Bob Hesla owns Belmont Liquor, a small store in Southeast Portland. But even as an entrepreneur and small-business owner, he is legally required to be a state agent and, as such, is employed by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC). But Hesla is also president of Oregon Retail Liquor Association (ORLA), a grassroots organization whose […]
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Media Meltdown
Local Media Duped By Nuclear Power Plant Hoax
On a Monday afternoon, local conservative KXL radio host Lars Larson spoke on the air with Tim Jordan, an alleged spokesperson for Pacific Northwest Energy Consortium (PNEC). According to Jordan, PNEC proposed to settle a two-reactor nuclear power station in bucolic Astoria. Larson quizzed the PNEC spokesperson about the pros and cons, and the logistics […]
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Watching the Detectives
Local Activists Figure Out How to Battle FBI’s Spying
Last Wednesday evening about 20 activists gathered in a church basement in Northeast Portland. They had been brought together by a shared paranoia over the ever-lengthening reach of the FBI into local policing of so-called terrorists. In late November, Portland’s City Council hastily enacted two ordinances; the first allows the FBI access to local police […]
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Fighting For Air
Neighbors Organize to Battle PDX Airport
Two years ago, Eric Meyer, a resident of Northeast Portland’s Roseway neighborhood, noticed an unwelcome change in the morning skies above his home near Alameda Ridge. The dull roar rattling his house and jarring his peace of mind wasn’t thunder, but the irritating drone of low-flying box hauler planes. “I just sit there and my […]
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Who Knew?
Oregon’s Children Lose Health Care Coverage
When Alison Schamber switched jobs last fall, she had no idea her new, higher-paying job would end up costing her kids their health insurance. But that extra dollar an hour was enough to have her children–one of whom has cerebral palsy–booted off the Oregon Health Plan. What the state failed to tell Schamber, and the […]
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Beating the Bush
Protestors Gather To Sound Off About Bush
ON SATURDAY afternoon, as George W. Bush’s inauguration was marred by street protest in Washington D.C., a disparate crowd of Democrats, anarchists, union members, senior citizens, Greens and feminists gathered in Pioneer Square to protest what organizers called “the fall of democracy.” Worried that the day would pass without organized protest, Vivien Lyon, a local […]
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Old Growth, New Rules
Forest Service Pisses Enviros Off… Again
DURING HIS FINAL month in office, President Bill Clinton acted like something of the antithesis to Paul Bunyan, swinging his pen to keep giant swathes of land off-limits to cutting and development. In spite of these protective measures, local environmentalists continue to fret over the fate of Oregon’s lush forests. In fact, environmentalists say that […]
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Fowl Play
Is Someone Casting A Voodoo Spell on Portland?
THE GOAT, DECAPITATED and with its feet bound, was discovered in a burlap sack along the railroad tracks that squeeze through the loading docks and warehouses in inner Southeast Portland. A few feet away was a second sack with tufts of gray hair and a hoof sticking out. Scattered along the gravel were eight other […]
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Lessons of Injustice
Activists Worry Portland Public Schools Is Picking on Low-Income Students
FEARING THAT SCHOOLS in low-income and minority neighborhoods of Southeast Portland will be unjustly closed, last Thursday approximately 50 parents, children, and school advocates stood chanting to a group of Portland Public School (PPS) bureaucrats at Harriet Tubman Middle School. “The people, united, will never be defeated,” they yelled in unison, surrounding the handful of […]
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Gimme Shelter
NAACP Forms Task Force To Stop Gentrification
IN MID-NOVEMBER, someone spray-painted messages on stop signs along Alberta Street in NE Portland. The first sign, in dripping white letters set off against red, reads: “Stop Gentrification.” The next sign clarifies this message. It reads: “Stop Whitie.” Like many growing cities, in Portland gentrification has become a code word for large-scale displacement of working-class […]
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The Jet Set
Protesters Go After Jet Skis
LATE IN THE AFTERNOON on Sunday, thousands of potential boat owners swarmed into Portland’s Expo Center. On their way in, a dozen protesters confronted them. The loosely organized group Skippers for Clean Oregon Water (SCOW), held signs and barked out accusations that jet skis dump a Exxon Valdez tanker full of gas and oil into […]
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How the Other Half Lives
Public Officials Find Living Off Food Stamps Impossible
IT SEEMED LIKE a great idea when the Oregon Food Bank tapped District 2 Adult and Family Services (AFS) director Jerry Burns as a participant in this year’s Walk-A-Mile program. The program attempts to immerse public officials in the reality of life at poverty level by matching them with low-income families. The premise is simple: […]