News
Technical difficulty: Sheriff Staton’s move to replace in-person visits at Multnomah County jails with video visiting raises questions
Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton’s plan to replace in-person visits with video visiting has caught the attention of county commissioners, who want to see in-person visiting preserved. Both County Chair Deborah Kafoury and Commissioner Loretta Smith asked the sheriff to consider keeping in-person visitation as an option in the county’s jails during a meeting Wednesday…
How understanding the neurobiology of trauma helps Portland police work with domestic violence survivors
“Becky” was in a state of disbelief. One week ago she told her boyfriend she was pregnant. Now he was handing her a hat, insisting, Becky says, that she cover up the bleeding wound he had allegedly inflicted to the back of her head only moments earlier. She needed to get herself together. A neighbor…
Ritchie Young: A conversation with the organizer of the ensemble Loch Lomond
Ritchie Young was born and raised in a Republican family in Bend. He played a little music is school, but he will tell you he was “horrible.” Though he plays the guitar and sings lead vocals for his band, Loch Lomond, Young admits he identifies more as a producer than a musician. In many ways,…
Turiya Autry: The Portland performer on her one-woman show about a young black woman’s search for identity
For the past two decades poet, performer and teaching artist Turiya Autry has been getting up close and personal with Portland audiences. Known for her visceral, lyrical autobiographical pieces, she works in many mediums, from radio shows and slam poetry competitions to her education and mentorship work through both Portland State University and Caldera Arts,…
Historical memory and place: Reflecting on police shootings in Portland
Does place retain trauma? Can it heal? When I was a student at Grant High School, Kendra James and James Jahar Perez were killed after being stopped by Portland police. Their deaths were formative to my racial justice consciousness that had been initiated by growing up in Northeast Portland. It was during this time that…
Opinion
Our newest, not-so-new police directive: Just walk away
The Portland Police Bureau recently made a stunning and unprecedented discovery — but, sadly, no one noticed. Probably because most of us knew it all along. Their non-breakthrough was this: Sometimes, the right police action is no action at all. After a disastrous decade of using excessive force against persons with mental illness, the bureau…
Let your voice be heard in support of $15 an hour
Did you know that to afford a lower-end, one-bedroom apartment at 30 percent of your income in Multnomah County you would need to make about $31,960 annually. That’s about $14.88 an hour. Thinking of something a bit more spacious, maybe with a view? According to a recent report by KGW, you would need to make…
So-called ‘recovery’ costing all of us in services
First, let’s preface what we’re about to say with a commonly accepted generality: The economy is improving. Second, consider how much more glaring that generality makes the latest study on how much taxpayers are subsidizing the miserly habits of corporations through low wages and thread-bare benefits. This month, the University of Oregon Labor Education and…
