If you like the idea of “living” inside a “house” in “Portland,” well… hope you’ve got one already. Because if you don’t, get out. As Mike Francis writes, “It’s increasingly challenging for people looking for their first houses in Portland, a city where the housing supply is pinched and incomes aren’t keeping pace with increases in real estate prices…. And the challenges for first-time buyers are getting stiffer, if anything.”
Is Google Fiber coming to Portland? Google still won’t say—even as Oregon lawmakers bend over backwards to give tax breaks to the infamously impoverished start-up. Google has, however, made one decision: Starting tomorrow, they’re jacking up their rates in Kansas City. (Meanwhile, Hillsboro still has the right idea.)
On the heels of International Women’s Day, today Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is expected to present the U.N. with a report that outlines how “Despite the many gains women have made in education, health and even political power in the course of a generation, violence against women and girls worldwide ‘persists at alarmingly high levels.'” Hillary Clinton is also scheduled to address the issue, even though (awkward!) she’s “under attack for her family foundation’s acceptance of millions of dollars in donations from Middle Eastern countries known for violence against women and for denying them many basic freedoms.”
Apple has some big announcements today—including ones about the Apple Watch that, presumably, some obnoxious rich fucks out there are clamoring for? (Where my glassholes at!) The Verge has a rundown of what to expect; in the meantime, man, Ian Parker’s New Yorker profile of Apple designer Jony Ive is fantastic. There’s stuff in there about the watch, sure (and… lightsabers?), but it’s also a look at Ive and Apple that manages to be both appreciative and damning (he typed on his MacBook Air while checking his iPhone to see if his boss had texted him yet about why this post still isn’t up).
This morning in Wisconsin, Governor Scott Walker “signed legislation that banned private sector unions from requiring workers they represent to pay union fees, further chipping away at organized labor’s power.” Quick, somebody find a person over 80 so we can ask them what unions were.
Starting Wednesday, the Supreme Court will start hearing arguments about Obamacare’s insurance subsidies—and, depending on how the court rules, millions could lose their insurance. The New York Times does their best to figure out just how bad the damage could be.
Apple Watch. Bah (he typed on his MacBook while listening to iTunes). This is not the future we were promised (he grumbled as he hovered away).
