AltWeeklies Wire
Horse Race: Portland City Bureaus Jockey for Money Amid a Grim Budget Forecastnew
City agencies in Portland must make even deeper cuts than expected, city commissioners say. In some cases, that means bureaus will be slashing more than 5 percent from their budgets for the next fiscal year.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
01-21-2009 |
Policy Issues
Getting the Lead Out Causes a Freakout for Toy Retailersnew
Like their counterparts nationwide, Portland toy makers and retailers are raising hell about the vagueness, harsh penalties and cost of adhering to a federal law set to take effect Feb. 10. Estimates for testing range from $40 to $4,000, according to the Handmade Toy Alliance, a national nonprofit.
Willamette Week |
Dan Green |
01-15-2009 |
Business & Labor
Portland Shelter for Victims of Forced Prostitution Would be First in the Countrynew
By March, James Pond hopes to open a high-security safe house in Portland with 16 to 20 beds for girls recently freed from sex trafficking. It will be the first shelter of its kind in the country, and one that's badly needed in Portland, where the city’s police find three to five cases each week of girls under the age of 18 who are victims of forced prostitution.
Willamette Week |
Katie Gilbert |
11-05-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Falling Oil Prices Could Drill into Oregon's Clean Energy Progressnew
Some clean-energy companies, investors and economists worried that cheaper oil will slow the growth of the state's green industries and smother the political will to pass new incentives when the Legislature meets in 2009. That, in turn, will make it harder to meet the state's goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 10 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.
Willamette Week |
Libby Tucker |
11-05-2008 |
Environment
University Taps Profs to Take Classes in Unique Effort to Boost Enrollmentnew
When Eastern Oregon University's enrollment hit a low in 2005, administrators started battling to reverse the trend, which was threatening the La Grande campus' overall financial health. Three years later, they've hit upon a novel idea.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
10-30-2008 |
Education
Counselors See Uptick in Couples Fighting Over Moneynew
Many marriage counselors say they've saw signs of economic distress for some time, as couples from every social strata confront and butt heads over job losses, as well as their own liquidity crunch of loan freezes and dried up 401(k)s.
Willamette Week |
Katie Gilbert |
10-16-2008 |
Economy
The Trucked-Up Politics of NAFTAnew
Backed by some of America's most powerful unions, Democrats Barack Obama and Jeff Merkley -- who's challenging Sen. Gordon Smith -- say they want to protect U.S. jobs by reforming international trade deals such as the 14-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. We go to Mexico to see what it's doing there.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
10-01-2008 |
Business & Labor
Tres Strikes for Sen. Gordon Smithnew
How an undocumented immigrant worked at Smith Frozen Foods for nearly a decade.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
09-24-2008 |
Immigration
Are Portland Students Buying P.E. Credits?new
More than 100 high-school students in Portland Public Schools will opt out of their state-required physical-education classes this year. Instead, many of them will earn their P.E. credits from an alternative operation called Quest Schools, based in Tigard.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
09-03-2008 |
Education
Life and Death in Washingtonnew
Call it "death with dignity" or "assisted suicide," Washington preps for Initiative 1000 -- with Oregon's help.
Willamette Week |
Paula L. Stepankowsky |
08-27-2008 |
Science
Why Can't Khadija Go to Mosque?new
Khadija could be a star spokeswoman for Muslims if they wanted to show off Islam's teachings of peace and acceptance. Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, the imam of Masjed As-Saber, won't let Khadija back in his Southwest Portland mosque because Khadija is transgendered.
Willamette Week |
Byron Beck |
08-20-2008 |
LGBT
No Car, No Problem: One Portland Family Gets Onto Their Bikesnew
When you're joyful that gas has dropped to about $4 per gallon, it’s not hard to figure out why people are giving up on driving. But how easy is it to get rid of owning your car for good?
Willamette Week |
Lillian Hogan |
08-06-2008 |
Transportation
The Queer and the Qur'an: One Man's Struggle with Being a Gay Muslimnew
Ali stays in the shadows, because if he were to come out as a gay Muslim, he would lose things dearer to him than his own life: family, community, identity.
Willamette Week |
Byron Beck |
08-06-2008 |
LGBT
Federal Raid on Iranian Charity Stokes Debate About Tightened Bush Sanctionsnew
Two weeks after federal agents raided the largest Iranian charity in Oregon, employees at Child Foundation have regained possession of their seized cell phones and fax machines. But the feds are still holding the charity's computers and remaining silent about the reasons behind a raid that's alarmed many Iranians.
Willamette Week |
James Pitkin |
07-31-2008 |
Civil Liberties
Activists Want Portland to be a Sanctuary for AWOL Soldiersnew
A coalition of activists called PDX Peace is gathering signatures to make Portland America's third "Sanctuary City" for military deserters, along with San Francisco and Berkeley. And they want the City Council to adopt an ordinance that would protect war resisters by blocking Portland police from acting on federal orders to arrest AWOL soldiers.
Willamette Week |
Beth Slovic |
07-23-2008 |
War
Tags: Iraq, AWOL, Afghanistan, soldiers, Portland, deportation, war & peace, Sanctuary City, PDX Peace
