right, the Florence haunted house. So, Kendra, before I let you go, are there some other things that we should be looking forward to in the community?
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Yeah, indigenous people's day is on October 13, that's a Monday, so the Museum of Natural and Cultural History is opening their doors for free admission all day, and then they have like they're highlighting transgressors. It's an exhibit about the intersection between queer and indigenous identities, okay? And also, it's a little further out, but Salem is hosting an indigenous people's day celebration on October 13 as well, and that's at Riverfront Park. So, there's a couple other things to do as well.
MICHAEL DUNNE: On the shortcut, you'll probably have information and stuff. So yeah, there's a lot of stuff, awesome. We will put that all on the link as well for our KLCC calendar, Kendra Schertell, the lover of fall. Thank you so much for coming and talking to us.
KENDRA SCHERTELL: Thanks for having me.
MICHAEL DUNNE: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon On The Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Much is happening right now at the Federal Judicial level. So, Monday, we'll sit down with the US federal district court judge in Eugene and talk about it all. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon On The Record. Thanks for listening.
