EVERY YEAR, Oregon releases nearly 3000 inmates from its penitentiaries. Within three years, about one-third of those people will return to prison. It is what critics of the state’s penal system call a revolving door. But these same critics are doing more than simply finger-pointing. Discouraged by the reform efforts of prisons, a handful of […]
City
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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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IT’S BACK TO SCHOOL FOR THE OCA
The Voices of the “Student Protection Act”
ON JULY 28, the Oregon Citizens’ Alliance (OCA) successfully gathered enough signatures to place the “Student Protection Act” on November’s ballot. This is their third state-wide measure in 10 years. Despite the innocuous title of this year’s ballot measure, the broad aim of the “Student Protection Act” is nearly identical to the two previously sponsored […]
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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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Gentrification Blues
Proposed Development Jeopardizes African American Neighborhoods
“THERE SHOULD BE A LIMIT on how often they can raise your rent,” said Birdie Nipper, a 64-year-old who pays for her apartment on N Interstate Avenue with meager disability income. Five years ago, she and her neighbors were forced from a nearby building when new owners from California hiked the rents. Now, Nipper may […]
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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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Halfway to Health
Transitional Inmates Lack Health Care
ERRIN JACOBS IS ADDICTED to methamphetamines. He wants to be in a treatment program. The trouble is, he is finishing his jail sentence at a halfway house and, like hundreds of other inmates transitioning out of prison and jails in the state, he is stuck in a bureaucratic blind spot. Currently, Jacobs resides at a […]
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THE FILTHY RIVER
Environmental Groups Don’t Have the Balls
IN 1998, faced with worsening contamination of the Willamette River, Governor Kitzhaber organized the Willamette Restoration Initiative. At the time, environmentalists cheered when hand-picked representatives sat down with industry magnates. But now, with a deadline for solutions looming, it seems as if the chosen environmentalists have been sucked into an unhelpful bureaucracy. No real solutions […]
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Black and White
Unsolved Murders Bring Charges of Racism
ON JUNE 16, the Portland police staged a press event in the recesses of Forest Park to announce they were getting serious about clearing up the city’s backlog of unsolved murder cases. Chief Mark Kroeker accompanied Ron Overlund to the exact spot where, four years earlier, his daughter’s body was found. There, Chief Kroeker explained […]
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Viva La Amnistía
Migrant Workers Demand Rights
EARLY EVERY SUMMER, thousands of undocumented workers migrate into Oregon to find work in the fields harvesting apples, cherries, and other produce. They risk harassment from the police and hasty deportation at the hands of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). In June, the INS conducted its largest sweep in state history, clearing 450 workers […]
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Minefield of Dreams
Plans for Major League Baseball Stumble
“No one’s going to stop us from bringing Major League Baseball to Portland,” asserts Lynn Lashbrook. In his late 40s, Lashbrook garnered a love for the sport in his boyhood town of Kansas City. Now, he heads up a local nonprofit group–Portland Baseball Group–which, for the past few years, has been single-minded about bringing America’s […]
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Interview by Jake
Oken-Berg and Hatfield on the Death Penalty
EDITORS NOTE: For more than four decades, Mark Hatfield has been the combustion engine for Oregon politics, as governor and senator. By the time Senator Hatfield established his political reputation as a no-nonsense politician, Jake Oken-Berg wasn’t even a gleam in his parents’ eyes. Born in 1980, during Hatfield’s third term as an Oregon senator, […]