City Desk
Drain Demograhic Data
Population in 2021: 1,186 (0% urban,
100% rural)
Population change since 2000: +16.2%
Males: 575 (48.5%) Females: 611
(51.5%)
Median resident age: 50.7 years Oregon
median age: 40.1 years Zip codes:
97435.
Estimated median household income in
2021: $52,294 (it was $27,833 in 2000)
Drain: $52,294 OR: $71,562
Estimated per capita income in 2021:
$24,996 (it was $13,810 in 2000)
Drain city income, earnings, and
wages data Estimated median house or
condo value in 2021: $232,000 (it was
$91,300 in 2000)
Drain: $232,000 OR: $422,700
Mean prices in 2021:
all housing units: $225,913; detached
houses: $273,890; mobile homes:
$94,735 Median gross rent in 2021:
$845. March 2022 cost of living index
in Drain: 88.5 (less than average, U.S.
average is 100)
Drain, OR residents, houses, and
apartments details
Percentage of residents living in
poverty in 2021: 16.2% (16.8% for
White Non-Hispanic residents, 18.8%
for Hispanic or Latino residents,
100.0% for American Indian residents,
17.6% for two or more races residents)
51 residents are foreign born (2.2%
North America, 2.1% Asia). This city:
4.3% Oregon: 9.8%
Median real estate property taxes paid
for housing units with mortgages in
2021: $1,580 (0.7%)
Nearest city with pop. 50,000+:
Eugene, OR (29.2 miles , pop.
137,893).
Nearest city with pop. 200,000+:
Northwest Clackamas, OR (124.8
miles , pop. 224,220).
Nearest city with pop. 1,000,000+:
Los Angeles, CA (713.4 miles , pop.
3,694,820).
Nearest cities:
Yoncalla, OR (8 miles), Elkton, OR (14
miles),
Oakland, OR (19 miles),
Cottage Grove, OR (21 miles),
Sutherlin, OR (23 miles),
Roseburg, OR (34 miles),
Springfield, OR (37 miles),
Latitude: 43.66 N, Longitude: 123.31 W
“Our liberty depends on the freedom
of the press, and that cannot be lim-
ited without being lost.”
-Thomas Jefferson to Dr. James Currie, January 28, 1786
Oregon joins FTC lawsuit to break up Amazon
Antitrust lawsuit alleges that Amazon
maintains a monopoly at the expense of small businesses
Story by Scooter Brown
October 16, 2023
Oregon and 16
other states have joined the Federal
Trade Commission in its lawsuit
to break up the online retail giant
Amazon. Amazon is charged with
illegally maintaining a monopoly,
according to the antitrust suit the FTC
has brought against the behemouth.
The FTC and 17 state attorneys
general allege that the online retail and
technology company is a monopolist
that uses a set of
interlocking
anticompetitive and unfair strategies
to illegally maintain its monopoly
power. The FTC and its state partners
say Amazon’s actions allow it to
stop rivals and sellers from lowering
prices, degrade quality for shoppers,
overcharge sellers, stifle innovation,
and prevent rivals from fairly
competing against Amazon.
The complaint claims Amazon
violates the law not because it is big,
but because it engages in a course of
exclusionary conduct that prevents
current competitors from growing and
new competitors from emerging. By
stifling competition on price, product
selection, quality, and by preventing
its current or future rivals from
attracting a critical mass of shoppers
and sellers, Amazon ensures that no
current or future rival can threaten its
dominance. Amazon’s far-reaching
schemes impact hundreds of billions of
dollars in retail sales every year, touch
hundreds of thousands of products sold
by businesses big and small and affect
over a hundred million shoppers.
The FTC and states allege
Amazon’s anticompetitive conduct
occurs in two markets—the online
superstore market that serves shoppers
and the market for online marketplace
services purchased by sellers. These
tactics include:
1. Anti-discounting measures
that punish sellers and deter other
online retailers from offering prices
lower than Amazon, keeping prices
higher for products across the internet.
For example, if Amazon discovers
that a seller is offering lower-priced
goods elsewhere, Amazon can bury
those discounting sellers so far down
in Amazon’s search results that they
become effectively invisible.
