By Rachael Marcus, the new news intern Remember the “Iraq’s Most Wanted” playing cards? Police and nonprofit Crime Stoppers of Oregon released a similar deck this morning, each card profiling an unsolved murder. On each card is the face of the person killed, making for a pretty grisly game of gin rummy. Also, instead of […]
Crime
Posted inCrime
Nutria Spooks Woman in Wal Mart
I don’t know what’s funnier: that a swamp rodent took up residence in a Louisiana WalMart or that the WalMart employees were allegedly keeping the thing as a pet and had named it Norman. Sadly, things got out of hand when the nutria scurried across an aisle, causing a woman to shriek and sue for […]
Posted inHomo
Anti-Gay Hate Crime in Seaside
From a normally sleepy tourist town comes some terrible news: a gay couple say they were attacked by a group of men on the beach and beaten to the point of unconsciousness. The two 22 and 23 year-old men, Samson Deal and Kevin Petterson, came to Seaside on spring break from nursing school in Washington, […]
Posted inPortland
ACLU Compares Secret List Cops To Nazis
UPDATE, 6:34pm:From Mr.Rosenthal: Matt — I am very disappointed in the headline and first sentence of your blog, and request that you issue an apology to me and Officer Myers. I did not compare Officer Myers to the Gestapo. You accurately quoted me in your blog, I related in court that I told the Oregonian […]
Posted inPortland
Odd City Law Of The Month
Never mind the Sit/Lie ordinance. Don’t interfere with anyone’s privacy: A. It is unlawful for any person to look through a window, transom, or door into the dwelling of another with the intent to interfere with the privacy of an occupant. B. As used in this Section, “dwelling” includes a building or part of a […]
Posted inMedia
Bicyclists Hope “News Cycle” Buries Stop Sign Controversy
“We were hoping to do some advance media on this in December,” says Karl Rohde, public affairs director for the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, “but we kept getting buried in the news cycle, whether it was by snow storms, scandals, or budget cuts. Nobody in the media cares about us right now.” Or perhaps that’s what […]
Posted inPortland
Judge Rules Sit/Lie Law Unconstitutional
A downtown judge has ruled the city’s controversial sidewalk obstruction ordinance unconstitutional. Judge Michael McShane made the ruling yesterday about the part of the ordinance that requires people to keep their personal belongings within two feet. “I found that an ordinary person would not understand from the statute that mundane and everyday behavior would be […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Carts Of Darkness
Morning, Portlanders. I present, for your Thursday waking-up feature, a Vancouver documentary by wheelchair-bound director Murray Siple, about homeless men running the gauntlet in shopping carts. Siple used to make snowboarding movies, but his paralysis put a stop to all that. And then, he started hanging around with a bunch of homeless dudes, and felt […]
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 inPuppy
Lloyd Center Security Ops Manual Forbids Physical Force
Still waiting for a call back from Lloyd Center security manager Mark Hanson on Saturday’s pounding of a puppy protester—and we’re not holding our breath—the Mercury has been doing some independent investigation into the center’s security policies. The Lloyd Center is owned by Ohio-based Glimcher Realty Trust, and security there is provided by a GRT […]
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 […]