A SPAT HAS BROKEN OUT between representatives for Oregon
Health and Science University (OHSU) and Portland’s chapter of
In Defense of Animals over alleged links to extremism. OHSU
spokesman Jim Newman furnished the Mercury with links to
speaking engagements by IDA boss Matt Rossell last week, at which
Rossell is alleged to have spoken alongside activists arguing for
the murder of vivisectionists.

“OHSU is trying to make me guilty by association,” Rossell responds.
Newman also provided federal court documents alleging that Rossell and
his wife Leslie Hemstreet helped their friend, Kevin Tubbs, remove
evidence of a crime from a video documenting a break-in at an animal
research laboratory in California—Tubbs was later sentenced
to 12 years in prison for arson.

“What was said in court is not true,” says Rossell. “It’s true that
Kevin is my friend, and that it was a shock when he was arrested on
those charges. We knew him as a really sweet guy who rescued cats.”
Read more at blogtown.portlandmercury.com.
MD

***

Multnomah County Commissioner Jeff Cogen plans to push
forward with his plan to raise the motor vehicle rental tax by
4.5 percent on Thursday, May 7. Cogen has received pushback from
Enterprise Rent-a-Car, which cited a Kansas City study showing a
motor vehicle tax increase had led some consumers to cross county and
jurisdictional boundaries to avoid paying the higher tax.

But a counter study by Cogen’s staffer Karol Collymore shows that
“from downtown Portland to the nearest Washington County car rental
[location] is approximately six miles and would take 59 minutes via
public transportation.” A 4.5 percent increase is “unlikely to have
a significant impact on the local car rental industry,” she wrote.
Cogen says the average increase of $3.45 a day is “the equivalent of a
latte,” and will potentially bring in $5 million to protect human
services and public safety at a time when the county is seeking to plug
a $45 million budget hole. MD

One reply on “In Other News”

  1. Tax ’em!

    While your at that, tax the shit out of the demographic that has a 5 mile or under commute and chooses to go by automobile. Why not?

    Your ass is already spreading from long stays in your cubicle desk chair; lets delay the inevitable!!

    Oh, and I think we should toll individual drivers on 26, yes that means car pooling gets you a free pass, past the traffic lines and past the fees. Car pooling does not include taking your little snot nosed future polluter to the day care either, so use your better judgement.

    Peace Portland.

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