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Portland Bureau of Transportation

Former Portland City Comissioner Steve Novick has a new job working for Oregon's top lawyer, Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. In a morning media release, the AG's office announced that Novick has been hired as a legal fellow to specifically tackle cases related to clean energy, climate change and the environment. The position is funded by a grant from the NYU State Impact Center. It's certainly in Novick's wheelhouse: The former commissioner spent nearly ten years with the US Department of Justice arguing on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency before dabbling in local politics

Novick can't tell us much. Except: “To quote ‘Bull Durham,’ I’m just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub.” In an email to the Mercury, Novick confirmed he's already started the new job.

Since leaving city hall in 2016—after losing a re-election campaign to Comissioner Chloe Eudaly—Novick's appeared on a weekly KGW show called "Left Hook Right Jab," where he dukes it out with conservative talk show host Lars Larson (Portland's equivalent to Alex Jones). He bid farewell in his final segment aired last night, leaving viewers with a few pieces of wisdom:

"Most of your tax dollars go to things that you like, like education and social security," Novick told the camera. "Another thing is that unions are good. Third thing, global climate disruption is real, it's threatening, it's the worst crisis that humanity or a lot of other species have ever faced, and we gotta do something about it."