Steely upbraiding? Well, you guys endorsed him, explain this for us.

You don't get to play the "blindsided" card when you were purposely not paying attention in the first place.

This reads like "the Mercury has learned" some very selective things to fit the narrative that Denis has been pushing since before election day.

Ummm.... fluoride.

bring back the weiner guillotine for all sex offenders (male).

I'm curious as to whether these programs even really work.
Or are we just funding some peoples saleries more than anything else.
And to Hales taking on the Fire Dept. - fucking right on Charley!
If the Fire Dept had its' way, they would have all kinds of shiny new toys to play with (along with that stupid boat that Randy Leonard got them), a couple hundred more employees and still perhaps the highest percentage of its' employees on 'Disability' in the nation.

When I see budget cuts like this I am reminded we need more business activity for a larger tax base.

Our program size appetite is larger than our budget. People screaming for more program funding—rightfully so as they're probably honest-to-goodness good programs—need to realize this and I feel this is often not acknowledged much in news reports and other discussions.

There's always an assumption there's money somewhere. We're strapped and have been playing this budget cut game for too long. We need a new outlook in Portland and it starts by the aforementioned above comment.