Finally, some actual construction action at the long vacant Burnside Bridgehead site on the east side of Portland's Burnside Bridge. We're getting very close to the groundbreaking, folks. Excitement is building. It's going to be grand -- a brand new... wait for it...
They're going to hire local artists [...]
As many insiders expected, Rep. Chris Edwards was appointed Wednesday to fill the state Senate vacated by Vicki Walker after she was named to head Oregon's parole board. While both are Eugene Democrats, Edwards will represent a big shift from...
[...]Little Lord Paulson's Beaverton stadium dreams seem considerably less feasible today in light of this story.
[...]Led by fear mongering lobbyists Mark Nelson, Pat McCormick and Jon Chandler, some businesses in Oregon are bellyaching about the new corporate minimum tax. They want to go back to the $10 a year corporate minimum tax that two-thirds of Oregon corporations have been paying. It’s time to put the [...]
The Lane County Commission announced today that they've appointed Rep. Chris Edwards to the State Senate - in a unanimous decision. He replaces Vicki Walker, who was appointed by the Governor to lead the state parole commission. In the House, Edwards currently represents HD-14, which includes parts of west Eugene' [...]
Back in the primaries for the US Senate race, I was an early supporter of Steve Novick, but after Jeff Merkley won the primary, I swallowed my pride, wrote the check, and trundled down to the Merkley office to volunteer as much as I could. Today, Jeff Merkley more than [...]
By all means, call.
I called. Asking for "mo' mob". What I got was an auto-answer that asked me to press "1". Then I was re-directed to the DNC.
Bad move.
I want my party to be stand-up. I was pretty disappointed to find that the RNC was auto-forwarding calls in response to' [...]
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg - who also happens to be No. 17 on Forbes' list of the richest people in the world - has knitted together 450 other mayors into a lobbying force on gun issues that is posing...
' [...]Says "Adapting our law enforcement strategies to get smart on crime is both necessary and possible — if we are willing to demand it." From Douglas Berman at Sentencing Law & Policy: Continu[ing] his stumping for new approaches to crime and punishment (see prior speeches noted here and here and [...]
So Gov. Kulongoski is threatening to veto House Bill 2472 which terminates the current subsidies to producers of wind energy. Oregon’s liberal Democrat legislature wanted the additional $19.5 million the bill would save for other foolishness. The governor wanted to save his purported legacy as Oregon’s green governor.
In the end, [...]
One of the growth areas for meteorologists is preparing forecasts for wind energy companies. The more precise the wind forecasts, the better their customers can both sell the resulting power and avoid situations like I blogged about yesterday. Plus of...
[...]An alert reader sends along this list of Post Office branches that are under closure watch. In Portland (page 11), in addition to the Central Station at 5th and Pine, the Gus Solomon Courthouse branch is on the list (apparently, but misspelled). And of course, the Main Post [...]
If Kilz were a girl, I'd marry her. Of course Kilz would have to be the honored second wife, beloved sister of the honored first wife. The culture differences would probably be really hard. I guess it'll just have to stay the most awesome primer ever.
[...]A friend sends along a link to a most absorbing website.
[...]By John in Oregon
Oregon Tax News
Humorist P.J. O'Rourke's latest effort in the Wall Street Journal satirizes that "The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of economics. It’s a tragic romance, whose magic was killed by bureaucrats, bad taste and busybodies." With a razor sharp keyboard O'Rourke drills down [...]
I see that John Canzano, America's greatest sports columnist (at least in some people's minds), has joined the Merritt Paulson royal fan club. Canzano went out to the Paulson compound in Lake Oswego for a visit, and based on that encounter has pronounced LLP just a "regular guy." [...]
I want climate change. No, I’m not talking about an increase in Earth’s temperature that would melt the polar ice caps. I’m talking about a change in the political climate in Oregon that would melt lawmakers’ reluctance to reform our corporate tax system — change that would fulfill Oregonians’ desire [...]
UPDATE: Speaking of the governor's race, I belatedly saw the vote chart (hat tip to Oregon Catalyst) on Friday's passage of the $300 million transportation bill in the Senate. I saw that one of the six no votes was from...
