ROSEBURG, Ore. - About 350 people gathered in Burns, Ore., on Monday for a local rally to tell the last few armed anti-government occupiers at the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, and their supporters, to go home.

Protests and pickets are a daily occurrence now in Burns, and they're spreading across the state. Over the weekend, the Rural Organizing Project coordinated actions in a half-dozen communities, to show support for life getting back to normal for residents of Harney County.

Dancer Davis went to the Roseburg event, and said she was a little unnerved by people on a freeway overpass on the way into town, waving guns in support of the refuge occupiers.

"These forces come into our community and they pretend to offer us security and hope," Davis said. "The hope in our rural communities is not taking up arms against the government. The hope in our rural communities is diversifying our economies so that we can survive."

Davis noted some of the same armed out-of-state groups also showed up in Oregon after the Umpqua Community College shootings in October, and in a standoff in April with the Bureau of Land Management about gold mining on public land in Josephine County.

Ken Kestner is a county commissioner in Lake County, Harney County's neighbor to the west. He said Lake County sheriff's deputies were sent as backup after last week's shooting incident on Highway 395, but they have mostly stuck close to home in case the armed occupiers decided to expand their range.

Kestner said he doesn't presume to speak for all Lake County residents, but has discussed the standoff with quite a few.

"Most of the folks around here think it's an unfortunate scenario," he said. "Some of 'em may believe in the message that this group is trying to carry, but they do not believe in the method."

A nonprofit coalition calling itself GO HOME Malheur has raised more than $100,000 in pledges from people who want the standoff to end and chip in small amounts every day it continues.

The group says the funds will be donated to several organizations, including Friends of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge and social-service programs of the Burns-Paiute tribe.


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The world's richest 1% took home almost twice as much wealth as the bottom 99% combined during the pandemic, according to a new Oxfam International report.

Morris Pearl, chair of the group Patriotic Millionaires, said current tax codes are not cutting it anymore. The rich keep getting richer while people who work for a living are making daily sacrifices on essentials such as food, which is not good for families, or for investors who want to make money.

"Because money does not trickle down, money trickles up," Pearl pointed out. "As people pay their bills, for their iPhone and their rent every single month, that is how rich people make money and get richer. And if people don't have enough money to do that, that's not good for any of us."

The report said a 5% tax on the world's multimillionaires could raise enough money to lift 2 billion people out of poverty. Wyoming tax codes are pointed in the opposite direction. The state does not tax corporate or individual income. Wyoming has a higher sales tax, which falls hardest on low-wage earners, than at least forty other states. And only eleven states collect lower property taxes.

While families in Wyoming struggled with rising gas and grocery prices, the report found profits for 95 top energy and food corporations more than doubled in 2022, with 84% of those gains going directly into the pockets of wealthy shareholders.

Pearl argued people who earn their living by working for wages, with taxes taken right out of their paychecks, have been left behind.

"The system is rigged against them, and we have to unrig the system," Pearl stressed. "We have to change the system so they are not holding the bag for everything that the government needs to do. And we need to make the rich pay some of the taxes too."

Three-quarters of the world's governments plan on making nearly 8 trillion dollars in cuts to public-sector funding, including health care and education, over the next five years.

Pearl noted taxes make it possible to provide for the nation's common defense, hire firefighters and police, and build schools, hospitals and highways.

"And things like that have, for the history of this nation, been done by people putting their resources together, and doing things together that they just can't each do individually by themselves," Pearl added.

January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month and Iowa is working to address the problem by educating businesses about the potential signs and dangers.

Although officials say it is hard to pinpoint exact numbers, the frequency of reported trafficking cases is on the rise. Half of the calls to a human trafficking hotline are reports from minors asking for help.

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has enlisted businesses in an aggressive awareness campaign. He said because they come into contact with so many people every day, they can often be the first line of defense.

"They have eyes and ears everywhere," said Pate. "The idea that they can reach out to their own employees - so they, too, can be watching for trafficking and they, too, can help prevent it, or intervene - or whether it be their customer base, how many people a typical business might interact with in a day."

Pate said fast-food restaurants, gas stations and truck stops are especially important partners because they're so busy.

Iowa started the new year with 600 businesses as part of the coalition to combat trafficking, and Pate said he hopes to grow that number.

Pate's office also runs a confidential program for survivors of sex trafficking, domestic violence, assault and stalking.

Teresa Davidson, CEO of the Cedar Rapids-based anti-trafficking group Chains Interrupted, said when a person is recruited into a trafficking operation, it can be very hard for them to get out.

"First, they have to recognize that they are being exploited," said Davidson, "because so many times, human trafficking is manipulation and coercion, and they don't even realize that they're a victim. They think that they're in a relationship and that this is a partnership."

The group is having a webinar for businesses January 17 at 10 a.m.

Davidson says nationally, 74% of trafficking victims report having been in the foster-care system. She said the problem touches all 50 states and continues to grow.

Some Nebraska judges are failing to follow state laws related to cash bail, court fees and court fines, according to a two-year study in Douglas and Lancaster counties.

The report by the ACLU of Nebraska found defendants are not always being asked about their ability to pay bail and court costs, nor are they being informed of alternatives if lacking the funds.

Sam Petto, communications director for the ACLU of Nebraska, said they noticed issues in about 40% of the cases they observed. He pointed out cash bail disproportionately affects lower-income Nebraskans and is, ultimately, a type of "debtor's prison."

"So, if you imagine someone with the exact same circumstance, charge, etc., and they just have an extra thousand dollars in a bank account, that person might be back out in the community at their job, with the support structure they need - while the other person sits in jail."

Petto also mentioned the "collateral consequences" when someone who can't afford to pay bail or fees spends time behind bars from losing a job, to not being able to arrange child care or fulfill caregiving responsibilities. The report recommendations include "bench cards" for judges, with specifics related to bail and fees, and legislative action including eliminating cash bail.

Petto noted the 2017 Nebraska bail reform law was aimed at keeping people charged with nonviolent crimes from spending time in jail due to their inability to pay for bail and fines.

"And many Nebraskans do not know that they have the right to say, 'Hey, I can't afford that,' or to request things like a payment plan, community service, or having the judge entirely waive that fee or fine," Petto outlined.

The study also found the largest number of people in jail in Douglas and Lancaster counties were there on a pretrial basis, with persons of color significantly overrepresented. Petto explained in addition to the human cost, the current system plays a large role in the overstressed status of Nebraska jails.