Old news/February 2011

PortlandWiki news items from February, 2011

Monday | February 28, 2011

Chart above shows what Portland media "could be" instead of the purveyor of lies and disinformation that Portlandians currently enjoy.

Transit-Riding Student To Portland Media: "Job Well Done"
Portland TriMet rider and student effusively praised Portland media for the "good job" they're doing at propagandizing Portlandians, and with filling our dull and lazy minds with disinformation and lies:

Well, my class has been talking about TriMet. It is very clear that the media has done a great job convincing everybody that TriMet is terrible, the drivers can't drive and suck at it, and the operators get great health care but don't need it and that TriMet's operators are terrible people. All of which is false. Good job, portland media. You have succeeded.

Go to story: Good job, portland media

Sunday | February 27, 2011

Lighting on the Columbia River. Photo by Ian Boggs

Management of Columbia River Basin More Cooperative than Most
Want a little light reading for tonight's bedtime story? Well, how about this electrifying article: Alex Stark claims that, "water is affected by everything, and water affects everything and everyone." Because citizens of the US and Canada are constantly using up the world's most precious non-renewable resource, obtaining water is becoming a greater issue every day. However, Stark says that the Columbia River is a source of water that promotes kindness. Why? The 1909 Boundary Waters Treaty does not allow the resource to be taken over by anyone who's feeling greedy. So when you're drinking water from the Columbia River, remember: when you're drinking this water, the glass is always half full.

Go to story: Water wars? The Role of Hegemony in the Jordan River, Nile River and Columbia River Basins

Saturday | February 26, 2011

Solidarity with Wisconsin Rally at Director Park, Friday, February 25, 2011.

Portland's Workers Rally In Solidarity With Wisconsinite Workers
More than a thousand Pacific Northwest workers gathered in Portland's Director Park Friday afternoon to rally in support of beleaguered public employees in Wisconsin. Pro-labor and pro-union demonstrators showed their support for Wisconsin state workers and their right to negotiate wages and benefits they receive through collective bargaining. Additional rallies across the United States are scheduled for Saturday.

Go to story: Local unions gather to support Wisconsin brethren

Go to story: Portland demonstrators rally in support for Wis. workers

Go to Portland Jobs With Justice: Portland Jobs with Justice

Friday | February 25, 2011

Sunny, Flowery & Beautiful. Painting by Bao Pham

Sunny & Clear!
And nice 'n' sparkly. It's the kind of beautiful Portland day that proves whoever invented desk jobs, windowless rooms and stuffy cubicles toiled at the behest of Satan.

Go to story: Office space fax machine

Thursday | February 24, 2011

Snow Day by Misti Hope Wudtke

Snow Day!
No school! Woo hoo!

Go to story: Deschooling Society

Wednesday | February 23, 2011

14th Annual Homelessness Marathon

Listen To Stories Told By Homeless People From Around The United States
This afternoon, Portland's KBOO Community Radio (90.7 fm) will begin a live fourteen hour radio broadcast of "The 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon" at 4:00 p.m. Pacific. Kansas City is the host for this year's special public affairs program, which, in addition to KBOO, also broadcasts simultaneously on numerous other community radio stations throughout the United States. This is your opportunity to get beyond the ugly statistics, and the sad commentary on our culture's blatant immorality in denying shelter to so many among us, and just listen to what homeless folks have to say about the experiences they endure daily.

Go to story: Special Programming: Public Affairs on 02/23/11 - The 14th Annual Homelessness Marathon

Tuesday | February 22, 2011

An abandoned MetroFi antenna. Photo by M.O. Stevens.

Personal Telco repurposing old MetroFi wireless devices throughout Portland... as soon as someone donates the bandwidth
After MetroFi, the company Portland hired in 2006 to create a wifi network covering the city, tanked two years later, leaving hundreds of dead wireless devices throughout Portland, the city was forced to take them down and put them in storage. Now, the city has donated over a hundred of them to Personal Telco, the free wifi nonprofit serving Portland. Now all Personal Telco needs to get them transmitting free wifi is donated bandwidth.

