[Cover Story]
Janet Hawkins would like to load the state’s lawmakers on a bus and send them to downtown Portland. Let them mill about Pioneer Courthouse Square and Old Town, meet the thousands of Portland residents struggling to get health insurance, mental health care or housing — give them some time to actually see what’s going on. more...
[News: Our Enemies in Blue]
It could be an episode of the Twilight Zone: Consider if you will, a world without police, where public safety is dictated by the community, not men in uniform. Consider it a real possibility, says Portland’s Kristian Williams, author of "Our Enemies in Blue: Police and Power in America" ..., which traces the history of policing from the slave patrols of the colonial era to the contemporary age of militarization and the war on terrorism. Williams looks at the institution's role in preserving racial and economic inequality, and suppressing social change. more...
[News: Tryon Life Community Farm]
Greenspace Not Brownstone (GNB) is mobilizing and organizing a growing campaign to save the Farm from development. more...
[An obituary for Hunter S. Thompson]
At the age of 16 I first came across the words of Hunter S. Thompson: "A man is to be pitied who lacked the courage to accept the challenge of freedom and depart from the cushion of security and see life as it is." more...
[Column: Hungry in Portland]
Twenty years ago, no one in my family believed that any of us would ever be hungry. We’re healthy, hard working, well-educated, white (privileged), honest, moral, and most of us aren’t bad looking. So how could we ever have hard times? more...
[Column: Memoirs of a Vietnam Vet]
Have a nice day. Those four words have become the most commonly heard greeting nowadays.... However, I have recently found that not everyone is pleased or even tolerant with those words. more...
[Commentary]
Is a payday loan lender actually a loan shark in disguise? Payday loan outlets are popping up everywhere. They appear on the surface to be legitimate, but are as vicious as the loan sharks who took care of gambling debts by breaking someone's legs back in the 1930s. more...
[Selected Poems]