Page 4
July 12, 2023
Mayor Resigns
Over Posts
Joel Aslin accepts groceries from his neighbor, Karen Colby, from a volunteer with
a nonprofit store to door on 07/22/2021. Colby spent 10 days in the hospital with
complications from heat stroke. AP photo/Gillian Flaccus.
Extreme Weather Events
Linked to Climate Change
Oregon county sues
oil, coal companies
for $51 billion over
deadly heat dome
(AP) Oregon’s most populous county
is suing more than a dozen large fossil
fuel companies to recover costs related to
extreme weather events linked to climate
change.
The lawsuit filed Thursday in Mult-
nomah County Circuit Court alleges the
combined carbon pollution the compa-
nies emitted was a substantial factor in
causing and exacerbating a 2021 heat
dome that killed 69 people, The Orego-
nian/OregonLive reported. Multnomah
County is home to Portland and known
nationally for mild weather and rain. The
companies named in the lawsuit include
Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips,
Koch Industries and ExxonMobil, among
others. The county seeks over $51 billion
in damages, including $50 million for
costs it says it incurred because of the
heat dome.
Multnomah County is also asking for
$1.5 billion in damages to pay for costs
associated with future extreme heat
events and an additional $50 billion to
study, plan, and “weatherproof” against
extreme heat. Some of the measures
would include expanding health care and
emergency services, adding insulation
and HVAC systems to buildings, tear-
ing out asphalt and planting more trees,
Multnomah County chair Jessica Vega
Pederson said. “At the core, this law-
suit is about fairness and accountability
for these giant oil companies who have
record profits, who have known about
the damage that their products do to our
environment and who have been using
pseudoscience, disinformation and out-
right lies for decades,” Pederson said.
Most of the companies named in the
lawsuit didn’t respond to the newspa-
per’s request for comment. Chevron
Corp. counsel Theodore J. Boutrous,
Jr. in a statement contended the lawsuit
makes “novel, baseless claims,” is un-
constitutional and unfairly targets “one
industry and group of companies en-
gaged in lawful activity that provides tre-
mendous benefits to society.” ExxonMo-
bil told Oregon Public Broadcasting that
the lawsuit did “nothing to address cli-
mate change.” Residents and officials in
the Pacific Northwest have become more
vigilant about heat wave preparations
after some 800 people died in Oregon,
Washington and British Columbia during
the heat dome weather event caused by a
strong ridge of high pressure in late June
and early July 2021.
The temperature at the time soared to
an all-time high of 116 F (46.7 C) in Port-
land and smashed heat records in cities
and towns across the region with some
temperatures more than 30 degrees high-
er than normal. Many of the hundreds of
people who died were older and lived
alone. Multnomah County’s lawsuit joins
communities around the globe that have
filed lawsuits against climate polluters
that continue to market products that sci-
ence shows are driving human-caused
climate change.
Former Mayor Dean Sawyer apologized and resigned from office after offensive
posts came to light. Courtesy of Newport News-Times
Mayor of coastal
Oregon city resigns
over posts in police
Facebook group
(AP) — The mayor of a city on the Or-
egon coast has apologized and resigned
over offensive content he posted in a pri-
vate Facebook group for current and re-
tired police officers.
Oregon Public Broadcasting reported
that Newport Mayor Dean Sawyer apol-
ogized and resigned Monday morning,
three days after the media outlet revealed
that since 2016, Sawyer had been sharing
memes and posts denigrating women, im-
migrants, non-English speakers and the
LGBTQ+ community in the Facebook
group with 39,000 members. His posts in
recent weeks specifically targeted trans-
gender community, OPB reported.
A local LGBTQ+ pride group held a
demonstration over the weekend at City
Hall, with more than 100 people de-
manding that Sawyer leave office. Five
of his six colleagues on the Newport
City Council attended the protest and ap-
peared ready to ask for his resignation at
a special meeting scheduled for Monday.
The police chief in the central coast city
of about 10,000 and the Lincoln County
sheriff also condemned Sawyer’s posts.
“I feel really happy and just proud that
we as a city in Newport all came together
and spoke our minds, shared our feelings
in a positive, amazing way,” said Kathy
Redwine, who is on the board of Newport
Oregon Pride. “It would have been bad
if it kept going on with all that hurt and
distrust.”
Sawyer told OPB on Friday that the
Facebook group called LEO Only is a
private group and posts are not meant for
the public. On Monday, he told The Or-
egonian/OregonLive that his online per-
sona had become too polarizing for him
to continue.
“I now realize that some of my actions
and my words have hurt people I love and
care about,” Sawyer said. “This is some-
thing that I take full responsibility for. I
am sorry to everyone in this community
and anyone hurt by my actions, directly
or indirectly.”
He said his posts were “vile and
dark, and I shouldn’t have gotten in-
volved in it,” according to The Orego-
nian/OregonLive.
“It’s not freedom of speech, it was stu-
pid speech,” Sawyer said.
OPB reported that it had reviewed the
memes but didn’t say how it got access.
The Facebook group requires proof of
an active or retired law enforcement ID
to join.
Sawyer was a Newport police officer
for three decades before he was elected
mayor in 2018.