Go to story: Personal Telco deploys MetroFi's old Wi-Fi gear in North Portland

Monday | February 21, 2011

Anna Lavatelli, "The Pink Room"

Levitation Is For Indwellers
The Archer Gallery at Clark College presents Indweller, video works by Victoria Fu, Anna Lavatelli, Noelle Mason, and Lilly McElroy. "In each of these works, the bodies are used in a predetermined way within the space of the setting and the frame. The female figures are choreographed or set to a limited structure of movement, rather than used as character explorations. Through controlled gestures, constructed cinematic structures, and suspended moments in time and space, the figures become inseparable from the setting within the video, existing to complete the imagined world of the artist."
Exhibition • February 22 - March 18, 2011
Reception • 6-8pm • March 12
Archer Gallery • Clark College
1933 Fort Vancouver Way, FAC 101, Vancouver, Washington

Go to story: Indweller

Sunday | February 20, 2011

Phoebe the pooch has a loving family and is not one of the animals mentioned in this story.

The Quarantines are Being Filled
30 dogs, ranging from a couple days to 8 years old were rescued by The Humane Society from a Canby breeder; they were quarantined by The Humane Sociey, out of fear that these dogs might have infectious parasites. Doctors believe that these dogs could have diseases and/or dangerous stomach parasites. If this proves true, the Canby breeder could face up to six months in jail and $2,500 in fines because of charges of "animal neglect in second degree." Reasons for this might be that the breeder has been struggling to sell her dogs in this difficult economy. However, the dogs were clearly abandoned: evidence ranging from empty food bowls to lingering feces. The price must be paid.

Go to story: Dogs rescued from Canby breeder placed in quarantine at Portland's Oregon Humane Society

Saturday | February 19, 2011

Congressman Earl Blumenauer will discuss how Portland can take the easy way out at City Club of Portland; Friday, February 25, 2011; 12:15pm - 1:15pm.

Federal Alignment: Taking The Road More Traveled
From City Club of Portland Web Site: "Since the near collapse of the financial system two years ago, both the United States and Oregon have struggled to get their economies moving. The federal government faces significant challenges in solving issues related to Social Security and Medicare funding, massive defense spending and a seeming inability to solve educational problems. Though daunting, none of these challenges has been unforeseen. On February 25, Congressman Earl Blumenauer will consider opportunities for reform that need not be as radical as some are predicting. In particular, the Congressman will describe unique opportunities for Oregon to better align its plans with federal priorities, and will explain how, by making these adjustments, both national and state program could become more sustainable and effective. Congressman Earl Blumenauer was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1996 and is a member of the Ways and Means Committee and the Budget Committee."

Go to story: A Decade of Decision: Why it Doesn't Have to Be This Hard

Friday | February 18, 2011

Michael Scheuer, former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit, appears at Powell's City of Books on Burnside (Sunday; February 20, 2011; 7:30 p.m.) to talk about his new book: Osama bin Laden.

It's A Tough, Brutal, Dishonest World Out There
And it's getting even nastier. The President (who briefly swung through Hillsboro today) is forced to cut deals with "business leaders" running massive, multinational corporations in hopes of making "America more competitive." Those same executives, who publicly fret that Obama's economic policies "increase business uncertainty" are quickly targeted by "grassroots" teabagger propaganda mills, like FreedomWorks and Free Enterprise Project, for imbibing in "crony corporatism in its purest form." Naturally, these same teabagger groups are financially propped up by other crony capitalists. Our Secretary of State is forced to talk out of both sides of her mouth as the Egyptian people rid themselves of their U.S.-backed dictator, masterfully displaying her flip-flop artistry (she was for Mubarak before she turned against him) as if she had taken private lessons from Flip-Flop King himself. Her training quickly paid off. Clinton managed to keep impeccable poise as she mouthed empty platitudes glorifying the many wonders enjoyed by "free people" everywhere, even as her security goons brutally dragged away an elderly, peaceful and quiet dissenter. In fact, in his earlier life, that same dissenter was a high-level C.I.A. analyst and an Army veteran. Fortunately, you have an opportunity to meet another former C.I.A. officer on Sunday! Michael Scheuer is scheduled to appear at Powell's (City of Books on Burnside; Sunday; February 20, 2011; 7:30 p.m.) to talk about his new book: Osama bin Laden. Scheuer, who served as chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit from 1996 to 1999, will explain how the U.S. "mindlessly" played into bin Laden's plans to provoke a war on Muslim soil, which catalyzed a jihad designed to "obliterate America from within, by making it economically weak, until its markets collapse." It's a tough world out there. And it's getting nastier.

Go to calendar: Michael Scheuer, former chief of the C.I.A.'s Osama bin Laden unit, appears at Powell's City of Books on Burnside (Sunday; February 20, 2011; 7:30 p.m.) to talk about his new book: Osama bin Laden.

