Organizing People Activating Leaders (OPAL), an advocacy group for local low-income groups and community members of color, walked away from today’s TriMet board meeting accomplished. Sort of. Following the regularly slated items on the meeting schedule, over 40 OPAL staff, affiliates and supportive transportation users presented and testified to the board, requesting one substantial change: […]
Alex Zielinski
Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention to.
Posted inMovies & TV
PSU Psych Professor Tackles Documentary on Oregon State Hospital
What comes to mind when you envision a documentary on Oregon’s hospital for the criminally insane? Something between One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and a scandalous expose on cruel and unusual procedures on terrorizing crazy people? That’s right. A little blown out of proportion. These assumptions are included in what Portland State University psychology […]
Posted inCrime
Pug Bandit Hits PDX
kittiefae It’s not what you think. The Portland Police Bureau is on the hunt for the “Pug Bandit” — not a dog thief, but a man who robbed two Southeast Portland banks. On both occasions — one on Sept. 16, the other on 22— the man said he had a bomb on him. This proved […]
Posted inGreen
Oregonians Fulfill Climate Changin’ Sterotypes
Surprise, surprise, Oregonians are split on climate change beliefs. According to an Oregon Global Warming Commission survey taken earlier this year, 80 percent of self-described liberals said they “care deeply” about global warming while 75 percent of conservatives said they were skeptical of the phenomenon. Predictable. Here’s a somewhat depressing graph depicting a facet of […]
Posted inMedia
Report: Newspaper Not Dead Yet, Journalists Lie
The Pew Research Center produced a lengthy “How People Learn About Their Local Community” report today. It’s kind of a vague topic, but digging deeper into the results produced some interesting facts. Instead of the perceived dependence on online media, the report illustrated Americans’ interest in relatively diverse news platforms. In the survey of more […]
Posted inMovies & TV
My Own Private River Premiere
Today was the sold-out premiere of My Own Private River, James Franco’s edition of Gus Van Sant’s 1991 My Own Private Idaho. Confused? Let me break it down. Van Sant’s film came out when Franco was a ripe young teenager filled with angst and desire to belong (“I was always looking for people who could […]
Posted inNews
Good Morning News!
Unidentified Landed Object: Remember that six ton satellite hurtling towards Earth? Well, it landed. And NASA has no idea where. Throwing His Furry Hat In: Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin announces his intention to run for (Russian) presidency in 2012. Pakistan on Our Side: Pakistan denies allegation by top U.S. commander that its top spy […]
Posted inPolitics
LNG Export Could Move to Oregon
Okay, so this post is about Coos Bay. But it’s still important. When people think of liquefied natural gas and fracking – tapping natural gas reserves in shale rock, a technique that has made headlines for its water-polluting methods — most minds are drawn to the Northeast. The Northwest has its own dirty energy and […]
Posted inNews
Sad News of Day: Woman Drives into the Willamette
In the wee hours of the morning, a car drove down the stairs near the Salmon St. fountain and through the blue railing separating the waterfront path from the Willamette River (as reported in Good Morning News!). The woman driving — the only occupant in the car — died after breaking off the railing and […]
Posted inMedia
TriMet No Longer #1
In Februrary, a US News & World Report article named Portland the nation’s “best city for public transportation”, sending TriMet to the printing press to dish out $8,000 on 168 bus and train advertisements boasting this label. While TriMet staff skewed the wording a bit, calling themselves the “#1 Transit”, the bright ad was generally […]
Posted inNews
Uncomfortably High
Fee for Medical Pot Cards Could Double
Application fees for medical marijuana cards are expected to double.
Posted inHealth
Mapping the Superbug
Modern medicine is both a blessing and a curse. While we create new drugs to battle diseases, over time, germs develop immunities to such antibiotics. This vicious cycle has led to one slightly terrifying trend: the rise of drug-resistant germs. The global health nonprofit Center for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy has created the “ResistanceMap” […]