Last week, my story Net Failure reviewed complaints by members of the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management’s (PBEM) Neighborhood Emergency Teams, or NET program. In a major emergency such as a massive Earthquake or a terrorist attack, NET volunteers will be expected to aid the city’s overwhelmed first responders. But NETs that spoke with the […]
Nathan Gilles
Posted inNews
Good Morning, News!
Whitney Houston has died. The singer was found dead in her room yesterday. She was 48 years-old. The Arab League steps up. Following a meeting in Cairo today, the league has asked the United Nations to form<a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/02/2012212144046479368.html“> a peacekeeping force to halt the violence in Syria. Mittens won last night’s Maine caucuses. He did […]
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Net Failure
Volunteers Sound Alarm over Flaws in Portland’s Disaster Response Plan
Volunteers point out problems in Portland’s disaster response planning.
Posted inPolitics
Cabbie Crackdown Update
Jon Sperry. Last week, my news lead on the working conditions of Portland’s roughly 900 cab drivers concluded: If you’re a Portland cabbie the best place to work is the employee-owned Radio Cab. Since Publishing the piece, an anonymous Radio Cab driver has come forward to say the city’s “rosy” assessment of the working conditions […]
Posted inOccupy
Black Bloc Trashes Belmont; Cops Make Arrests
Belmont store window smashed. Shortly after 6 pm, with red-and-black flags waving, several dozen protesters left Colonel Summers Park, as promised, for an anti-police-brutality march that had the Portland Police Bureau concerned enough that it sent out a pre-emptive arrest warning earlier in the afternoon. The marchers were chanting in unison, “NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE, […]
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Good Morning, News!
Mitt Romney won last night’s Nevada caucuses. It looks like Mittens is now the Republican front-runner. Watch his victory speech below. Egyptian authorities could soon try 19 Americans—including Sam LaHood, son of US secretary of transportation Ray LaHood—on criminal charges. The Obama administration has warned that prosecuting Americans might make the US stingy with the […]
Posted inPolitics
Who’s Lobbying The City and Why?
The Portland city auditor released its quarterly lobbying report today. You can read through the report and find out out who lobbied city officials about what, and how much money they spent. Not surprisingly, Occupy Portland appears more than once in the record. Columbia Biogas Number one in dollars, number three in lobbying instancesDollars Spent: […]
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Cabbie Crackdown
City Study Vindicates Cab Driver Complaints of Poor Treatment
Paid less than minimum wage, disgruntled Portland cabbies join forces.
Posted inTransportation
TriMet Gets Tough on Fare Jumpers
This morning, TriMet released its latest fare enforcement figures for December, and it looks like the six new fare inspectors the city hired last July have been busy. If a fare inspector were to catch you trying to skip out on your fare he or she could either: give you a warning, give you a […]
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Good Morning, News!
Occupy Lives! In Portland last night, members of Occupy Portland marched to support Occupy protesters in Oakland. No arrests were reported. Good news for the Police. On Friday, the Portland police were able to successfully talk a 30-year old man from jumping from the second story ledge of his downtown apartment building. This just days […]
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Damning City Study Says Local Cabbies Have Bad Working Conditions
In May 2011, a group representing 50 Portland taxi drivers requested 50 new taxi permits for its members as well as a company permit for a new employee-owned taxi service, Union Cab. The taxi drivers cited poor working conditions and low wages as the reason for forming their own company, prompting the City of Portland […]
Posted inPolitics
Tahrir Square Anniversary Celebration Downtown RIGHT NOW!
Banyan Tree. Images from 2011 Egyptian Revolution. Today marks the first anniversary of the protests that eventually ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak from power. Over the course of the day, hundreds of thousands of Egyptians filled Cairo’s Tahrir Square to mark the event, according to Aljazeera. In Portland today, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/153613448082003/?notif_t=event_invite“>protesters are gathering in Pioneer […]