In the 30 day session of the Oregon Legislature that just finished, there were negatives that the legislators had to face, like the end of the Columbia River Crossing plan and the investigations into the problems with the Cover Oregon website. But there were some positives that came out of the session as well. Those include the granting of 200 million dollars in bonding authority to Oregon Health Sciences University to help them meet the “Phil Knight Challenge”. If OHSU is able to raise 500 million dollars by February of 2016, the Nike founder will match that with another 500 million dollars for world class cancer research in Oregon. According to Oregon State Representative Mark Johnson, that will also benefit this area, with Mid Columbia Medical Center’s affiliation with OHSU. That should lead to some research being done here, and in other parts of the state…..not just Portland. OHSU just annouced they have raised 86 million dollars from outside sources so far.