Maybe you’ve grown fatigued by the ever-changing debate over how and whether Portland should raise millions in new revenue for road fixes and safety projects. Too bad! Catch up with our context-rich live blog of last night’s street fee hearing. We learned that the cost of a special election in May could reach $300,000 and also that the next hearing—all about which revenue options voters might choose, on an advisory basis only—could come as soon as January 20.
Oregon’s 2015 legislative session could be shaping as a big one for new environmental restrictions on the timber industry.
A contractor’s lawsuit over unpaid money is shining fresh light on modest Sellwood Bridge cost overruns that county officials apparently tried very hard to keep out of the public eye.
Twin hostage situations have erupted in Paris in connection with this week’s massacre at satirical paper Charlie Hebdo. About the same time as the two brothers suspected in that mass shooting were found barricaded with one other person in an industrial park, a man believed to be their associate took several hostages in a kosher supermarket, demanding the brothers’ release. Some reports say two people have already been killed in the market.
AND JUST BREAKING… French police say they’ve stormed the hostage sites, killing all of the suspects, upon reports of gunfire and explosions issuing from the two sites. It’s unknown what’s become of the hostages.
But Nigeria’s Boko Haram may have just out wicked-ed everybody. The Islamist militia’s sudden attack on one of the last government-controlled holdouts in Nigeria’s Borno state—the town of Baga—has left up to 2,000 people dead, according to some early reports.
Also wicked? Bill Cosby, back on stage after taking some time off because of the literal dozens of rape allegations that have been laid at his feet going back decades, MADE A RAPE JOKE ONSTAGE. ABOUT HIMSELF. AND THE PEOPLE ROARED THEIR APPROVAL.
The unemployment rate has dipped to 5.6 percent, thanks to a reported 252,000 new jobs in December—finishing 2014’s markedly stronger employment run when compared to 2013. (Seriously. 2014 was a better jobs year than 1999.) One caution? Pay is not improving. And millions of people still remain without work; they aren’t counted against the unemployment rate because they’ve just stopped looking.
Barack Obama is pitching a government-funded plan for two years of free and universal community college. It’s bold and intriguing. It’s also carrying an unknown price tag and is probably facing doom in a Republican-led Congress that’s made spending cuts a priority.
Today’s the day when gay marriage rulings in Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi all get their day in the federal appellate court that covers the South. If it says no, it would be the second appellate court to do so—making a US Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality much more likely.
Russia has revoked driving privileges for people who identify as transgender. The government’s calling it a “medical impediment.”
Boston’s knocked off cities like San Francisco and Los Angeles to win the right to be the inevitably losing American standard-bearer in the 2024 Summer Olympics sweepstakes.
I DON’T MEAN TO SOUND LIKE I’VE LOST HOPE. I STILL REMEMBER WHAT IT FEELS LIKE. HONEST.
The Boko Haram link goes to the Paris hostage aticle. (“has left up to 2,000 people dead, according to some early reports.” )
Way belatedly fixing that! Thanks! Both of ’em were from the WaPo.