The likely outcome of this week’s sudden pause in the push for transportation funding? Commissioner Steve Novick appears to be steeling himself for a retreat from the progressive income tax he’d hoped would make up about half of the $43.8 million plan he and Mayor Charlie Hales are working up. And how come? Reverting to a flat fee targeting poor and middle-income Portlanders might neutralize foes like the Portland Business Alliance. (But not all foes.)
The funniest thing about this blurb from KGW on a small-but-feelable earthquake in Polk County: “The quake is close to the Spirit Mountain Casino, a major tourist draw. Employees declined to comment or said they were not authorized to speak.”
DON’T EAT CARAMEL APPLES! The feds say packaged caramel apples, the kind with nuts and everything, might be harboring terrible, horrible listeria.
Talk of the Sony hack attack has come to include a new potential villain: China. The feds seemingly remain convinced North Korea played at least some part in the intrusion—but some reports say officials also are examining whether Chinese actors or Chinese servers played some kind of a role, too.
Vladimir Putin is throwing a big bash next year to celebrate the 70th anniversary of Russia’s single-handed, world-freeing triumph over the Nazi Hun hordes. North Korea’s own Führer-like God-King, Kim Jong Un, has been asked to attend.
Pakistan has begun answering the slaughter, by militants, of dozens of children attending a school for military families. More than 60 militants have been killed in stepped-up attacks over the past few days. Pakistan’s also temporarily lifted its ban on the death penalty, in case any militants are somehow caught alive.
A challenge to Colorado’s pot law has been filed with the US Supreme Court. Its flat, expansive, and nervous neighbors, Oklahoma and Nebraska, have sued on the grounds that some of Colorado’s abundant marijuana market is spilling over its borders—exposing “a dangerous gap” in federal drug control policies.
It’s a big deal because it’s the South. Not because it’s some kind of hot-stuff dollar amount. But here it is: Louisville, Kentucky, has approved an increase in its minimum wage, moving up to $9 (not far behind Oregon, actually) from the federal $7.25.
In North Carolina, authorities were quick to count the death of a young black man—his body was found hanging from a swingset inside a predominantly white trailer park, wearing white shoes his family didn’t recognize—as a suicide. FBI investigators have since been called in to see whether Lennon Lacy might have been lynched instead.
A 57-year-old woman with the last name of Crump has decided to try turning Eric Garner’s dying words—”I Can’t Breathe”—into a trademarked catchphrase so she can make buttloads of money selling shirts and other paraphernalia to millions of people grieving and fighting for their civil rights.
Yes, Portland’s mayor already did this last week. Today, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning to meet with police accountability protesters in his town. (Right before a “pro-police” rally that neither of New York’s police unions seem to know anything about.)
Why has it stopped snowing in Anchorage?
TELL ME MORE ABOUT ALL THE NOTES IN A GUITAR SOLO I’VE NEVER HEARD WHILE YOU PUFF ON YOUR DEVIL PLANT. I SHALL CLOSE MY EYES AND DREAM OF ANOTHER LIFE.