It’s that time of the year again—the time when those Lexus ads come on TV. The ones where a rich person is like, “Here, honey. I bought you a $30k car for Christmas. And I put a bow on top.” And everybody at home is like, “What? Nobody does that.” But the rich person’s wife […]
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Posted inPortland
The Hollywood’s Marquee Fundraiser Is Preeeetty Close to Succeeding
About a month ago we called your attention to the Hollywood Theatre‘s launch of a Kickstarter campaign (something we do very sparingly) to replace its marquee, which is leaking, causing other damage to the building, and just generally falling apart. The proposed replacement is based on the original, which opened with the theater in 1926—an […]
Posted inFashion
Portland Fashion and The Why Behind the Weird
Last night was the first in a series of lectures hosted by the City Club called The Why Behind the Weird, which is meant to address “Portland’s economic landscape, specifically in relation to the city’s population of educated young people.” Crispin Argento of PINO is a relatively new face in the local fashion industry, but […]
Posted inCity Hall
City Budget Deficit, as Expected, Will Hit $25 Million
Portland’s Office of Management and Finance has marked, in bright red ink, the terrible chunk of money that Mayor-elect Charlie Hales and the next city council must whack from the city’s budget next spring: $25 million. That number, long expected and roughly floated in other forums, was floated in the city’s latest five-year financial forecast, […]
Posted inPolitics
Mr. Burns Explains the Fiscal Cliff
The sad thing is, his description of a driver who’s willing to crash the car if he doesn’t get his money is basically an honest explanation of how the economy works, according to Republicans.
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Don’t Donate to the Salvation Army
Here’s your annual reminder to ignore those bell ringers… unless you think gay people are less needy and less deserving.
Posted inCops
Robocall Blitz Fails to Kill Mayor’s Police Reform Phone Tax
Making good on a promise to scare up cash for federally mandated police reforms approved by the city this month, Mayor Sam Adams scored a unanimous vote from the Portland City Council this morning for an incremental tax hike on two Portland-area land-line phone providers. Under Adams’ plan, major telecoms Frontier and CenturyLink will now […]
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The Holiday Shopping Season: It’s Not Over Till the Mona Lisa Removes Her Nose Piercing
Black Friday/Saturday is over, but holiday promotions and sales events are only going to come more furiously over the coming month (example: today is Cyber Monday, which means your favorite web store is probably having some sort of sale). You can ignore ’em as annoyingly aggressive attempts to separate you from your hot toddy allowance, […]
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My Righteous Indignation at Bank of American is Worth $3.71
One of the reasons I canceled my Bank of America account and switched to a credit union is because of my righteous indignation over BofA’s skeezy overdraft policies. The bank used to reorder its customers’ purchases so that they would be hit with more overdraft fees. I wasn’t the only person who was angry about […]
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Walmart Shrugged
As Walmart employees go on strike today, Slate explains why this is so important: Part of why the recent actions are so remarkable is that Wal-Mart is one of the most notoriously anti-union companies in the country. Based in right-to-work Arkansas, the retailer has maintained an almost entirely union-free workforce for most of its existence, […]
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Watch a Walmart Spokesman Squirm When Asked About the Poor Treatment of Workers
ThinkProgress posted this great video of David Tovar, Walmart’s Vice President of Communications, being forced to address his company’s shitty treatment of workers on CNN: This is noteworthy because Walmart has been called upon to publicly address their terrible policies many times in the past, but they’ve never actively tried to combat those charges before. […]
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“It’s Black Friday, Charlie Brown!”
Jimmy Kimmel presents the newest holiday special, “It’s Black Friday, Charlie Brown” which celebrates the happiest shopping day of the year! (Though don’t be surprised when things get very dark.)