TSJ: Why is state selling a forest without competitive bids?

In August 2015, the Oregon Land Board — Gov. Kate Brown, Secretary of State Jeanne Atkins and Treasurer Ted Wheeler — voted to sell roughly 82,450 acres of “Common School Trust Lands” within the Elliott State Forest because the state was losing money on those lands. --Under Oregon law, School Trust Lands are supposed to make money for schools. --Given the ongoing losses, the board reached the correct decision. Unfortunately, the sale protocol adopted by the Board is bizarre. The board will establish a price for the land based on appraisals, and that will be the only price accepted. If you dare to offer $1 more, your offer will be declared “non-responsive.”
Read more at The Statesman Journal

Related:
In late 2014, Cascade Policy Institute questioned the Oregon Land Board's management of the Elliott State Forest. Read More......

Obama’s FCC Plans Sale of U.S. Media to Foreigners

If you think it’s hard to get unbiased news from radio and TV now, just wait until your local broadcast stations and other media properties are owned and operated by the Chinese, Russian or Mexican governments, or the Muslim Brotherhood.


Amazingly, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wants to make it easier for foreigners to buy and run local radio and TV stations. The federal entity that monitors the media is proposing more foreign ownership of the U.S. media in the name of “diversity.”


Read more at  Accuracy in Media Read More......

Letter to the GT: Questions remain over school district’s sale of Fair Play School

Ron Highburger asks, "What would you call a person you hired to manage your affairs and they sold a property valued at $3,000,000 plus for a sum of $476,000?"

Read more plus comments at Corvallis Gazette-Times
Cross-posted on Campaign page. Read More......

Going Postal

Editor's Note: The following is an edited version of the introductory chapter of a new e-book, Going Postal, by investigative journalist Peter Byrne.

On July 27, two hundred people sang and chanted on the steps of the historic main post office in downtown Berkeley to protest its upcoming closure and sale...

...the corporation with the exclusive contract to negotiate sales for the Postal Service's $85 billion real estate portfolio is C.B. Richard Ellis (CBRE). And that the company is chaired by Richard C. Blum, who is the husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein and a member of the University of California Board of Regents.

Read more at East Bay Express Read More......