Go to story: Former CIA analyst accosted during Clinton speech about tolerating free expression

Thursday | February 17, 2011

Prague Spring? Obama delivers hope, change and missile defense in Prague, Czechoslovakia, April 2009.

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.

Go to story: President Obama's visit to Intel in Hillsboro will be streamed live Friday morning

Wednesday | February 16, 2011

Cult Of Ecstasy

Banging The Bhagwan
Nearly 30 years ago, followers of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh "bought the ranch" 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?

Go to story: Rajneesh and his wicked ways revealed on 30th anniversary of Oregon cult

Tuesday | February 15, 2011

When you're driving a BMW, you just have to endanger the lives of others. It's a rule!

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

Where's the (geek) love? Right here!

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

For decades, Amtrak has mastered the art of low-speed rail.

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

"Care you can have faith in."

Faith-Based Health Care: Minus The "Health" Or The "Care"
Birgilio Marin-Fuentes, 61, died early Friday in 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

Liberty is beautiful to behold.

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. 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

Thursday | February 10, 2011

Hawthorne Bridge has frequent bus service, as well as bike, pedestrian, and car access.

Portland ranked #1 in public transportation
According to U.S. News, Portland offers the best public transportation in the US. The rankings were based on public investment, ridership, and safety. Citing Portland's buses, light rail, commuter rail, streetcars, and aerial tram, as well as Fareless Square (recently demoted from offering free service to bus and rail lines to just rail lines), U.S. News ranked Portland above Salt Lake City (#2), New York City (#3), and Boston (#4). Our big sister to the north, Seattle, ranked at #11 due to its poor safety record.

Go to story: http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/02/08/10-best-cities-for-public-transportation

Wednesday | February 9, 2011

Greendrinks Are For Sustainers

Drink, Flirt, & Build "Sustainable Communities: Together"
Do you mix well with others? Can you at least mix a stiff drink? Do you enjoy greenwashing whatever activity you're involved in as much as the next urban ecosexual? Well your golden, uh, emerald moment draws near! Tomorrow evening (Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 6:00pm - 8:00pm) you're invited to participate in "Net Impact Mixer - Help Us Build Sustainable Communities: Together." Think of it as a "green mixer." Everyone else does. Join the festivities at Upright Brewing, 240 North Broadway (yup! that's North, NOT Northeast), Suite 2 Leftbank Project Portland , OR 97227.

Go to event: Net Impact Mixer - Help Us Build Sustainable Communities: Together

Tuesday | February 8, 2011

Rumor consumer or tumor bloomer?

Proposed bill would require warning labels for cell phones
Amid growing controversy over the long-term health effects of cell phone radiation, Oregon state senator Chip Shields and 5 other Oregon lawmakers have introduced a bill (SB 679) that would require cell phones in Oregon to have labels warning of their radio-frequency radiation. Long-term studies have thus far been inconclusive about possible harmful effects of cell phones, such as brain cancer. If passed, Oregon would be the first to require labels on cell phones for radio-frequency radiation. Apple, AT&T, Verizon, and the CTIA wireless trade group have already hired lobbyists to fight the bill.

Go to story: Oregon considers cellphone radiation label

Monday | February 7, 2011

The Free & Open Internet: Never had it; never will.

The "Internet Kill Switch" And You
Last month, PortlandWikiNews brought you a preview of Portland's (then) upcoming Strategic BroadBand Plan kick-off event. That report also highlighted concerns many in our community have about the "gatekeeper" roles large corporations increasingly exert over public access to the Internet, once widely considered a public utility. (See "The Internet: Just Another Cable TV Box?"; Wednesday | January 26, 2011.) These same corporations (in Portland, they're primarily Qwest and Comcast) continue to impose fierce political and economic pressure to assure their increased control over the Internet, and to defeat any genuine guarantee of "net neutrality" (allowing unimpeded access and delivery of all Internet traffic). But the Egyptian government's decision to hit the "kill switch"--shutting off that country's Internet traffic during most of that country's ongoing pro-democracy revolt--has alarmed pro-democracy advocates all over the globe. It has also exposed some of the more sinister motives underlying efforts by governments and large businesses to put control of the global network into the hands of a handful of corporate and state actors. Were you aware that "almost all of the industrialized 'first world' Internet" traffic, including in the United States, "is moderately to pervasively censored by government authorities"?

Go to story: Infographics: Internet Censorship Is Rampant Around the World

Go to info graphic: So you still think the Internet is free.