[...]
One of the problems with relying upon static analysis is that you assume a box. And that all the variables inside the box are the only variables you need to worry about.
That's why you hear folks say things like, "you need to think outside the box."
Another feature of [...]
By Ted Wheeler of Portland, Oregon. Ted is the county chair for Multnomah County. He can be found on Twitter here. Now that I’ve extricated most of the battle-flak out of my backside over Multnomah County’s recent effort to hire a Social Networking Coordinator, I want to answer the basic [...]
Continuing our series on executive salaries at government agencies and nonprofits in the Portland area, today we spotlight the Port of Portland. They've got quite a payroll over there, as indicated by the list they have furnished us of non-union employees whose base salaries are in excess' [...]
By Karla Kay Edwards
In today’s economy everyone is looking for ways to create jobs and increase revenues. That includes Senator Ron Wyden, who has drafted the Oregon Forest Restoration and Old Growth Protection Act, which would manage Oregon’s federally owned forests tree by tree instead of as a sustainable landscape. [...]
It has never been about teaching history, languages, art or anything for that matter. These are simply a means to an end. We must keep the end in mind . . . literally! Did you know that a fetus . . . from the age of one month . . [...]
Yesterday, the Oregon House approved a number of changes to Oregon's initiative system. Briefly, the bill: Gives the secretary of state the legal tools to prohibit someone from registering as a paid signature-gatherer if convicted of fraud, forgery or identity theft. Allows the secretary of state to conduct background checks [...]
The ballot drop box beckons for Tuesday's local elections around Oregon. My wife and I vowed to fill out our ballots this weekend in advance of Tuesday's election, but nice weather ensued and we totally forgot about it. So Monday...
[...]Prolific blogger Jack Bogdanski, a master at tweaking Portland's city leaders, gleefully passes on a "15 greenest mayors" list that fails to include Mayor Sam Adams. The link on his post took me to an MSN city guides site that...
[...]The 15 greenest mayors in America have been named -- and guess which state is not represented.
I don't know -- it's probably pretty bad when the mayor of Jersey City is more of an environmental leader than you are.
' [...]There is a bridge crossing (Interstate 5) between Vancouver Washington and Portland Oregon.
The bridge currently bottlenecks down to 2 lanes either way and has become a major transportation...
Join Cascade Policy Institute in welcoming Daniel J. Mitchell, Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, for a riveting discussion about government and today's economic challenges.
Daniel Mitchell is a top expert on tax reform and supply-side tax policy. He is a strong advocate [...]
Today, the May 2009 Revenue Forecast was released. Although it substantially decreases even further the expected revenues for the current 2007-09 biennium, the Forecast is not as dire as many expected for the upcoming 2009-11 biennial budget. When today’s Forecast is considered in light of the “Back to Basics Budget” [...]
Combustible Alkanes: There are four types of alcohols that are of interest to the biofuels industry: methanol, ethanol, propanol, and butanol. Their names, like those of the common natural gases, are dependent in part upon how many carbon atoms are...
[...]We made our second appearance in a row today at the Northwest Pilot Project's annual walk-a-thon in the Park Blocks at Portland State. People of all ages and from all walks of life walked, ran, or rode their motorized wheelchairs around the loop for an hour -- raising [...]
When I was a teenager, I became a born-again Christian. One of the tenets of fundamentalism (which non-fundies would do well to remember) is that "we" (the Chosen, God's Holy People) are involved in a permanent war between good and evil: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, [...]
Been waiting for it to happen. Oregon is looking at a minimum of 14 percent unemployment. The new budget numbers came out today, and they are horrible.
What does the Unigovernor propose?
"Today in an address to the City Club of Portland, Governor Ted Kulongoski announced an emergency jobs program to help" [...]
The number is in, and it's a big one: $3.8 billion. It isn't as big as the number some economists feared, but it's still one king hell of deficit: The quarterly projection by State Economist Tom Potiowsky, which he made at a joint meeting of the Legislature’s revenue committees, is' [...]
State Representative Ron Maurer spell sit all out on the new revenue forecast on his floor speech
[...]Over at Bojack.org, there's a post saying that the Sam Adams recall effort is doomed because conservative talk show host Victoria Taft was "front and center" last night at the recall effort's kick-off party.
