Like overly protective parents who saddle rule after rule on their teenage kids, the Oregon legislature passed a slew of new laws intended to slow down and curb Oregon drivers. On Tuesday–the first day of the new year–about 500 new laws were bestowed upon Oregon residents. Passed last legislative session, the new laws cover everything […]
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Wobbly Wheels
Bike Messengers Deliver Their Intent to Unionized
As 200 picketers stalked the OHSU campus in one of the largest strikes in Portland’s history, the city’s business districts were rumbling with calls for another labor movement on Monday. Concerned about pay and clamoring for respect, about 50 bike messengers and delivery drivers announced their intentions to unionize. If successful, it would be the […]
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Sign Up Now!
Ballot Measures Need Your Immediate Kick-Start
With only a few weeks remaining before the January cut-off date for collecting signatures, Adrienne Ratner estimates that the campaign for the Police Accountability Campaign (PAC-2002), a voter initiative she hopes to place on May ballot, is still about 2500 signatures shy. Under PAC-2002, everyday residents of Portland would have more opportunities to examine complaints […]
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Hemp Me!
Activists Try to Stop DEA From Outlawing Hemp Products
In a steady downpour, during Monday’s lunch hour, fifteen activists stood outside local DEA offices downtown and convinced bypassers to sample hempseed products, like hemp potato chips and energy bars. They also tried to convince the lunch-hour crowd to sign a petition to halt a new ruling by the DEA that would effectively outlaw hemp […]
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The Father of the White Motherland
A Decade After Being Chased Away, A Neo-Nazi Returns
A decade ago, an attorney from the Southern Poverty Law Center–an organization that prides itself on running the KKK and other white supremacist groups into the ground–promised to “build a wall so high along the Oregon and California border that Tom Metzger would never get into Oregon, let alone Portland, again.” At that time, Metzger […]
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Straight from the Neo-Nazi’s Mouth
An Interview with Racist Leader Tom Metzger
Tom Metzger, longtime white supremacy activist and leader of White Aryan Resistance (WAR), is speaking somewhere in the Portland area on December 8. The event is meant to commemorate the death of Eric Banks, a member of WAR who was shot in an alleged dispute with a group of anti-racist skinheads, 12 years ago. The […]
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Law, Order and Civil Liberties?
Activists Ponder Cops’ New Role As Protector of Civil Rights
For political activists, the walk from Pioneer Square to City Hall is a well-worn path often used to voice their disgruntlement. But Friday evening, the fifty protestors carrying “Peace” and “No More War” signs delivered a different message: This time they were cheering on the Police Chief and Mayor for their decision to stand firm […]
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Not On Our Watch! Well, Maybe.
Local Police Say No–and Then Yes–to Terrorist Dragnet
Portland–and Oregon, for that matter, has officially become the pea under John Ashcroft’s mattress. Two weeks ago, the morally conservative Attorney General attempted to shut down Oregon’s assisted suicide law by authorizing federal agents to fine physicians who prescribe life-ending drugs. But everyone from Governor Kitzhaber to grassroots activists cried foul; a restraining order that […]
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Don’t Know Much About Immigration
Federal Agents Crack Down on Foreign Students
After student visas were discovered to be the device used by several of the September 11 terrorists, the FBI has been snooping around Middle Eastern college kids. A survey released before Thanksgiving by the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers found that the FBI has contacted more than 200 colleges and universities around […]
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The Nazis are Coming! The Nazis are Coming!
White Supremacy Groups on the Upswing
Every Thursday night, a popular tavern in East Portland pulls in a familiar crowd–many are locals from the neighborhood. But three weeks ago, the hiphop music drew in the wrong crowd: According to witnesses, seven alleged Neo-Nazis–four men and three women–stormed into the low-lit bar. “They had Confederate flags on their jackets and iron crosses […]
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Paranoia Validated
Will Grand Juries Unravel Activists’ Networks?
For the past few weeks, Mary “Moss” Fanelli, a tough but effusive environmental activist, thought that she was being followed. An occasional treesitter in Eagle Creek, she has spent time on the front lines. But, according to friends, when Moss went about her life in town–going to cafes, the library–she began to suspect she was […]
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A Deathblow to Death with Dignity
Is the Government Neutralizing Our Autonomy?
When drawing up the blueprints for democracy, Thomas Jefferson and his cohorts made certain that individual states would have their own freedoms separate from the controlling forces of a central federal government. That notion of autonomy and state sovereignty has always been protected as the central core to democracy. In a recent Supreme Court decision […]