When Portland’s Joint Terrorism Task Force faced its biannual reauthorization in late September, activists packed City Hall to voice their complaints. Their primary argument was that the Task Force was being used less to investigate terrorism cells and more as a J. Edgar Hoover-type of tool to monitor activists and pry into citizens’ private lives. […]
Phil Busse
Posted inNews
Running Bear
How the Illegal Poaching of Animal Organs is Pushing Oregon’s Bear Population Toward the Endangered Species List
The easiest way to remove a gallbladder from a black bear, according to hunters, is to start a deep slit from just above the waistline and cut straight towards the lowest rung of the rib cage. But first, one has to catch the bear. Although Oregon voters passed an initiative in 1994 to outlaw bear […]
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Free Speech Chokehold
State Agency Tries To Shut Down Local Entertainment
What would Jesse Ventura say? After two years of performing mock wrestling matches at Satyricon, the state’s Boxing and Wrestling Commission has stepped in to put a stop to the shenanigans of Portland Organic Wrestling (POW). Although the local promoter insists that the performances–which often involve shaving cream and host absurd, fictitious stars like Harvey […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Elegant Tension
Duty, Betrayal, and Drunk Women
Notorious dir. Hitchcock Opens Fri June 7 Cinema 21 Early on in Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, Ingrid Bergman is trashed. Her dad–a German national in 1946 living in Florida–was convicted for treason earlier that day. She is throwing a defiant party; there is something a little F. Scott Fitzgerald about the whole event, as her debutante […]
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Fish Fry!
Oregon Salmon Jeopardized
For the Pacific Northwest, salmon are the canary in the coal mine; the barometer of environmental health and politics. Over the past decade, the seven endangered species of salmon have gained a near-mythical symbolism as fights over dams have focused on dwindling fish populations. Even arguments over clear-cutting forests have pointed out that removing trees […]
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Soul-Sucker
Katz Puts the City’s Heart on the Auction Block
What’s the difference between Beaverton and Portland? Besides about a 10-mile stretch of Hwy 26, perhaps the fundamental difference can be summarized by Washington Square Mall. While Portland has fiercely clung to its independently owned boutique shops, surrounding cities have opted for chain stores and mega-outlets. Even many of the larger companies in Portland–Oregon Chai, […]
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gambling with reservation
Native Americans Make Bank with Tribal Gambling
Pullout: Gambling
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On My Soapbox
Little Napoleons
A month after the U.S. Forest Service canceled a controversial logging sale, about 300 environmentalists marched through Portland in an attempt to demand a comprehensive moratorium on all logging on Oregon’s public lands. For the past 5 years, a loose coalition of environmental activists has focused on Eagle Creek–a 2,000-acre patch of trees along Mt. […]
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Darth Vader and Taco Bell
May Day Declares Itself Pro-Tomato Pickers
The Darth Vader standing in the Fred Meyer parking lot was stock still, except for his left arm mechanically waving an American flag. A few feet away, several hundred activists slowly shuffled west along Burnside. Even though the stoic Darth Vader didn’t carry a sign like most of his co-May Day marchers, activists instantly understood […]
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McGruff Takes Bite Out of Own Ass
“Cover-Up” Stresses Out Portland’s Criminal Justice System
Last week, a Multnomah County Grand Jury indicted two Portland police officers for a bruising off-duty assault downtown. In late January, allegedly the two officers were mocking a man and followed him out of a nightclub, jumped him from behind, and slammed his head into a plate glass window. But what was most shocking about […]
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Vote and Vote Often
May’s Primaries May Have Lasting Effects
Without the marquee of presidential elections, bi-annual elections tend to draw paltry crowds–something at the rate of 40 percent of voters usually weigh in for these off-year elections. Worse yet, primary elections lack the same gravity as full-fledged elections. But the results from several of the current political races and ballot measures may have deep […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Hot ‘n’ Horny Teens¯In Space!
Yet Another Visit from Jason Voorhees
Jason X dir. Isaac Opens Fri, April 26 Various Theaters Like a particularly bad case of genital herpes, the hockey mask-wearing, machete-waving Jason Voorhees (of the Friday the 13th series) returns for yet another cinematic bloodbath. And if the thought of genital herpes is enough to turn your stomach, please turn to another section of […]