edited by: Mike Landfair,
Oregon Editor
You'd think that members of the Portland (Oregon) police force would be embarrassed that several of their brethren weren't able to handle a combative 12 year old girl.
An officer shot her at close-range with a beanbag gun, even though several men had her down on the ground and were [...]
Steve Duin outlines the litany of recent complaints about the Portland Police Bureau in an article for The Oregonian:
In the brutal chain of personalities and events that have licensed Portland police to turn a beanbag shotgun on a 12-year-old girl, the aloof commissioner, absentee mayor and anything-goes police chief aren't' [...]Dave Johnson makes a very smart case for taxing the rich. As he said, in the hey-day of steep taxes on the rich, America did a much better job of living up to its billing as a land of opportunity for all and everyone was better off then.
While [...]
As part of an agreement hashed out at the end [...]
No, they're not kidding.The Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) has announced the winners of Portland’s 2009 Office Energy Showdown. Now in its third year, the Showdown recognizes Portland-area office buildings that have made significant achievements in energy efficiency.
Participation saw a nearly 30 percent increase in the number of participants from [...]
What Katha Pollitt said:A couple of days ago, Dave Frohnmayer made front-page news with a report he submitted to the State Board of Higher Education. In it, he suggested that Oregon's three largest public universities should adopt the OHSU model of autonomy. The state contributes a diminishing amount to universities--down 44% in' [...]
By Erik Fernandez of Portland, Oregon. Erik is the wilderness coordinator for Oregon Wild.
Congressman Kurt Schrader showed he knows how to get the job done in Washington DC by moving legislation at warp speed through the US House of Representatives.
Yesterday, the [...]
This complaint off the Google Transit e-mail list today:
The walk score of the homes in Great Neck are artificially low in www.zillow.com which is a home valuation web sitedue to the fact that the MTA or the LIRR trains do not provide them with the transit data.
This has depressed [...]
Today the Portland Police Bureau announced that Officer Christopher Humphreys had been placed on administrative leave pending an investigation into an incident this weekend – caught on video tape – that showed Humphreys’ shooting a 12-year old girl with a bean bag gun at a MAX stop. The girl [...]
It's not been a good week for those who are trying to build opposition to the tax fairness bills passed in the Leg last year and now referred to January's ballot. In two separate rulings at both the lowest and highest levels of Oregon's court system, teabagging plaintiffs who had [...]
(H/T to Daniel Powter)
Well, you need a blue sky holiday
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on
You had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around' [...]
In what may become known as a key turning point for the Bill Bradbury's gubernatorial campaign, Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore announced his endorsement of Bradbury at this morning's sold out fundraiser at the Left Bank. While it was no secret Gore was supportive of Bradbury's' [...]
The Senate may vote as soon as Saturday on health care reform. Â The New York Times reports: Â
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders in the Senate on Wednesday unveiled their proposal for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the [...]
Despite my damn fine profile on him posted yesterday here at the big Blue O, Democratic candidate for Oregon Governor Steve Shields is dropping out.
I spoke briefly with Betsy Henning, Shields' campaign manager. Hennings said that they discovered during the process that Shields' skill set wasn't a good match' [...]
Ninety percent of Oregon's budget goes to schools, health care and public safety. But another critical piece -- and one of the reasons the Oregon League of Conservation Voters is strongly behind the campaign for Measures 66 and 67 -- is that the January ballot measures will directly impact Oregon's ability [...]
By Ivan Maluski of Portland, Oregon. Ivan is the Conservation Program Coordinator for the Oregon Chapter Sierra Club.
Last week, the Sierra Club, the Northwest Energy Coalition, and numerous other Oregon conservation and ratepayer organizations sent an open letter (pdf) to Governor Ted Kulongoski, asking him to work with [...]
Quack!
That's the sound of an offended Oregon Duck football fan, who's turned off by the Rose Bowl buzz kill inflicted by the university when it demanded that a great student-made video be removed from the Internets.
Of course, this heavy-handed attempt at censorship didn't succeed. I just watched the video [...]
