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Is $20 million enough to defy history, fight gentrification, and revive the black Portland that was?
Who says Republicans can’t take a joke? After seeing this week’s “New Column!” in the Mercury—titled “Will Someone Please Adopt… SCRUFFLES, THE GOP KITTEN?”—the Multnomah County Republicans decided to post a rebuttal column of sorts on their blog called “WIMPY, THE PORTLAND MERCURY KITTEN.” Here’s a taste! Meet Wimpy, the Portland Mercury Kitten. He’s a […]
What’s that saying, “Don’t stick your ___ in crazy?” Yeah, looks like @GovKitz broke that rule.— Eric Fruits, Ph.D. (@ericfruits) February 13, 2015
It’s been 16 years or so—the end of Vera Katz’s second term—since Portland’s had an incumbent mayor running for re-election. Put that way, it seems like an astounding amount of time. But that streak appears over. About a month or so after Mayor Charlie Hales demurred on the subject of re-election, he’s just reported a […]
This was originally posted at 10 am yesterday. It’s been updated to reflect developments since then that culminated in the announcement this morning that Governor John Kitzhaber will step down next Wednesday. What changed? Kitzhaber lost any shred of political support left—exhausting sympathy and goodwill among allies after deciding to resign and then backtracking so […]
The scandal-fed political vise squeezing Governor John Kitzhaber in recent weeks has tightened untenably over the past few hours. The state’s treasurer, Ted Wheeler, and two top Democratic legislative leaders have all asked Kitzhaber to resign—with Senate President Peter Courtney telling reporters in a news conference, according to reports, that Kitzhaber was “struggling” when they […]
Yesterday’s weirdness over Governor John Kitzhaber’s increasingly shaky handling of the ethics scandal swamping his career—he changed his mind about resigning? after calling Secretary of State Kate Brown, his successor, back to Salem?—has spilled over into today. At 11:19 this morning, Brown sent an email detailing a very strange meeting with Kitzhaber upon her return […]
Governor John Kitzhaber’s attorney had already told the Oregonian, using fuzzy words like “hope and expect” in the face of today’s sudden flurry of resignation rumors, that Kitzhaber wasn’t planning on stepping down. Kitzhaber’s reportedly now said so on his own. Kitzhaber: ‘Let me be as clear as I was last week, that I have […]
Fund for Charlie Hebdo and the Families of the Attack Victims on Leetchi.com After the January 7 attack on the the French satirical weekly newspaper Charlie Hebdo, the American Booksellers Association announced via press release that it was “exploring the logistics” of bringing copies of the magazine to US bookstores. This week, Broadway Books and […]
Enjoy the following sneak preview from today’s Mercury—an early-bird and augmented version of our Hall Monitor column. Remember to read our whole news section once we hit newsstands later today! *** WHETHER SHE WON or lost in 2012—the latter briefly seeming possible in her bitter fight against then-State Representative Mary Nolan—Commissioner Amanda Fritz was adamant […]
via Twitter Eric Fruits An Oregonian story this morning on the beleaguered state Republican Party’s leadership and fundraising struggles included a familiar name—alongside an unfamiliar title—for anyone following the months-long story over Commissioner Steve Novick and Mayor Charlie Hales’ struggles to raise new transportation revenue. It identified economist and professor Eric Fruits, one of the […]
Melville House Hey, if you were wondering why it’s important that indie presses exist, HERE, THIS IS WHY: Independent, Brooklyn-based publisher Melville House is going to publish the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program,” aka “the torture report,” that was released on Tuesday, with a run of 50,000 […]
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