Let’s start out with a few developments in City Hall yesterday that you might have missed, because they happened late and we posted ’em late. After a summit with regional leaders last night, Mayor Sam Adams and Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen buried the hatchet over the Sellwood Bridge rebuild. (You can also read the O‘s take here.) Also yesterday afternoon, the city’s largest bargaining unit announced the terms of its new tentative contract with the city.
With five only days before a vote that could close their school, the parents, teachers and students of Lents’ Marshall High School offered their impassioned pleas to the Portland School Board last night in hopes it might change its mind and not shutter the successful school as part of a reorganization plan.
What the fizz? New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has beseeched the federal government for permission to keep soda pop off the list of things that residents in his little town can buy with their food stamps. That way they can buy carrots ‘n’ shit. And stop being so fat! Never mind freedom of choice. Also, doesn’t Diet coke have, like, vitamins now?
Just in time for AT&T my contract to end! iPhones that communicate over the Verizon network are expected to hit stores in the first few months of 2011, the Wall Street Journal is reporting. The move comes as Apple finds itself fending off challenges from Droid-based phones and others.
It’s not what you’d call a happy anniversary. The U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan—which began October 7, 2001—is now entering its 10th year. Remember when we were told this would be a hop, a skip and a jump? Now, as of this week, some 2,000 NATO fighters have been killed, along with thousands more Afghans. And Osama bin Laden has donned the mantle of an environmentalist. Meanwhile, Afghan President Hamid Karzai is talking with the Taliban.
What’s killing the honeybees? Scientists have pinched a pair of possible perps: a fungus and a virus, often found together in affected colonies. Honeybees are important, of course, because they help almost every plant humans rely on HAVE SEX.
The White House is blaming itself, a little bit, for the BP oil debacle. One of the four draft reports on the spill released by a White House commission said the spill was made worse by conflicts between federal and local officials as well as the Obama administration’s low estimates of crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.
Say it ain’t so? Justin Bieber has been booted from Facebook. Oh, yeah, right. Not the famous one. This guy. Also: Here’s why your “friends” keep unfriending you.
This is called truth in advertising. In a GOP ad in West Virginia, three dudes in trucker hats park their asses at a diner and bitch about having a black left-wing president. The casting call apparently called for actors with a “‘Hicky’ Blue Collar look.”
Like these fellows:
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE. STILL SICK.
GREAT COVER THIS WEEK, MERCURY!
– YER SYCOPHANTIC URSINE PAL,
COMMENTY COLIN
GOOD MORNING, BT! I JUST WANT THE IPHONE ON T-MOBILE… AND FOR THE HONEYBEES TO BE ALRIGHT. C’MON, LITTLE GUYS!
GOOD MORNING EVERYONE. I REALLY DON’T THINK THAT BUYING SODA POP FOR THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS IS ‘CHOICE’ SO MUCH AS ‘INGRAINED HABIT AND PEER PRESSURE’. OF COURSE LIKE MANY LEGISLATION’S THIS ONE WOULD ONLY TARGET THE POOR WHEN IT REALLY SHOULD TARGET EVERYONE. BUT THE IDEA HAS SOME OKAY POINTS TO IT I THINK.
DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN USE FOOD STAMPS AT PAPA MURPHY’S? TRUE STORY. IF I EVER GET ON FOOD STAMPS I’M GOING TO EAT NOTHING BUT TAKE AND BAKE PIZZA. FUCK CARROTS.
GOOD MORNING BLOGTOWN!
I SPENT A COUPLE OF YEARS AS A GROCERY CLERK DOWNTOWN, AND WAS KIND OF DISGUSTED WITH OUR LOCAL FOOD STAMPS. IT’S JUST FREE PARTY MONEY – UNIVERSALLY, EVERY DAY, AND EVERY SHIFT I WORKED, THE CUSTOMERS WITH AN OREGON TRAIL CARD BOUGHT MORE AND BETTER FOOD THAN THOSE WHO PAID THEIR OWN WAY. SNACKS, SWEETS, SODA, MEAT AND SEAFOOD VS. HAMBURGER HELPER AND PB&J SANDWICHES.