Over at the Cook Political Report, they've done their baseline report on the U.S. Senate race in 2010. Key excerpts:
Oregon is very difficult terrain for Republicans. Democrats hold an 11-point advantage in voter registration, 43 percent to 32 percent, while another 26 percent are unaffiliated. Republicans lost a Senate' [...]In comments made on MSNBC's Ed Schultz Show, Congressman Peter DeFazio wants President Obama to fire his top two economic advisers. At Huffington Post, Sam Stein has the story:
"We think it is time, maybe, that we turn our focus to Main Street -- we reclaim some of the unspent" [...]
Tim Fernholz at TAPPED, on conservatives' complaint that everything they don't like is "socialism:" Someone needs to explain why CafePress.com allows death threats against the president of the United States to be sold on their website. Â Or why in the world this website - run by the folks selling products that clearly call for the death of the president - is allowed [...]
Streetfilms has a great video with William Lind, a conservative transit advocate, about how to talk about transit in terms that conservatives will appreciate.
I would also note that the late Paul Weyrich, who co-founded the Heritage Foundation, was a trail transit advocate, evening making that point while serving [...]
Sidewalk projects on Barbur, 82nd and NE Glisan using Federal stimulus funding are approaching construction.
[...]Beth Slovic reports in today’s Willamette Week that there are serious concerns for life safety in our schools. Carrie Adams pointed out the district has facilities reports available for all schools, including life and fire safety.
Take a look. I notice my kids’ school has “Fire Alarm is Missing [...]
When met in a somewhat noisy SW Portland coffee shop, Oregon gubernatorial candidate Steve Shields fidgeted with his beverage before we sat down to chat. His campaign manager Betsy Henning had scored us three comfy chairs in the back where we hoped it will be a little quieter.
This fall China has been on the brain of Portland's art and design community. Taking a cue from the Portland Art Museum's "China Design Now" exhibit, which surveys the latest in design, fashion and graphic design from China, the next installment in our Designs [...]
Message from the Bicycle Transportation Alliance Board of Directors:
The Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) Board Chair Mary Roberts announced today the need for a change of leadership at the BTA and that Scott Bricker has left his post as Executive Director.
Bricker served in several capacities since joining the BTA in 1998, [...]
Religious leaders are praying that Joe Lieberman's heart softens. Â The LA Times reports:
...an interfaith group of clergy is lobbying him to drop his plans to filibuster any healthcare bill that contains a public option. Their strategy: prayers.During a Sunday night vigil, a crowd walked from Stamford High School, Lieberman's alma [...]
As the "Portland Bicycle Plan for 2030" moves toward City Council adoption, the question that moves front and center is "how do we pay for it?"
The estimated price tag runs into hundreds of millions of dollars over 20 years - but is still small in comparison to our other transportation [...]
What good is a blog if you can't rant on it? Hearing no reply from the cosmos except a no good at all! from inside my head, I shall rant on.
Tuesday. It's grocery shopping day. I have a hyper-organized shopping list system. It soothes my left-brain soul to get [...]
The O carries a story from this afternoon describing a trio of Democratic Senators who are seeking a slowdown on the potential extension of some of the more egregious USA PATRIOT provisions otherwise set to expire. (Betcha didn't know the Act's title was actually in acronym form, didya? It's [...]
OK, with everything else going on, this one's not exactly on the front burner. But one thing I'd like to know from the Guv candidates is how many chips they're ready to spend to reverse the 1990s initiative measure that commits every dime of gas [...]
Visit the new Yes on Measures 66 & 67 website at [www.voteyesfororegon.org] .
[...]It's a fairly regular occurrence. A couple times a year, some friend of mine will ask me to help them think about running for office. Usually, it's some random local office - and they want me to help them figure out what it would take to win.
Inevitably, I table that [...]
Following up on yesterday's post about the state of the media in Oregon, the good folks at OPB and Portland City Club are way ahead of me.
This Saturday (November 21) in Portland, OPB and the City Club of Portland are holding a day-long conference called "We Make" [...]
NE Community Forum to be held Saturday, November 21st:
Impacts of the Columbia River Crossing (CRC)
On Saturday, November 21st the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods and the Sustainability Clinic at Willamette University College of Law will be hosting a Columbia River Crossing Impact Forum. Students of [...]
If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. 
26 years later, this song still cracks me up. 
