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News
Thursday | February 17, 2011
Obama visits Intel in Hillsboro to prove he cares about jobs
Tomorrow morning, Obama's speech at Intel's lab in Hillsboro will be streamed live at about 11:30. He is not scheduled to speak about Intel's anti-competitive, monopolistic practices that squash innovations and jobs created by other processor manufacturers. However, he is scheduled to talk about how he and Intel are partnering together for better education and innovation. For America.
Wednesday | February 16, 2011
Banging The Bhagwan
Nearly 30 years ago, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh "bought the ranch"[1] and led thousands to a remote area east of Portland for unrestricted sexual activity, communing with UFOs, taking drugs of all kinds and "spiritual" excess. Who says religious fanatics aren't any fun?
Tuesday | February 15, 2011
Oregon driver films speeding for YouTube, goes to jail
Is there any better way to achieve YouTube "fame" than to endanger the lives of you and everyone else on the road? One Oregon man couldn't think of any. Filming himself speeding down I-5, the driver (who has had three other speeding incidents in the last year) was clocked at 118 mph when he was pulled over. When the cop asked him why he was filming, he responded that he was recording his speeding and arrest to later post on YouTube. However, his lofty plans for internet fame were thwarted when the video was confiscated by police, who will instead use it as evidence against him. Since the camera was intentionally pointed at his speedometer, police easily discovered he had achieved speeds in excess of 140 mph. According to a police spokesperson, winds were gusting at 50 mph that day, and there were branches on the freeway. "To be driving at these speeds today was just plain crazy."
- Go to story: Man jailed after filming himself driving 140 mph
Monday | February 14, 2011
Yaay! It's Valentine's Day! And So Much More...
Love, pollen and CO2 is in the air. And history is in the books. Here are some highlights from this date in the annals of years gone by:
- In 1859, Oregon was admitted to the Union as the 33rd state.
- In 1912, Arizona became the 48th state of the Union.
- In 1929, a hail of bullets slaughtered seven rivals of Al Capone's gang in a Chicago garage, an event instantly dubbed "St. Valentine's Day Massacre."
(One wonders how such ferocious gunplay happened outside Arizona.)
- Today, February 14, 2011, you can show your wikigeek love by hanging out with other PortlandWiki geeks at Monday Meets!
- Go to story: Happy 152nd Birthday, Oregon!
- Go to factoids: Today in History
- Go to Monday Meets: Monday Meets
Sunday | February 13, 2011
America Is Number One In Low-Speed & No-Speed Rail
Whether political inertia, public inattention, corporate malfeasance, natural "events," or just plain stupidity, nothing stops American Rail from delivering decent, reliable and effective passenger service, with one exception: everything. This time a mudslide north of Vancouver shut down Amtrak train service between Portland and Seattle. The tracks -- which are owned by BNSF railroad -- were passable, but BNSF protocol was "not to have any live passengers shipped through the area" at the time.
- Go to story: Mudslide Halts Amtrak Service Yet Again
- Go to story: Mudslide halts Portland-Seattle Amtrak service
Saturday | February 12, 2011
Faith-Based Health Care: Minus The "Health" Or The "Care"
Birgilio Marin-Fuentes, 61, died early Friday in Portland Adventist Medical Center's parking garage, just 100 feet from the hospital's emergency room's entrance. Police who arrived at the scene said no one from the staff of Portland Adventist Medical Center helped as officers tried to revive him. In fact, the only medical help the officers received was from an ambulance crew after hospital staff members told an officer to call 911. CEO Tom Russell released a statement filled with the usual bland we're-doing-our-best-but-we'll-do-better-next-time boilerplate dished out whenever a large organization gets caught "fornicating with the donkey." The key takeaway: "We have followed this practice (of calling 911 rather than taking care of the medical emergency) many times in the past year, as we did this past Thursday and will continue to do in the future." Now that's care you can have faith in!
- Go to story: Man Dies Yards From Emergency Room Door
- Go to story: Portland Adventist tells police to call an ambulance for man stricken in hospital's parking lot
- Go to statement: "Care you can have faith in."
Friday | February 11, 2011
Can You Walk Like An Egyptian?
A decaying, rabidly immoral kleptocracy of rapacious plutocrats, tyrannical corporate charlatans, and criminally insane financial swindlers. An expanding archipelago of prisons, detention camps and torture centers. Whorish and corrupt legislators who bend servile knee to suckle at the rancid tip of their paymasters.[2] The giant sucking sound of a nation's wealth gushing into the black hole of a privatized aristocracy. Violent religious extremists who run amok to terrorize ordinary people and kill at will. A mass media whose exquisite mastery of propaganda, disinformation and psychological warfare would have George Orwell stammering with horror and amazement. A largely apathetic, distracted, ignorant and psychically numb population. Sadly, this is the poisonous social milieu that Portlandians and other Americans still swim in. Thank God our Egyptian friends are, after suffering years of tyranny and with much struggle, beginning to shake off the terrible thugs who've brutalized them for so long. So what's stopping us?
- Go to story: When Democracy Weakens
- Go to story: Egypt's Revolution: Triumph as Mubarak quits
(Go to older news stories >>>)