Bao BAB 422 NW 8th Ave, 241-0390 Ginger is aggressively tart; enough taken in one bite sends my eyelids fluttering into convulsions. Fortunately, since I love ginger, that’s a good thing; two sips from a glass of ginger juice at Baobab and the underside of my brain began to tickle. I could feel the nerve […]
Phil Busse
Posted inNews
HUNGRY FOR CHANGE
Daunting Food Stamp Application Keeps Thousands Hungry
IN APRIL, Kathy lost her job as a legal assistant. She dropped from a $16 an hour job to nothing. With a 12-year-old son to feed, health bills, and housing costs, Kathy (who requested that her last name not be used) was suddenly thrust into poverty. During the days, she spent hours trying to wrestle […]
Posted inMovies & TV
The Way of the Gun Bites
And We’re Not Talking About the Bullet
ABOUT HALFWAY THROUGH The Wayof the Gun is a disarming meeting between Longbaugh (Benicio Del Toro), a stoic kidnapper, and Joe Sarno (James Caan), a weathered and square-jawed bagman who has been sent to kill him. Sharing a drink in a bordertown tavern, they are like two competing door-to-door salesmen. Although pitted as enemies, they […]
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On My Soapbox
Big Bully Bebee
Acting more like heady nightclub bouncers than doormen to our fair city, a week ago INS officials strip-searched an innocent 36-year-old Chinese businesswoman as she tried to pass through the Portland Airport. Afterward, they handcuffed her for a two-hour ride to prison. God bless America, huh? It seems as if the woman’s passport was a […]
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PINING FOR VICTORY
The Green Party Goes for Respectability
WHEN WHITNEY SMITH entered the race for a State House Seat, he had no hope of winning. Smith is the Pacific Green Party candidate, and like dozens of other Green Party candidates around the country, his candidacy is heavy on the rhetoric when it comes to bringing new issues to the table. In July, Smith […]
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Crime Scene
Dukes of Hazard
A few weekends ago, Ed Pearson went to the moto cross races in Clark County, Washington. Dust, burning rubber, screaming engines; It’s the kind of fun that goes well with a 40-ouncer. After the races, Ed, his brother, and about a dozen friends settled into the evening at a nearby campsite. A few hours passed […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Mercury Video Picks
PLANNING YOUR OWN FUNERAL
One major flaw with dying is that the event is a compelling reason to throw a party in your own honor–one to which your closest friends are invited–but you can’t attend. Take a lesson from these flicks: Cheat death of its grim countenance and plan your own funeral. Soft Fruit (1999)-A mother gathers her children […]
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PICKING UP THE TAB
Will the City’s Homeless and Hungry Pay for Sizemore’s Tax Reductions?
THIS YEAR, a handful of Bill Sizemore-sponsored voter initiatives pledge to save taxpayers’ money and give wage-earners more control over their paychecks. But social service providers around the state have begun to paint a bleak vision of the future: These bills will simply shift the burden of taxes away from individuals and squarely onto the […]
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On My Soapbox
Drug Policy Backfires
The invisible hand of Adam Smith really needs to smack Vera Katz in the back of the head. For the past three years, our mayor has championed the so-called Drug Free Zone, a patchwork of neighborhoods from which reputed crack and dope users can be booted for little or no reason. The idea behind the […]
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RACISM IN A BOTTLE
Do Years of Harassment Amount to Racism?
THERE ARE THREE THINGS Robert Larry would like you to know. First, he does not sell alcohol to underage minors. Second, the recent accusation that his liquor store is a distribution post for minors is part of a pattern of harassment by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC). Finally, and perhaps most significant, he is […]
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STUMPED BY THE FOREST SERVICE
Protests Have No Impact on Eagle Creek Timber Sale
FOR ALL OF THE PROMISED UPROAR and good vibes that local environmentalists tried to muster on Sunday afternoon at the Eagle Creek National Forest, nothing happened. They had pledged mass arrests as hundreds crossed into a restricted area of the national forest. Loosely organized by Cascadia Forest Alliance, the self-described act of civil disobedience was […]
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Crime Scene
Corpse DeVille
Picture a low-brow version of Scarface crossed with Weekend at Bernie’s. Last Friday a dead body, shot in the back of the head, was found abandoned in a late-model, bronze-colored Buick. The corpse was there at least two days before anyone noticed. In turn, the police identified the body as Robert Leroy Gilbo, a reputed […]