Bojack says that having conservatives involved will turn off all those groups that are needed to [...]
UPDATE: Legislative leaders are going with a "budget gap" figure of $4.2 billion. That includes the cost of increasing social service caseloads. Legislative leaders had been been assuming they might have a hole of up to $4.4 billion, so as...
[...]I'm a few days late in noticing this, but freshman Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., has pulled an interesting switch on a gun issue since his Democratic primary campaign last year. Steve Nehl/The Oregonian/2002Crater Lake is Oregon's only national park. On...
' [...]Which I'm sure will cheer those who reside in their fear-based community that any development in Oregon will start the death-knell of "Oregon As We Know It".
Yet again, let me re-state: Oregon is the tenth largest state in the United States. And less than two percent of this giant landmass' [...]
The list is growing.
So the liberal establishment just can't help themselves. Now Barack Obama's right hand man, David Axlerod, has decided to publicly join the hateful, bullying brownshirted...
The new 11% state income tax bracket that the Oregon Legislature is considering for rich folk is sure to provoke a lot of commentary. But taking their cue from Obama, the wily solons in Salem are defining "rich" as having income greater than $250,000 a year. If that's the [...]
Representative Sal Esquivel says it’s tough to get anything done in Salem when the leadership can’t make up their mind on their positions.
By Rebecca Tweed
Taxpayer Association of Oregon
Lawmaker profile Series
Representative Sal Esquivel (R—Medford) has introduced over 40 bills this cycle, all dealing with important legislation [...]
Pew recently surveyed Americans about their views on torture, broken down by religious view. The results have me mystified. I will go ahead and put the key graph out here for your consideration while refraining from a lot of analysis. Truth is, I don't know what to make of it.' [...]
Ryan Frank and Brent Walth of The Oregonian reported Friday morning that phone records showed that Portland Mayor Sam Adams called Beau Breedlove more than 30 times when the latter was under 18. In the ongoing saga of whether Adams...
[...]He couldn't be much more clear. President Obama knows that Cap & Trade will dramatically raise energy prices. He admits in a very forthright way in an interview in January 2008 with the San Francisco Chronicle.
"Under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket."
Should the folks at Nike be ticked about this? UPDATE:An alert reader points out that President Obama has been known to wear Nike socks. check out photo number 19 in this gallery from Time Magazine. And, no, I'm not going...
' [...]Last night, while reading an interesting Q&A that President Obama had with New York Times economics writer David Leonhardt, I was intrigued to see the president mention his visit with a Seattle firm back in February of 2008. The Seattle...
[...]If you want to hear the mayor of Portland uttering one outright lie after another, scroll down a bit on this story, click on the green arrow, and listen to the tape. Hellishly ugly.
Of course, the sordid details provided by the text of the story are also not pretty. [...]
Riley Research poll: Of these potential candidates, respondents were most familiar with Bill Bradbury (78%), followed by Rick Metsger (62%). Of those who indicated they were familiar with Bradbury and Metsger, 25% and 13% (respectively) said they were “very familiar” with those candidates. The sample was 175 (+/-7%)
[...]By Richard Leonetti,
Oregon Tax News Article
The planning and costs for the Portland-Vancouver seem to be way off the charts. Why should it take so long and cost so much? The latest version is to replace two bridges now in place of about 3,150 ft in length. The new [...]
Judy Collins turns 70 today.
[...]Just in from the Oregonian:
Western Oregon University announced late tonight that it would close through Monday after a student turned up with a probable case of swine flu at the Monmouth campus.
This is kind of a non-sequitur, but I’d really like to hear John Madden announcing the swine [...]
Ah the Whigs--they had their moment, didn't they? A nice little run for about twenty years, a couple presidents elected, a principled stand against executive power--not too bad, when you think about it. Of course, it ended in a squabble between the retrograde Southern faction and the progressive Northerners. The' [...]
Via MultCo Commish Jeff Cogen: Oregon’s first probable case of swine flu was identified late Wednesday following testing by the Oregon State Public Health Laboratory. The Oregon Public Health Department will hold a news briefing at the Portland State Office Building at 11:30 this morning. Details below. “The probable case [...]
