Tuesday 8/25/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/billmeyershow
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6:35 Christopher Ruddy, CEO and chairman of NEWSMAX He has built Newsmax from a digital news operation into a publicly traded, multiplatform media company spanning cable television, streaming, digital, publishing and social media reaching 50 million Americans regularly. Ruddy has known President Trump and has been a prominent commentator on politics and media.
We discussed everything from TV news consolidation (Which he’s fighting) to the war, President Trump and the midterms, all of it.
More info on Christopher: www.newsmax.com/Insiders/Ruddy/bio-31/
7:35 Former State Senator Herman Baertschiger – He’s filed the paperwork to challenge the title of the “non-renewal renewal” of the Jo County Jail levy. Here’s the verbiage:
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE STATE OF OREGON
FOR JOSEPHINE COUNTY
In the Matter of the Ballot Title for the Josephine County Measure Submitted for the November 3, 2026 General Election
By calling the measure a “Renewal,” the ballot title tells voters that they are simply continuing the existing tax for substantially the same purposes. That is not what the measure does. The proposed measure abandons the prior specific commitment to juvenile detention funding and replaces it with conditional, partial funding language. The title therefore fails to fairly identify the measure’s nature, chief purpose, and major effects.II. PRIOR MEASURES INCLUDED ADULT JAIL AND JUVENILE DETENTION
In 2017, Josephine County Measure 17-80 was presented as:
“Adult Jail and Juvenile Detention Five Year Local Option Tax.”
It expressly funded:
– 185 adult jail beds; and
– 14 juvenile detention beds.In 2021, Measure 17-102 was presented under the same title and likewise funded 185 adult jail beds and 14 juvenile detention beds.
Thus, prior measures expressly identified both adult jail and juvenile detention as purposes of the tax. Voters were told plainly that the tax supported both components.
III. THE 2026 MEASURE CHANGES THE TAX’S PURPOSE AND SCOPE
The proposed 2026 measure identifies funding for 185 adult jail beds but does not continue the prior specific commitment to fund 14 juvenile detention beds.
Instead, it provides that the county may:
“When possible, partially fund Juvenile Detention operations to lodge all youths who are in the Counties custody.”
This is not a continuation of the prior commitment. The language is conditional, discretionary, and expressly partial. It does not guarantee funding for 14 juvenile detention
- beds, does not preserve the prior allocation, and does not impose the same obligation on the county.
The change is material. Prior measures expressly identified 14 juvenile detention beds as a funded purpose. The proposed measure removes that specific commitment and substitutes a vague promise to provide partial funding only “when possible.” That change directly affects the scope, certainty, and allocation of the tax.
Because the proposed title calls the measure a “Renewal,” voters may reasonably believe that the existing tax is being continued without a material change in purpose or funding. The proposed measure, however, eliminates the specific juvenile detention funding commitment and replaces it with conditional and partial funding. The title therefore masks rather than informs voters about the measure’s actual effect.
IV. “RENEWAL” IS MISLEADING
The word “Renewal” is not harmless wording. It is the central characterization of the measure, and it materially shapes how voters will understand the proposal. Oregon law distinguishes between imposing a local-option tax and renewing a current local-option tax. See ORS 250.038 and ORS 280.070.
A measure should not be presented as a renewal when it materially changes the purposes, obligations, or funding commitments previously submitted to voters. Calling this proposal a renewal falsely suggests continuity where the measure instead changes the juvenile detention funding structure.
At minimum, the ballot title must disclose that the measure changes the existing jail and juvenile detention funding arrangement. Without that disclosure, voters are left with the inaccurate impression that they are merely extending the current tax on the same terms.
V. THE BALLOT TITLE DOES NOT STATE THE CHIEF PURPOSE
ORS 250.035 requires the ballot question to plainly state the measure’s chief purpose.
The chief purpose cannot be accurately communicated by labeling the measure a “renewal” while omitting the fact that the measure materially changes the tax’s intended uses.
