On Wednesday, I reported on the latest shoe to drop in what’s going to be a budget nightmare for Portland next spring—some $17 million in cuts to the city’s general fund. Those are the best case cuts so far, just more than 4 percent. In case things get worse, Mayor Sam Adams has also instructed […]
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Posted inCity Hall
Early Figure for City Budget Cuts: $17.4 Million
The city’s budget office delivered a blunt confirmation (pdf) of Mayor Sam Adams’ “grim” warning back in October: To balance the city’s budget over the next five fiscal years, the Portland City Council next spring will need to find $17.4 million in ongoing cuts. Worse, starting next spring, for the 2013-14 fiscal year, a pool […]
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Cyber Monday is a Scam & Shoppers Aren’t Heroes
Buy More Stuff! Black Friday protest at the Lloyd Center mall. I’ve been tolerating the endless talk of Black Friday and holiday shopping, but Cyber Monday is too much. First of all, why did someone name their shopping day after people having sex on the internet? And secondly, why is everyone insisting that a day […]
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This Is What Naked, Striving, Ugly Humanity Looks Like
YouTube has a growing and phenomenal collection of Black Friday pandemonium videos from Wal-Marts all across the nation. I’ve pasted a couple of them here for your own amusement/revulsion. Until I looked a bit more closely at them, I kept thinking they were all the same video of the same redneck riot at the same […]
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This Is a Case of Government Doing Exactly What It Should Do
I would just like you to take a moment to appreciate the news that came out yesterday about the AT&T/T-Mobile merger being, basically, quashed by the federal government: Espirito Santo analysts said AT&T’s decision to take the $4 billion charge this quarter showed the company’s own assessment of the chances of success had fallen, causing […]
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Blogtown Coverage of Occupy Black Friday… TOMORROW!
For those who actually have to work for a living tomorrow, be sure to drop by Blogtown throughout the day for continuing up-to-the-minute coverage of Occupy Black Friday! Sarah and Denis will be all over it (as usual) and providing their always thoughtful and accurate squirts of the latest news. For a good roundup of […]
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Hooray for the Banks!
Reuters says we’re in the money! U.S. bank earnings reached a more than four-year high in the third quarter, but regulators are warning that the industry faces challenges that include the risk of the European debt crisis washing up on U.S. shores…On Tuesday, the FDIC released its latest quarterly report, which showed that the industry […]
Posted inTheater & Performance
Opera for All! No, Seriously!
©2010 David Bachman, courtesy of Portland Opera In my review of the Portland Opera’s production of The Marriage of Figaro, I neglected to mention anything about the City of Portland’s excellent Art for All program, making productions like Mozart’s farcical opera available to anyone. I’ll let reader Jacob Clary explain it, as he did in […]
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Holiday Sales For The Cool Kids
The holiday retail season is officially on, which means the inevitable attempt and probable failure of keeping you abreast of the deals that will pop up over the next couple months is also officially on. Even if you come from one of those hippie families that exchanges only homemade gluten-free oat cakes and sock darning […]
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KATU Viewers Would Rather Ruin Xmas Than Put Up with Occupiers
Here’s a poll that’s currently up on the KATU website: And here are the current results: Sorry, kids. 60% of you won’t be having Christmas this year. I know… let’s do our own poll!
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Another Way to Look at the Wealth Gap: Young People vs. Old People
Obviously, older Americans are going to have more money than younger Americans. That’s just how life generally goes—you start with nothing and accumulate personal wealth as you age. Still, the wealth disparity between older Americans and younger Americans is not supposed to be this wide: The typical U.S. household headed by a person age 65 […]
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Chase CEO Thinks You Agree with Him. DO YOU??
As you may have noted, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO and Chairman Jamie Dimon popped into town yesterday to give a little pep talk and pointers to the Portland Business Alliance (Hmmm… how can the rich get richer?) and the peeps at Occupy Portland screamed and yelled at them for awhile, which made everybody really nervous. […]