It seems that the mayors of San Francisco and Portland are gearing up a fight between their two cities for dominance in the effort to be the first to develop full-scale electric-car usage. Earlier this month, at a press conference, Mayor Sam Adams issued the challenge: "Working with the Governors" [...]
If you do business overseas - particularly in China - pay attention to this. The newly confirmed Commerce secretary, former Washington Gov. Gary Locke, is being pressed to get the U.S. back on track for participating in Shanghai's Expo 2010....
[...]Listen to this report and you will understand why we say the Union Thugs are anti worker and card check or (Employee Free Choice Act) is abusive legislation and should never be passed.
[...]I have (and still will for a while) always given Michael Steele some considerable margin. Even though he has made some misteps already.
Add to those missteps this latest where the RNC is taking...
SALEM-I've known Margaret Carter ever since she was a freshman member of the Oregon House in 1985. I met with her regularly to chronicle her first year and I remember her pride, a couple of months in, when she realized...
' [...]A week ago today, Governor Bill Richardson signed a bill that repealed New Mexico's death penalty. From CNN.com: "Regardless of my personal opinion about the death penalty, I do not have confidence in the criminal justice system as it currently operates to be the final arbiter when it comes to" [...]
By Erik Fernandez of Portland, Oregon. Erik is the wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild. Today marks an historic day for Oregon wilderness. The first major statewide wilderness bill in 25 years passed the US House of Representatives and protects Oregon icons Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge. The plan also [...]
You know, I spent three long weeks chasing Monica Lewinsky's past in Portland after the news broke about her trysts with President Bill Clinton. And so when I heard that HBO is planning a movie about the scandal, I thought...
[...]One of our own from the Blue Oregon community is suffering a tremendous and deeply-saddening loss. Blogger and commenter Chuck Butcher wrote yesterday at his blog that his family has lost their beloved son Nick. This is not something I would normally decide to blog about. But given Chuck's own [...]
With apologies to his brother-in-law, Oregon State head coach Craig Robinson, the President slammed the Pac-10. Filling out his bracket for ESPN, he declared that five of six Pac-10 teams in the NCAA tournament would lose in the first round. (And Washington in the second round.) In fact, he only [...]
Our own Senator Ron Wyden is getting huge attention from the national media -- since he was one of the earliest voices calling for a stop to excessive bonuses for bailed-out firms. Last night, he appeared on MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show. Watch the video (he's on at 4:45): Over at [...]
By Matt Mihlbauer of Portland, Oregon. Matt is a student in the School of Social Work at Portland State University and completing an internship with SEIU local 503. Have Oregonians had enough of this economy? Enough of watching their savings disappear? Debts pile up? Their retirement disappear? Health care costs [...]
I've been reading the La Grande Observer a lot lately (mostly because of the Steve Martin thing), and I came across an article from Monday about Allen Alley and his nascent bid for Governor. Unfortunately for Alley, it seems that he's falling flat on his face, right from the start.' [...]
President Obama fought for the unbelievable bonuses that AIG Executives received, according to two Democratic Senators, Chris Dodd from Connecticuit and Ron Wyden from Oregon.
[...]Historically, I have not been a frequent airline customer. But lately, my job has required me to do a bit of traveling. I can say unequivocally that the least appealing part of my travel experience is the excruciating ridiculousness that passes for security in domestic airports. Last week when flying [...]
Washingtonians were certainly not happy to find that their unemployment rate jumped more than a half-point to 8.4 percent in February. But I can't help thinking - perched in Oregon, where the latest jobless rate is 10.8 percent - that...
' [...](NOTE:Before folks go off half cocked about the headline, please read the story and the reasoning that was put up by the defense. IF a drunken police officer is allowed to now assert his "sexual...
This op-ed by Rep. Jeff Barker appeared in the Oregonian the other day.
What are the costs of not incarcerating the people who actually go to prison in Oregon --violent criminals and serious repeat...
There is a Tussock moth outbreak in Okanogan County, Washington State. I am just wondering if I can apply the same logic that moonbats applied to every mention of bad news for the last 8...
