CAS Connection - Feb 2026 Issue

Why do Oregon elections often include ballot measures asking for voters to OK property tax increases to fund resources ranging from schools to fire departments? State governments can't keep up with inflation and property tax reforms in the '90s make it possible to ask voters to step in. “I think it was poorly understood at the time either by the legislature or by the voters,” Joe Stone, professor emeritus of economics at College of Arts and Sciences, told the Salem Statesman Journal.

The summer brings long hot days, but if you're near Bend, Oregon, you can stargaze at Pine Mountain Observatory, which is affiliated with the College of Arts and Sciences. Reader's Digest pointed to the observatory as a spot to gaze between June 6 and 10, when Venus, Jupiter and Mercury will be above the western horizon.

An opinion article in the Wall Street Journal mentions research by College of Arts and Sciences sociologist Hannah Waight. Waight is a lead co-author on a team of seven researchers that included Purdue University, University of California San Diego, New York University and Princeton University that recently published its first peer-reviewed evidence that China’s state-controlled media has worked its way into the training data of AI chatbots that the world relies on.