This weekend we wear orange.

On January 21, 2013, Hadiya Pendleton, a high school student from Chicago, marched in President Barack Obama’s second inaugural parade. A week later she was shot and killed on a playground in Chicago.

After Hadiya’s death, her friends commemorated her life by wearing orange. They chose orange because it is the color hunters wear in the woods to protect themselves and others.

Wear Orange began on June 2, 2015, Hadiya’s 18th birthday, and is now observed nationally on the first Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of every June.

This weekend is about solidarity, remembrance, and most importantly, action.

Last night I voted "No" on the debt ceiling bill. Here's why:

This bill has three big problems.

First, it sets up a cycle in which Republicans continuously hold Democratic presidents hostage over the debt ceiling. This is enormously destructive for the issues we care about.

In addition, I've held more than two dozen town halls across the state since January, and this bill will undermine the programs that address citizens' top concerns: affordable housing; mental health; stopping fentanyl; and expanding child care opportunities.

I will not throw Oregonians under the bus.

We did it!

Once again, Oregon has successfully held an election using vote by mail.

Nobody waited in long lines. There were no squirrely voting machine shortages in certain precincts. Everyone who wanted to vote got to vote from the comfort of their own homes.

It's worked like this for decades.

Instead of embracing this easy, convenient, safe way of allowing as many people as possible to vote, Republican legislators in states across the country are trying to cut voting hours and polling places and throwing up new barriers to casting ballots.