Phil Busse

Traditionally, city councils and lawmakers in Oregon have been told to keep their hands off nude dancing–no regulations, no zoning requirements. Unlike laws in 48 other states, free speech allowances in Oregon are so liberal that strippers can take it all off (no bottoms, no pasties) and can pretty much rub it, move it and […]

When the USA Patriot Act stormed through the U.S. Congress 18 months ago, very few people objected. The Act swings the door open for federal agents to tap phone lines, check library records, and take unprecedented inroads to individuals’ privacy–all in the name of fighting terrorism. But now, as the reality and scope of allowances […]

The terrorist attacks on September 11th clearly shaped the past year-and-a-half of global politics, as well as impacted millions of individual lives. But perhaps no one was more blindsided by the “war on terrorism” than Lynne Stewart. A civil rights attorney in New York City, in 1995, Stewart represented Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the so-called […]

Given 24-hour notice that police would soon bust up their camp, the demonstrators at the Portland Peace Camp began to tidy up, as if they were expecting dinner guests. Since the first day of bombing in Iraq, a handful of protesters have held a round-the-clock vigil at Terry Schrunk Plaza. They removed most of their […]

On Friday, at the exclusive Multnomah Country Club, Mayor Vera Katz put on a jovial face and delivered her annual State of the City. She spoke optimistically and in cheery tones, barely pausing on the very real problems facing Portland– the scuffles between police and protesters, a local economy in the shitter, and a deep-seated […]