2. Conditioning sellers’ ability
to obtain “Prime” eligibility for their
products—a virtual necessity for doing
business on Amazon—on sellers using
Amazon’s costly fulfillment service,
which has made it substantially more
expensive for sellers on Amazon to
also offer their products on other
platforms. This unlawful coercion has
in turn limited competitors’ ability to
effectively compete against Amazon.
3. Amazon’s illegal, exclusionary
conduct makes it impossible for
competitors to gain a foothold. With
its amassed power across both the
online superstore market and online
marketplace services market, Amazon
extracts enormous monopoly rents
from everyone within its reach. This
includes:
4. Degrading the customer
experience by replacing relevant,
organic search results with paid
advertisements—and
deliberately
increasing junk ads that worsen search
quality and frustrate both shoppers
seeking products and sellers who are
promised a return on their advertising
purchase.
5. Biasing Amazon’s search
results to preference Amazon’s own
products over ones that Amazon
knows are of better quality.
6. Charging costly fees on
the hundreds of thousands of sellers
Continued on page 6
Local TOPS Chapter Celebrates 60 Years
Thanks to Kathy Finley
TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly)
is an international organization that is
celebrating 75 years. It was started by
a woman looking for support in weight
loss by encouraging gathering with
likeminded people. Her name was Esther
Manz. She believed that encouragement
and accountability were the keys to
success. The organization is all about
supporting those folks interested in
getting and staying healthy by making
smart changes in their eating habits.
While it doesn’t promote specific weight
loss plans it does encourage plans that
provide a nutritious and balanced eating
plan.
Chapter 0181 was started by Arlene
Ammons of Elkton. Yes, THAT Arlene,
that had the restaurant! She was famous
for her pies and used to joke that she
would “fatten em up” downstairs then
send them upstairs to join TOPS. Arlene
had heard about the TOPS organization
and wanted to provide one locally. The
group began on November 4, 1963, and
when it outgrew Arlene’s place in Elkton,
the chapter moved to Drain where it has
been ever since.
This is a very successful Chapter
that boasts KOPS (Keep Off Pounds
Sensibly) members that have met their
weight goals and kept them from as little
as one year and one member for 30 plus
years and everything in between. The
Chapter merged with the Yoncalla group
some years ago and continues to serve all
of North County.
An open house to mark the occasion
is scheduled for Monday November
20th from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM at the
Church of Christ Annex in Drain. Light
refreshments will be served.
Government
Know who your local
Representatives are!
Drain
Mayor: Erin Sparhawk
Council Position #1: Grant Vaughan
Council Position #2: Kevin VanPelt
Council Position #3: Katie Decker
Council Position #4: Aaron Lymath
City Council Meetings:
11/13/2023 - 6:00pm
12/11/2023 - 6:00pm
City Administrator: Jeni Stevens
Yoncalla
Mayor: Kathleen Wertz
Councilors:
Dan Wagoner
Gene Vroman
Harold Gilpin
Bryce Wertz
Council Meetings:
2nd Tuesday / month 6pm City Hall
City Administrator: Jennifer Bragg
Elkton
Mayor: Daniel Burke
Council President: Joan Smith
Council Members:
Kim Moore
Dan Shepherd
Sandra Galli
Council Meetings:
2nd Thursday, 8:30am
Next Council Meeting:
September 14, 2023, 8:30 a.m.
Public Works Supervisor: Gary Trout
State & Federal
Oregon House Representative:
District 02:
Virgle Osborne
Oregon State Senator:
District 1:
David Brock Smith
U.S. Senate Oregon:
Jeff Merkley
Ron Wyden
U.S House of Representatives:
District 4: Val Hoyle
Secretary of State::
LaVonne Griffin-Valade
Attorney General: Ellen Rosenblum
Governor: Tina Kotek
It is important to know your repre-
sentation in your State, Districts and
Municipalities. REMEMBER it is vital
to your freedoms to vote.
If you would like to have your own
towns municipal officers listed
please send title & names only to
citydesk@ndherald.com