with additional insults by Wm. Steven Humphrey As first reported in the Mercury, Portland’s city council has repeatedly disregarded an anti-war resolution that has been circulating through America’s major cities. This resolution asks that, as our representatives, city council members express their disapproval for any unilateral military action by the Bush Administration in Iraq. Forty-three […]
Phil Busse
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Sex Mag Shake-Up!
Portland Stripper Magazines Fight For Survival
Try to keep pace with this mental game of leapfrog: A few years ago, an editorial member of SFX, one of Portland’s magazines devoted to the stripping industry, jumped ship to work with his cross-town rival, Exotic, the city’s oldest and largest bare-all magazine. A couple months ago, that same editor bailed again, this time […]
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Another Bull Session
Don’t Look to the Legislature To Save Us
Last week, with pledges for reconciliation and productivity, the Oregon legislature took its seats at the state capitol. Since they last piled into chambers, the Republican Party has taken stronger control of the federal government and, to an increasing degree, taken a firmer grip over the moral reins of the country, even threatening to shut […]
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What Are You, Deaf?
Council Continues to Ignore Public Concerns
A few weeks before 600 residents joined hands and surrounded Mt. Tabor’s water reservoir in protest, city council member Jim Francesconi sent a memo to his cohorts. The letter expressed deep-seeded concern that city council has left the public out of the loop when making major decisions. In question was a proposal to place covers […]
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Skater Haters
Putting the Heat on the City’s Proposed Ice-Skating Rink
When The Oregonian first broke a story last fall that the city may plop an ice-skating rink in the middle of Pioneer Square, a few dozen phone calls and emails spilled into the office of City Commissioner Jim Francesconi, who heads up the Park & Rec. Bureau. The majority of those correspondences were negative, as […]
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Should We Kill Christian Longo?
Our New Governor Faces a Sticky Moral Issue
In the last week, the local FBI has received more than 300 phone calls reporting sightings of the 37-year-old Edward Morris, who stands accused of murdering his wife and three children and tossing their bodies in the snowy hills that flank Tillamook. The calls have reported Morris as far north as Seattle and all the […]
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Liberal Brat Pack No Longer
How Much Does Our City Council Suck?
To protest the federal government’s efforts to shut down the state’s medicinal marijuana program, the Santa Cruz city council handed out joints this past fall. In Boulder, Colorado, to appease their environmentally giddy citizens, the council declared the entire city a bird sanctuary. Ann Arbor, Boulder, Burlington, Madison, Santa Fe and 16 other liberal city […]
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Neighbors Steamed at Gay Spa
Are Bathhouses Really Bad for the Community?
The building is unassuming. Sitting along Sandy Blvd, ringed by chain link fencing, from the outside, it looks no more threatening than a Blockbuster or a 24-Hour Fitness. But early next year, Steam Portland, a bathhouse catering to gay men, will open in the Hollywood district. To hear some residents talk about it, you would […]
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Unconstitutional Condom Use
Safe Sex Programs Backfire Against Prostitutes
For years, social workers working with prostitutes around the city have handed out condoms. If you’re going to sell your body, you may as well be safe about it, goes the line of thinking. Last year, Danzine, a local magazine geared towards sex workers, added another component: the “Bad Date Line,” a pamphlet that provides […]
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How the Gov’t Stole Christmas
A Local Activist Tries to Bust Sanctions Against Iraq
It was a small gathering last Thursday; about 20 people carrying hand-drawn signs stood on the sidewalk adjacent to the US Customs House. It was sunny, cold and breezy. A few cars honked horns, and drivers flashed peace signs. But in spite of the cozy gathering, what the demonstrators were talking about–sanctions against Iraq and […]
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Represent Us, Please
Citizens Ask City Council to Speak Its Conscience
Concerned about increasing inroads that police and FBI surveillance have made into our daily lives since 9/11–from widespread tapping of phones to unconditional detentions–a small group in the Willamette Valley has been mustering a defense against perceived assaults on the nation’s civil liberties. Last week that group convinced the Eugene City Council to pass a […]
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No Vacancy!
Multnomah Sheriff Continues Catch-and-Release Policy
Fate was smiling on Robert Reese. Arrested for four counts of burglary, one count criminal mischief, and an assorted handful of other crimes, Reese was escorted to Multnomah County jail in downtown Portland two weekends ago. He expected to settle in for a long stay. But when he arrived, the booking agent at the jail’s […]