Commissioner Dan Saltzman hauled in $1.6 million on top of his six-figure public salary in 2014, and suddenly I’m feeling—to the extent I can isolate any one feeling amid the roiling emotions this news has spurred—that his office lobby needs a better candy dish.
Hey, Google Fiber’s back and sniffing around in the Portland area! Turns out all it took was a tax loophole to get the company re-interested in providing super-fast internet here. Honestly, the city should be looking into offering its own municipal network. Hillsboro and Lake Oswego are taking steps in that direction.
The state’s economy looks to be chugging along at its strongest pace in years—which probably means tax credits for you next year, and $100 million more for state school districts (which everyone agrees still isn’t enough). At the same time, economists are warning legislators to chill the hell out with the spending requests.
In light of Ferguson and the tumult it brought, Oregon’s mulling a more-transparent grand jury process, where recordings and transcripts of the now-secretive hearings are shared with defense attorneys. The state’s DA’s are pushing back, saying the proposed rules don’t protect witnesses and victims.
The research team tasked with overseeing Portland’s settlement with the feds over police abuse released its first, dry, 100-page report yesterday, sharing early assessments of Portland’s system. TL;DR: They like some things Portland cops are doing, have concerns about others, and will work to improve the system.
It’s bizarre seeing a massive oil exploration rig juxtaposed with the Seattle skyline, an image that’s all over the place this morning after Shell began moving its arctic drilling fleet into town yesterday. You can imagine that Seattleites aren’t particularly pleased to be hosting this group. So they’re doing their part by holding up signs from kayaks hundreds of yards away from the ships.
Amtrak was just months away from launching a new safety protocol that would have automatically slowed the train that derailed after barreling into a turn at 100 mph on Tuesday. It’s the kind of terrible “what-if” morsel that will haunt the families of the eight dead, but it turns out Amtrak has been working diligently to get the safety system running.
Sorry, US drug war boosters! Colombia has decided not giving its citizens cancer is probably more important than spraying its vast, illicit fields of coca with weed killer.
RIP BB King, who apparently died in his sleep.
Weekend’s here again, y’all! Get out there and try some of these classic moves.
“Honestly, the city should be looking into offering its own municipal network”
You weren’t around the last time the city tried that. It was a spectacular debacle.