THE WIC CARD, WHICH SPELLS OUT EXACTLY WHAT YOU GET FOR FREE, SEEMED LIKE A FANTASTIC PROGRAM, ON THE OTHER HAND. “1 DOZEN EGGS, 1 TIN BABY FORMULA, 1 GAL. MILK” AND SO ON.
@TK: IF YOU’RE ON T-MOB YOU SHOULD GET THE NEW G2 PHONE!
WE SHOULD MAKE IT SO YOU CAN ONLY USE YOUR FOOD STAMP CARD TO BUY: MEAT, POTATOES, BROCCOLI, AND BREAD. AND YOU CAN’T USE THE EXPRESS LANE!!!! ALSO, IF YOU’RE ON FOODSTAMPS FOR MORE THAN SIX MONTHS YOU HAVE TO MOVE TO RUSSIA.
sweet action! Time to dump AT&T like a load of radioactive waste.
Also, what’s an “only day”? I think I may be having one.
GOOD MORNING BEEZIES!
I AM A WEE BIT HANGED FROM LAST NIGHT’S PACSTRAVAGANZA BUT NOT SO HANGED I CAN’T TYPE.
OBVIOUSLY.
CONFIDENTIAL TO DENIS: SORRY I HARANGUED YOU ABOUT TWITTER. IT IS MY WAY.
@ROM: THE BATTERY LIFE ON THE G1 WAS SOUL-SUCKINGLY AWFUL, SO I’M WARY.
GOOD MORNING. IS EVERYONE IN TOWN SICK? I WENT TO BUY DAYQUIL AT WALGREENS THIS MORNING AND THE SHELVES WERE EMPTY.
I THINK WE SHOULD MAKE IT SO FOOD STAMPS CAN ONLY BE USED FOR RED FOOD ON SUNDAY, ORANGE FOOD ON MONDAY, YELLOW FOOD ON TUESDAY, GREEN FOOD ON WEDNESDAY, BLUE FOOD ON THURSDAY, WHITE FOOD ON FRIDAY, AND BLACK FOOD ON SATURDAYS.
FROM WHAT I’VE READ, THE VERIZON iPHONE WILL BE CDMA. VERIZON IS ALREADY RAMPING UP THEIR NEXT GENERATION NETWORK, WHICH WILL USE NEW TECHNOLOGY (THAT MAY WELL BE INTRODUCED INTO THE NEXT GEN iPHONE IN JUNE). CDMA CANNOT DO DATA/VOICE SIMULTANEOUSLY (NO CHECKING GOOGLE MAPS AND TALKING AT THE SAME TIME). ALSO SOMETHING I READ TO CONSIDER IS THAT THE INCREASED DATA LOAD ON VERIZON’S NETWORK FROM THE ADDITION OF iPHONES WILL PROBABLY MEAN A LOT OF THE SAME CONNECTIVITY ISSUES ON THE VERIZON NETWORK (THIS IS PURELY INTERNET RUMOR, UNABLE TO SUBSTANTIATE).
I HAVE HAD THE SAME EXPERIENCE WITH FOOD STAMPS, THEY’RE FAR OVER-ALLOCATED AND THE SYSTEM IS ABUSED. HOWEVER, IT’S BETTER THAN NOTHING. I THINK JUNK FOOD SHOULD ABSOLUTELY BE EXCLUDED.
@TK: I UPGRADED FROM THE G1. YEAH THAT THING HAD POOR BATTERY LIFE. NOT IMPRESSIVE AT ALL. SO FAR WITH THE G2 IT’S BEEN TOTALLY COOL. YESTERDAY I USED THE GOOGLE NAV FEATURE TO NAVIGATE MY ASS ON SOME CARS RIDES AROUND TOWN, AND I DID ALL THE NORMAL TWITTER, CHAT, APPS, TEXTS, AND AT THE END OF THE DAY (MIDNIGHT) I WAS AT LIKE 50% BATTERY. SEEMS PRETTY SOLID TO ME. AND THE THING IS REALLY FAST AND GOOGLE HAS BEEN MAKING SOME SWEET APPS.