Warning: This post about Mayor Sam Adams does not mention sex, alleged sex or Beau Breedlove’s totally hot intern body even once. Instead it focuses on Adam’s financial policy. I hope that’s cool with everyone. Next Friday afternoon, according to City Club, host of Mayor Sam Adam’s State of the City address, “Mayor Adams will […]
Sarah Shay Mirk
Sarah Shay Mirk reported on transportation, sex and gender issues, and politics at the Mercury from 2008-2013. They have gone on to make many things, including countless comics and several books.
Posted inHomo
Crazy Utah Senator Says Radicial Gays Are Biggest Threat to US
Maybe Senator Chris Buttars is such a whack job that it’s not worth paying any attention to his opinions—but, unlike most people who talk about black, gay and Muslim people the way he does, Buttars can shout his opinions from a plush political pulpit rather than from his front porch with a Miller Lite in […]
Posted inBuild Out
Skidmore Fountain Makeover Pics!
Last week the Historic Landmark’s Commission voted unanimous in favor of a city plan to revamp Ankeny Sqaure — the place where Skidmore fountain is and those people sold homemade Obama shirts all summer outside the Saturday Market — by installing 12 antique cast iron columns and 12 restrooms. Which means we now have a […]
Posted inPolitics
Happy Birthday, Oregon!
By 11AM on the morning of Oregon’s Sesquicentennial (150th birthday!) I’m staring down a box of 300 mini pies and sharing a “manmosa” (miller high life + orange juice!) with a guy covered entirely in gold body paint. This is the Oregon Bus Project’s idea of post-election voter outreach. OH MY GOD it’s our birthday! […]
Posted inNews
Good Morning News!
Today is Friday the 13th. Forget ladders and black cats, here’s a list of things to fear: Terrorists: In the fifth attack on Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad this week, a female suicide bomber killed thirty people. Poverty: Actually more fearful than terrorists, according to the Director of National Intelligence who says global instability from the […]
Posted inFood and Drink
SE Coffeeshop Goes “Anti-Profit.”
… like, intentionally. For the last five months, the staff of Muddy Waters coffeeshop on Belmont have been looking to buy the corner store and convert it into some sort of community-focused nonprofit. On Friday, the paperwork becomes official and the current owner turns the coffeeshop to its four baristas, making them co-owners in an […]
Posted inNews
Hot Zoning
Sex Store Location Law Finds Support
Oregon considers putting adult businesses on a tight leash.
Posted inNews
Beaver State Loses Top Strip Club Bragging Rights
BREAKING NEWS, guys. It’s a point of pride and/or chagrin in Portland that we have the most strip clubs per capita of anywhere in the country, but that rumor is statistic mostly just because everyone says it’s true. Okay, rumormongers, read it and weep: John Voge, editor of adult industry trade mag Exotic says Portland […]
Posted inBikes
Jury’s Out on Rev. Phil Taser Case
Originally posted 12:10PM, moved up to now with the verdict! One night last June, Portland bike activist Phil Sano was stopped by police for not having a bike light and wound up on the ground, tasered five times and cited for resisting arrest. Today, the jury heard the closing statements in the case against him. […]
Posted inPortland
Porn Store/Not a Porn Store
One of the news stories in this week’s print edition is about Montavilla neighbors’ discussion over a state senator’s new attempt to regulate where strip clubs and other “sexually-oriented businesses” can operate in Oregon. The idea that the state should allow cities to zone sex stores to specific areas is getting traction in Montavilla because […]
Posted inPortland
Multnomah County Courthouse
Home of perhaps the world’s only maximum security tampon machine! Portland: You haven’t hit rock bottom until you’re stealing quarters out of the courthouse tampon dispenser.
Posted inNews
Rev. Phil Sano’s Taser Trial in Court
Back at the beginning of the summer, well-known Portland bike activist and general roustabout Reverend Phil Sano was stopped by cops for not having a bike light and wound up getting Tasered. A guy waiting for a bus talked to the Merc about what happened: “It sounded like he was being tortured,” recalls John Henry […]