Say, Portland, if you’ve got a passing interest in local dock politics, cruise by the Portland Building at 9:30 am. The state’s Marine Board is holding a meeting that may decide whether Daimler gets the downtown dock it’s been lusting after. The company wants the Eastbank Esplanade structure relocated near its Swan Island HQ.
Over the course of this mayoral election, people have occasionally questioned Jules Bailey’s consulting work for an energy nonprofit while he was a state legislator with sway on energy policy. Bailey has repeated that his consulting work had nothing to do with Oregon (it was focused on Rhode Island). Now it turns out that nonprofit was maybe using Bailey’s status as a legislator to apply for grant money that wound up in Bailey’s pocket. But as the O lays out, there’s nothing provably wrong with that.
Last week, Mayor Charlie Hales promised a new homeless shelter based on San Francisco’s “navigation center” model, and said he’d put it in a vacant Portland Public Schools building. Turns out he was referring to an old outbuilding near the current Revolution Hall, which PPS is happy to offer up in exchange for free bus service for students.
The Californians have finally come for our Juggalo sanctuaries.
They’ve also stolen our thunder. Less than a month after Oregon enacted a $14.75 minimum wage (in six years, and for the Portland area only), Cali’s talking about $15 statewide.
Never mind, y’all. The government can break into your encrypted iPhone at will, after all. Just as you always expected.
Back in 2012, the City of Portland tried to scrap an anomaly that can give retiring cops more pension pay if they retire during certain, regularly occurring sweet spots. Turns out that was illegal, according to an arbitrator? Cue worry that our already short-handed police force will see more retirements as eligible cops aim for that sweet spot.
The men’s NCAA basketball tournament is a freakish hellscape this year. But look! OSU just made the women’s Final Four!
I don’t usually post clickbaity flotsam in this space, but snapping asparagus is monstrous and everyone should acknowledge that as its season approaches. (Related: Bay leaves are bullshit.)
Never works as well as it should: Jumping into the Columbia River to escape the cops.
Police shot a guy in the US Capitol Building yesterday. The Daily Beast is reporting it’s a Tennessee man who was shouting about being a “prophet of god” in the House of Representatives last year.
Presidential Election Corner: The NYT has a meaty analysis about how Republican officials slowly screwed over their blue-collar base enough to open the door for one Donald J. Trump.
And NPR looks at Bernie Sanders’ very narrow path to a potential Democratic nomination.
This… makes me so happy.
Another year, another birthday for me, Blogtown. Please enjoy the sun while I toil to put out a newspaper today. You know, after all these years, this is still my favorite “Happy Birthday, Dirk” video on YouTube. (This one is a very close second.)
Happy Birthday Dirk