- Although the proposal continues funding for 185 adult jail beds, it eliminates the prior specific commitment to fund 14 juvenile detention beds and replaces it with conditional, partial funding.
That is not a minor drafting difference. It is a substantive change in what the tax promises to fund. A ballot question that describes the measure as a renewal without disclosing that change fails to state the measure’s chief purpose and gives voters a materially incomplete description of what they are being asked to approve.
VI. THE SUMMARY MUST DISCLOSE THE MATERIAL CHANGE
ORS 250.035 requires a concise and impartial summary of the measure and its major effects.
The measure’s major effect is not limited to continuing adult jail funding. It also changes juvenile detention funding in a way that reduces the specificity and certainty of the prior commitment. Unlike prior measures, it does not specifically fund 14 juvenile detention beds. Instead, it provides only for partial funding when possible.
That difference is material and must be disclosed in the summary. A summary that describes the measure as a continuation or renewal without explaining the elimination of the specific juvenile detention commitment is incomplete and misleading. Voters are entitled to know that the proposed tax does not preserve the prior funding structure.
VII. THE COURT SHOULD REVIEW THE MEASURE’S ACTUAL EFFECT
Petitioner asks the Court to examine the language and effect of the proposed measure rather than treating the county’s use of the word “renewal” as determinative.
The label chosen by the county cannot override the measure’s actual terms. The prior measures expressly funded 185 adult jail beds and 14 juvenile detention beds. The proposed 2026 measure continues the adult jail reference but removes the specific juvenile detention commitment and replaces it with conditional, partial funding.
That is a substantive change, not a technical revision. The ballot title must reflect what the measure actually does, not what its proponents wish voters to assume. The difference in juvenile detention funding should therefore be stated directly and prominently in the ballot
- title.
VIII. REQUESTED RELIEF
Petitioner respectfully requests that the Court:
1. Accept jurisdiction under ORS 250.195;
2. Review the challenged ballot title and underlying measure;
3. Determine that the ballot title does not comply with ORS 250.035 because it inaccurately characterizes the measure as a renewal;
4. Determine that “Renewal” is misleading because the measure materially changes juvenile detention funding;
5. Require disclosure of the elimination of the prior specific commitment to fund 14 juvenile detention beds;
6. Require disclosure that the measure replaces that commitment with conditional and partial juvenile detention funding;
7. Direct revision of the ballot title to accurately state the measure’s chief purpose and major effects;
8. Certify a corrected ballot title to the Josephine County Clerk under ORS 250.195; and
9. Grant any other appropriate relief.
8:10 State Rep. Dwayne Yunker discusses his latest op-ed in the Wall Street Journal:
Your editorial “Youngkin Goes to Bat for School Choice” (Aug. 12) rightly warns that states refusing to step up to the plate on federal tax-credit scholarships will leave their students behind. Oregon is fast becoming that cautionary tale.
Despite the Nation’s Report Card placing our state last in fourth-grade reading and math, Gov. Tina Kotek announced this June that she will not opt Oregon into the federal Education Freedom Tax Credit program.
Last November I joined fellow legislators in urging Gov. Kotek to participate. This program requires zero new state taxes. It simply allows people to claim a federal tax credit of up to $1,700 for donations to scholarship organizations—funds that cover private-school tuition, tutoring, special-needs services, and vital support for public-school students.
Oregon must open doors for struggling students, not slam them shut. During the 2027 legislative session, I will introduce statutory legislation to bypass this executive roadblock and formally opt our state in. Read More: https://www.wsj.com/opinion/oregon-has-a-student-crisis-ce08ec66
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Monday 8/24/26 Bill Meyer Show Guests and Information
Podcasts on www.BillMeyerShow.com
Facebook – www.Facebook.com/billmeyershow
Podcast XML feed – https://media.rss.com/bill-meyer-show-podcast/feed.xml – On this feed you can download the podcast. Right click on the audio player and use the “Save Audio As” command.
