Mayoral candidate Charlie Hales has broken his silence about a controversy that erupted last month when the Oregonian noticed that a letter printed above Hales' name in the St. Johns Review on April 27 lifted passages from a 2009 Oregonian article and, worse, placed Hales on a tour of the neighborhood he never took. Hales told reporters that the Review edited the letter incorrectly—a scenario, he says, the O never fully explored—and revealed he'd asked the O for a correction. The O, however, didn't grant his request. And on Saturday, June 30, someone using the Review's Facebook account chimed in and said the letter that ran had been sent to Hales' campaign for approval. DENIS C. THERIAULT
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The latest batch of Police Review Board reports is out, shedding light on the outcomes of three controversial police shootings from late 2010 and early 2011. In the fatal shootings of Darryel Dwayne Ferguson and Tom Higginbotham, and the nonfatal shooting of Marcus Lagozzino, the board's seven members unanimously agreed that every cop involved had acted "within policy." The only note of discord—a minor one—came in the write-up of the Ferguson shooting. Three of the panelists said Officers Kelly Jenson and Jonathan Kizzar should have been debriefed for failing to announce themselves as cops when knocking on Ferguson's apartment door. Ferguson, who'd been fighting with a neighbor, opened the door while pointing a black-painted pellet gun and was immediately shot dead. DCT
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An alliance of environmentalists and the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods have filed a long-planned lawsuit against the Columbia River Crossing (CRC) project, hoping to send the Interstate 5 expansion and bridge replacement back to the drawing board. The lawsuit claims the CRC did not correctly evaluate the potential effects that increased traffic and a bigger bridge footprint could have on our air and salmon. The suit also contends the project is using an incorrect traffic forecast. "We have seen that the traffic analyses are outdated, so that leads to overstating the need for a large freeway," says Mara Gross of the Coalition for a Livable Future. The suit doesn't stop work on the project, which is now expected to break ground in 2014. SARAH MIRK
