Donald Trump’s claims on immigration lack evidence http://t.co/7EUorr73r6 pic.twitter.com/WakHtmbfhD
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 7, 2015
Last night’s first Republican debate was exactly what you expected, with Donald Trump’s bombast setting the tone and leaving other candidates unsure whether to dial it up, themselves, or play the staid statesman. The NYT has this brief assessment of each participant’s effort.
Did you assume, watching the debate, that the candidates were being 100 percent truthful? I’ve got some disappointing news.
What were we up to yesterday? Oh, just chatting with Bernie Sanders.
If you’ve ever attended—or walked by—the underwhelming Hempstalk festival on the Waterfront, you know organizers’ claims that pot use is frowned upon don’t match the hazy atmosphere. Then again, you’d be hard pressed to visit the Waterfront at any time of day and not smell pot. But here we are again, watching Hempstalk organizers squabble with the parks department over the right to celebrate a legal substance.
Hard to say whether they’re all explicitly “gang” crimes or not, but Portland’s undoubtedly having a violent year. The Trib says there have now been more than 100 violent attacks police label as gang-related in 2015. The most-violent year in recent memory for that metric, 2012, notched 118 attacks.
The Trib also spoke with law enforcement all over the state and slathered hyperbole on an unsurprising conclusion: They don’t think people should smoke weed and drive.
Portland City Council is always going out of its way to praise the expertise of the Portland Housing Advisory Council (typically abbreviated and pronounced “pee-hack,” which I enjoy). So will our city leaders listen to the group when it says Portland needs to dramatically increase the urban renewal money it spends on affordable housing?
Are Portland firefighters forming up against Fire Chief Erin Janssens? Maybe, maybe not. There’s a letter going around, at any rate.
Here’s a nice story about the Springfield outpost of Symantec being caught totally unawares when an employee came out as transgender, and then handling it rationally.
A serviceable August weekend.
Your Friday morning desk/couch/coffee shop karaoke assignment: Stevie Wonder’s “Boogie On Reggae Woman.”
Nothing about the 2 Californians caught speeding (109 mph in a 65 zone) with over 4 pounds of heroin and crystal meth? Morons to the nth degree.
I think that was in GMN yesterday.
Did Hart help write that Stevie Wonder song? You should ask him, Dirk? He finds stuff like that funny.