Go to kill switch: How Egypt did (and your government could) shut down the Internet

Sunday | February 6, 2011

Egyptians In Action

Measurable Percentage Of Portlandians Express Interest In Egyptian Uprising
In a recent article published at Centre for Research on Globalization Larry Chin leads off with a strongly worded assertion: "As people across the Arab world take to the streets to fight for democracy, and an end to oppression and tyranny, the oblivious, uninterested and acquiescent American public has done virtually nothing." But have Portlandians shown total abject apathy and callous indifference to the Egyptian People's Uprising? We think not! As reported by good ol' PortlandWikiNewsLeakers last week (Saturday | January 29, 2011), "about 300" people rallied at Pioneer Courthouse Square in solidarity with the Egyptian pro-democracy revolutionaries. Toss in the assumed solidarity of PortlandWiki's estimated three active readers and the total number of Portlandians expressing and/or fantasizing "solidarity" with pro-democracy Egyptians rises to 303. That's a whopping 0.05% of Portland's population of 583,835! Hey, five one hundredths of one percent of a town's population is nothin' to sneer at.

Go to story: As the Arab world fights, America sleeps

Go to story: Showing Solidarity with Egyptians, Protesters at Pioneer Square Rally Against Mubarak

Saturday | February 5, 2011

Yarn bombers improve Portland "one stitch at a time."

Yarn Bombers Keep Bridge City In Stitches
Slip Yum Yum keeps to the shadows. "We work hard to keep a low profile and only communicate digitally," explained a go-between. Slip is one of a growing number of a growing underground of stitch artists known as "yarn bombers" who stitch their graffiti onto various public artifacts like statues, bicycle racks, trees, street lamps and telephone poles. Yarn bombers can pick up supplies from any of a surprisingly large number of local yarn shops. Yarn enthusiasts even have their own Yarn Crawl! But the yarn bomb blog ("improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time") is maintained from Vancouver British Columbia.

Go to story: Oregon "yarn bombers" knit graffiti for lamp posts, trees

Go to crawl: Portland Oregon Yarn Crawl

Go to blog: Yarn Bombing: Improving the urban landscape one stitch at a time.

Friday | February 4, 2011

Collapsing housing bubble finds its "floor"?

Portland Home Sales Drop 7%
The "five-county Portland region" saw a 7% plunge in house sales from December 2009 to December 2010. Absentee buyers accounted for 19.4% of the housing sold. Most of those sales were reported as "investments." Although the median house price hovered at $222,000, absentee investors paid an average of just $190,000.

Go to story: Portland area home sales drop 7% from a year ago

Thursday | February 3, 2011

The rabbit is one of the 12 signs in the Chinese Zodiac.

Welcome to the Year of the Metal Rabbit
Today is the beginning of the Chinese and Vietnamese (Tết) New Year, marking the beginning of the year of the Metal Rabbit, according to the Chinese Zodiac (year of the Cat in Vietnamese Zodiac). Astrological predictions of rabbit years include associations with "home and family, artistic pursuits, diplomacy, and keeping the peace", and conversely that "nations will also become more insular and increasingly lock down their borders to protect against the 'other'". In Portland, there will be many free activities and celebrations this Saturday.

Go to events listing (celebrations this Saturday): Chinese and Vietnamese New Year events

Go to astrology explanation: The Year of the Rabbit: Chinese Horoscope Predictions for 4709 - 2011

Go to astrology explanation: Chinese New Year 2011 - The Year of Golden White Rabbit

Wednesday | February 2, 2011

Dinosaur, Colorado: "A Very Real Town."

PDX Out-Migration Fuels Fossil
Local slacker/hipster has "grown tired of Portland" and plans to relocate to Dinosaur, Colorado, a "very real town."

Go to story: I've grown tired of Portland, so I'm moving to Dinosaur, Co. A very real town.

Go to very real town: Dinosaur, Colorado

Tuesday | February 1, 2011

Gov. Kitzhaber releases state budget proposal, responding to funding crisis with further cuts to education, health
The budget Kitzhaber offers would include cuts to Oregon's already ailing K-12 education, reducing teachers and increasing class sizes. Also Oregon Health Plan, the same program Kitzhaber started in the mid-90s, would have cuts. According to OPB, "doctors would be paid less to treat Oregon Health Plan patients and fewer treatments would be covered." Since it was conceived, people who have relied on Oregon Health Plan have experienced several critical cuts in their health care, including a massive cut in 2003 that attracted national attention, when 100,000 people in mental health and/or substance abuse treatment lost their prescription coverage.

Go to story: Kitzhaber Says Budget Will Require 'Shared Sacrifices'