Opinion
My mother – la mera mera – our family’s head honcha
“How did your parents put five kids through college considering they have a second-grade education and have earned an average of $18,000 a year over their working lives?” That’s the question I was asked by a legislator this past session while advocating for paid sick leave that didn’t exclude farmworkers. The answer was simple. My…
Nonprofit work empowers ‘ordinary people to do extraordinary things’
Last month, as I was packing up my things to move to Portland, I discovered a box of old school projects in the garage. In it was a picture I had drawn in the second grade of my future self. I was wearing a stethoscope around my neck and a white lab coat, and was…
Keeping Nestlé at bay
Gov. Kate Brown just made a game-changing intervention in Nestlé’s ongoing effort to bottle public water in Oregon. Soon after receiving three letters of opposition from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, Brown instructed the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) on Nov. 6 to withdraw their recent application to transfer water rights with…
Book review: Dorothy Van Soest explores foster care system’s responsibilities, challenges
Sixty-year-old Sylvia Jensen is a veteran social worker and supervisor of a crucial program responsible for the placement of vulnerable children in safe and appropriate foster homes. A white single woman, Sylvia has long had a deep interest in Native American life and culture. Though an outsider, she participated in the early days of the…
Take action on housing: An open letter to President Obama
Dear Mr. President, governors and local mayors of the United States: By now, I’m sure you may have heard that Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and the state of Hawaii have all declared states of emergency for housing and homelessness in their communities. Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and Hawaii, like many communities in the United States,…
News
Report: Phone company used by Multnomah County jails recorded and stored attorney-client calls
Securus Technologies Inc., the prison phone company giant under contract with Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office, recorded and stored at least 14,000 phone calls between inmates and their attorneys across 37 states, including Oregon. The Intercept reported an anonymous hacker breached Securus’ security and obtained data on more than 70 million recorded and stored phone calls placed by about…
Safety Net won’t face criminal charges
The federal investigation into nonprofit Safety Net of Oregon for mismanaging its clients’ disability benefits is closed and no criminal charges will be filed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has announced. After the 19-month investigation, officials determined neither Safety Net nor any of its employees were to be held liable for significant shortages in its collective…
