On this day, May 5, 1903, James Beard, US culinary expert, author (Delights & Prejudices), was born in Portland, Ore.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, A Japanese balloon bomb exploded on Gearhart Mountain in Oregon, killing Mrs. Elsie Mitchell, the pregnant wife of a minister, and five children after they attempted to drag it out the woods in Lakeview, Oregon. The balloon was armed, and exploded soon after they began tampering with it. They became the 1st and only known American civilians to be killed in the continental US during World War II.
Also on this day, May 5, 1945, Bly minister Archie Mitchell, his pregnant wife Elsie, and five children from Mitchell's Sunday school class were on a Saturday morning picnic. Thirteen miles northeast of Bly, or about sixty miles northeast of Klamath Falls, Mitchell parked the car, and Elsie and the children headed to Leonard Creek. Mitchell later remembered: "As I got out of the car to bring the lunch, the others were not far away and called to me they had found something that looked like a balloon. I heard of Japanese balloons so I shouted a warning not to touch it. But just then there was a big explosion. I ran up there--and they were all dead." It was a Japanese balloon bomb. They were 70 feet tall with a 33-foot diameter paper canopy connected to the main device by shroud lines. Balloons inflated with hydrogen followed the jet stream at an altitude of 30,000 feet.
“It is a small price to pay for keeping the grassroots healthyâ€
If you're at all politically active, and political organizations have you email address or your mailing address, chances are they are asking you for donations at the end of the year. Most will reference Oregon's
political tax credit, which almost sounds too good to be true. Give $50 for an individual or $100 for a joint return and all of that money comes back to you in the form of a credit -- not a deduction, as with charitable contributions -- when you file.
You can make a donation to a
major political party or a
minor political party or to any candidate, initiative petition drive or any political organization that has an
Oregon Political Action Committee established.
As a tax credit, there is a cost to the taxpayers in tax revenue lost due to people using the credit. The Oregon Department of Revenue, under the direction of Betsy Imholt, estimated that the cost to the taxpayers would be about $6.7 million for the 2019-21 biennium. That means that about 67,000 people claim the credit each year -- a mere fraction of the
1.92 million individual tax returns filed in 2018.
According to one PAC treasurer, the program is worth it. "It keeps individual contributions flowing and that helps offset large interest and corporate donations. It is a small price to pay for keeping the grassroots healthy."
--Staff Reports| Post Date: 2021-12-20 21:35:35 | Last Update: 2021-12-21 11:49:07 |
