The O takes a leap into the minimum wage debate with this sympathetic profile of a man who works 80 grueling hours of Subway sandwich slinging a week to provide for his three children and disabled partner. You can hear the editorial board clucking in disgust already. (BTW: We did a long piece on the minimum wage last year. Read it.)
There was a good deal of backslapping in Portland City Hall yesterday, as city council approved a pricey arrangement that would have the city purchase and move the enormous US Postal Service facility near the west end of the Broadway Bridge, and snatch up that land for lucrative investment. Crucially, the USPS hasn’t formally agreed to this, just yet. That’s bitten us before.
Portland police shot a man this morning. They responded at 5:41 am to a report of a man standing in the parking lot at NW Portland’s Good Samaritan Hospital with a gun to his head. All we really know at this point is that the man “fired several shots during this encounter and has been shot by police.” He’s being treated, according to the latest press release.
Man, you guys are really not pleased with the way this city’s going. The auditor’s office just released the results of its yearly survey: Portlanders are just about the least happy they’ve been in decades with city services (largely because of rising rents and the ongoing clamor over street maintenance, apparently).
TriMet, still hastening to explain how dozens of trains became waterlogged in the Halloween drenching, has now released audio between controllers and train operators, confirming that those operators had the go-ahead to plunge their rigs through standing water—but should use their “best judgment.”
Remember remember the 5th of November, when several dozen Guy-Fawkes-masked protestors took to Portland’s streets in peaceful demonstration.
So, a PCC instructor teaching in a workforce training program decided to give his pupils this word problem: “Rufus is pimping for 3 girls. If the price is $65 for each trick, how many tricks will each girl have to turn so Rufus can pay for his $800-per-day crack habit?” He’s not teaching there any longer.
Hey! We’re maybe the 12th richest city in the country, according to Bloomberg. Suck it, Madison and Hartford!
In terrible news: Police say Chicago gang members lured the nine-year-old son of a rival into an alley and executed him. Dear god.
Exxon Mobil might not be the only oil company facing a probe into whether its public assurances about climate change matched its private discussions. Plenty of oil companies sought to minimize the oncoming peril their products help cause. They’re likely in play, as well.
George HW Bush is 91, and doesn’t give a damn about appearances anymore. He’s calling out Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, saying they had a toxic effect on his son’s presidential administration—prompting W to say he’s wrong, prompting Jeb! to quietly sob in an anonymous corner.
EBOLA! Remember that outbreak? It’s still quietly doing its thing in rural Guinea, much to the country’s chagrin.
60!
For today’s Karaoke Friday, I’m reaching into my private stash for y’all. Given enough energy and unflagging commitment, this baby absolutely crushes.