6:20 Educator and neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath reveals why digital tools in school consistently undermine learning–and what parents, teachers, and schools can do to push back with purpose.
Our children are struggling.
Schools, once alive with human connection, are now dominated by screens and digital tools. The result is unmistakable: declining performance, fractured attention, and the slow erosion of rigorous thought. For the first time in recent history, children are falling behind previous generations on many key measures of cognitive development.
In The Digital Delusion, neuroscientist and educator Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath reveals how the widespread use of laptops, tablets, and classroom software is undermining how children learn and develop. Drawing on decades of research, he provides practical tools for families to reassess device use at home, equips educators with the means to restore attention-rich learning environments, and helps schools make smarter decisions about technology. He exposes and dismantles the central myths driving the EdTech movement and lays out a clear path for putting people–not programs–back at the center of education. This is not a call to reject technology.
It’s a call to reclaim real learning.
7:10 Education reform conversation continues with State Rep. Emily McIntire, who is also an Eagle Point school board member. What will it take to rebuild K-12?
7:35 Patrick Wood, editor of www.Technocracy.news and author of The New Economics of Technocracy: YOU WILL OWN NOTHING – https://www.technocracy.news/store/the-new-economics-of-technocracy/
Vehicle surveillance giant Flock Safety has told the public for years that its technology “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, WIRED has learned. Read more at: https://www.technocracy.news/flock-extends-surveillance-capabilities-as-sam-altman-hides-in-the-shadows/
8:10 Dr. Powers with today’s “Where Past Meets Present”.
The Shasta Valley Stone Circles
By Dennis Powers
Mysterious stone circles lie in the Shasta Valley off Highway 97 from Interstate-5, located between the tiny town of Tennant (41 people discovered in the 2010 census) and Mt. Shasta’s base. These odd earth foundations are set over 600 acres of the flat prairie near the northwestern foot of the peak. The Shasta Valley is randomly strewn with volcanic stones.
Each concentric mound is the same, 60 feet in diameter, with the dirt rising in an almost perfect circle to a crest approximately 2 feet above the level of the surrounding plain. A stone path, or mosaic, surrounds each ring; and the rocks were obviously gathered from the countless stones surrounding the area. The circular paths start from pebbles with smaller ones at the bottom working into larger sizes and boulders at the top.
Constructed of “pure” dirt, the mounds rest on the hard pan surrounding the area. Appearing smooth surfaced–as if to make it easier to walk over–the rock rings are smooth surfaced. This is far easier to walk over then the scatterings of rocks nearby where only sage brush and weeds can grow.
he trenches and mounds are man-made–not natural–and it was first thought that the stone circles were the result of human agricultural activity. Anthropologists have discounted this idea, since virtually no other artifacts have been discovered in the area, and the Native Americans who lived here subsisted primarily on fishing and hunting.
The Indian elders of the region just shrugged their shoulders and said that they had no idea where the mounds came from. This certainly looked like the work of many men, but no tools, no relics, no artifacts nearby were ever discovered. A few of the theories attribute the mounds to upheaving by frost, gopher activity, or erosion by wind and water. The origin of the stone circles remains a mystery to this day–and several of the mysterious mound clusters are at different locations around the mountain.
With Mt. Shasta famous (or notorious) for its numerous UFO sightings, the underground Lemurian city of Telos, its Bigfoot sightings, and the supernatural, these mounds add to its allure. An interpretive sign off U.S. Interstate 5 (at the Weed Airport Rest Area) notes that archaeologists and geologists are in conflict over what brought about these mounds—and that the “origin of the Stone Circles remains a mystery to today.”
Sources: Brad Olson, “Discovering Forbidden Archaeology,” Perceptive Travel, at Images and Text on the Mounds; see Bruce Walton, editor, Mount Shasta: Home of the Ancients, pages 32-35; see the following page for two images.
Burial mounds, dating back to Telos, pre-Native American, or just chance?