Wyden Town Hall Shut Down

I saw an article in Golocalpdx.com about a Ron Wyden Town Hall meeting in Portland being disrupted by protesters with Don't Shoot PDX, chanting "Hands up don't shoot," "I can't breathe," and "No justice no peace.".  

Given that Wyden has little to nothing to do with the running of any police force anywhere and his progressive orientation, it seemed to me to be an opportunist grab by the group of a public forum that they used to publicize their protest.  Too bad for those who attended, the town hall was cancelled after the protesters refused to call it quits.  I can support protests against injustice and police violence, but if I were them I'd pick better targets than Wyden.

Luxembourg Takes a Leak

The ICIJ has obtained a trove of leaked documents detailing the nefarious tactics of massive multi-nationals to evade taxes all over the world using the "squeaky clean on the outside, corporate friendly on the inside" Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and their secret tax agreements.  See this video from the ICIJ to see how it all works.  The Corporate cast of villains includes a cast of usual suspects including AIG, Deutchse Bank, IKEA and more.  According to Wikipedia:

In March 2010, the Sunday Telegraph reported that most of Kim Jong-Il's $4bn in secret accounts is in Luxembourg banks.^[45] Amazon.co.uk also benefits from Luxembourg tax loopholes by channeling substantial UK revenues as reported by The Guardian in April 2012.^[46] Luxembourg ranked third on the Tax Justice Network's 2011 Financial Secrecy Index of the world's major tax havens, scoring only slightly behind the Cayman Islands.^[47] In 2013, Luxembourg is ranked as the 2nd safest tax haven in the world, behind Switzerland.

 Additional ICIJ background is here and here.

Hungry and Homeless in Ft Lauderdale

A number of US Cities have enacted laws making homelessness illegal and those who would feed them criminals, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless.  The latest abomination took place in Ft Lauderdale, FL where two ministers and a 90 year old man who runs a charitable organization were arrested for illegally feeding homeless people.  Take note Oregon, this could be coming to a community near you.

Despite heated protests, Fort Lauderdale passed an ordinance early on Oct. 22,restricting charitable groups from doling out meals to homeless people in public, the Sun Sentinel reported.

The new rules, billed as "public health and safety measures," limit outdoor feeding programs to one per city block and must be set up at least 500 feet away from residential properties. Organizers are also required to bring portable toilets for workers, according to the Sentinel.

Making it increasingly difficult for people in need to access food has become the norm in a number of major U.S. cities.

Find out more about Love The Neighbor and how you can support the group here.

The Strange Development in Troutdale

There is a 12 acre undeveloped parcel in Troutdale that the city wants to make into something since it's just adjacent to the Sandy River and could be very attractive, but there's a problem.  According to an article in The Oregonian the property:

holds remnants of a former sewage plant and thousands of buried sheep bodies...  

But rest assured, the city has a buyer who plans to transform it into:

a destination hotel, spa, convention center and bicyclist mecca on the banks of the Sandy River.

The company dug a test pit and found that after a half century or more underground, the animal remains have formed a gelatinous goo under a thick layer of dirt, Wand said.

The material isn't toxic, Wand said. But he added: "You don't want to build over jiggly stuff that might not support a parking lot or building foundation."

The company hopes to remove the remains this October, before the rainiest weather complicates the work but during the windy season, which they hope will make what's expected to be a smelly excavation more tolerable for surrounding residents and businesses.

I couldn't even hope to make this stuff up, sounds like Love Canal West.  Are you serious that 50 year-old sheep jello buried underground along with a former sewage site isn't toxic? I think I'll take my next vacation somewhere else.  Good luck folks on that smell.

 

 

Jeff Merkley Needs to Explain his Out Of State Campaign Expenditures

The new local online news organization Golocalpdx.com has published an analysis of campaign expenditures made by Jeff Merkley and found 78% of his money is spent outside Oregon, which blew my mind.  Furthermore, his campaign has stonewalled the news organization and:

"refused to answer any questions regarding his out-of-Oregon spending and refused to answer questions about his or his consultants' relationships/ownership with any of the companies receiving millions of dollars of campaign accounts."

 I await an explanation of this revelation, and I hope other local media picks the story up too.

Oregon Should Put Limits on Drones

I'll send an email to my Oregon State Representatives suggesting Oregon should follow up on California's initiative in limiting Drone use in Law Enforcement.  I think it would "fly" here too.  If only we could do the same with Automated License Plate Tracking.

Obama War on Freedom of the Press

The NY Times reporter James Risen may be in jail weeks from now for refusing to reveal his sources in a case first involving George W Bush and then aggressively pursued by President Obama and Eric Holder. There is a petition in support of Risen, I invite all to sign it.  In an article in The Guardian, Rises says about Obama "He’s the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”.  Those are pretty strong words, but a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists tells the tale, with nearly every journalist interviewed calling this administration the most hostile to the press in history.

Six government employees, plus two contractors including Edward Snowden, have been subjects of felony criminal prosecutions since 2009 under the 1917 Espionage Act, accused of leaking classified information to the press—compared with a total of three such prosecutions in all previous U.S. administrations.  

 “This is the most closed, control freak administration I’ve ever covered,” said David E. Sanger, veteran chief Washington correspondent of The New York Times.  

New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan wrote earlier this year, “it’s turning out to be the administration of unprecedented secrecy and unprecedented attacks on a free press.”  

“President Obama had said that default should be  disclosure,” Times reporter Shane told me. “The culture they’ve created is not one that favors disclosure.”  The administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration, when I was one of the editors involved in The Washington Post’s investigation of Watergate. The 30 experienced Washington journalists at a variety of news organizations whom I interviewed for this report could not remember any precedent.