Dems 39% vs GOP 41%
For the first time in years the Republicans have taken the lead in generic congressional ballot polling.
Republicans were down by six points earlier this year. A pretty big...
HT: NRO
It looks as if Obama and the Democrats want to politicize EVERYTHING.
In case you were worried that the administration might politicize the 2010 census, have no fear: ACORN has been hired to...
Destination resorts in Jefferson County are expected by proponents to be one of the best ways to generate tax revenue. At least that's what they tell us. Deschutes County is "ground zero" for destination resorts. Counties like Jefferson are telling legislators that they simply must have the revenue generated by [...]
As I wrote last month, Senators Ron Wyden and Olympia Snowe proposed an amendment to the stimulus package that would have barred bailout-fund recipients from paying huge executive bonuses (and taken back the ones paid last year.) From the AP, back then: The $838 billion measure includes an amendment penalizing [...]
When Obama the candidate spoke about the need for a generation of service, I was pretty sure that it would take his administration a year to set up. Far from it. Tomorrow, Congress will be voting on a comprehensive and inclusive Act to, among other things, increase the number of [...]
Round two of the Cesar Chavez streetstakes is about to commence. Supporters of the idea, having had a rough go of the Interstate proposal, now have three alternative streets in mind: 39th Avenue, Broadway, and Grand Avenue. Each has pros and cons: 39th Avenue. Pros: not a lot of inherent [...]
Ken over at Upper Left Coast had a pretty good post earlier this week (If The Oregonian Ran Our Government).
In his post he lists literally billions of dollars in taxes and spending that The...
WASHINGTON-After a decade in Congress, Oregon Rep. David Wu seems to harbor few world-changing ambitions. Instead, he muses - not seriously, he admits - about becoming a professor at his alma mater, Stanford University. The Oregonian/Michael LloydRep. David Wu studies...
[...]"First, the problem with the European model, namely: It drains too much of the life from life. And that statement applies as much to the lives of janitors—even more to the lives of janitors—as it...
A few weeks ago there was a "tea party" demonstration movement that cropped up pretty sponteneously and they had their demonstrations in Oregon.
Well it turns out that many of the folks have gotten...
FINALLY---
OLYMPIA -- A criminal investigation is under way and a powerful labor group has lost a major legislative fight because a lobbyist wrote lawmakers threatening to cut contributions to...
"We just hoped this would be it, it would be the day,"
The Washington Supreme Court issued a stay of execution to convicted murderer Cal Brown.
WALLA WALLA, WA -- Just as Cal Brown was supposed to...
Oregon could become the fifth state to implement a plan to circumvent the electoral college. Today the House voted overwhelmingly to send the legislation to the Senate. Four states have endorsed legislation to ban the current system, which awards all the electoral college votes in a state to one candidate. [...]
Yesterday, the Portland City Council approved $60 million in public funds to help bring Major League Soccer to the city. Some notes on the financial deal from the AP: The $60 million would go to renovating PGE Park to meet MLS specifications, and building a new ballpark for the Portland [...]
Some of you know about my various half-assed agitations on behalf of so-called "honest pints." As a blogger, my efforts have been characteristically poorly-organized and fitful. The project began more than a year ago, when I idly mentioned on my beer blog that the ubiquitous shaker pints we see throughout [...]
WASHINGTON-The old axiom on Capitol Hill is that the first job of a freshman congressman is to get re-elected. So in that spirit, it's no surprise to hear that Rep. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., will host a fundraiser at his Canby...
[...]Imagine that last fall, before being elected, Barack Obama had outlined the positions he has embraced since being inaugurated. An honest campaign speech could have gone something like this:
Finally a Chicago Alderman shows everyone what many municipal politicians feel about their constituents with regard to Urban Renewal and Tax Increment Financing (TIF).
Portland politicians have been...
Argh. In a big surprise, the wilderness area protection bill (S. 22) - which included the long-awaited Mt. Hood Wilderness Area - was defeated in the U.S. House by just two votes. Apparently the bill required a two-thirds vote to pass - under some arcane House rules. (I thought the [...]
