Free Republic

A Multnomah County jury Monday ordered the city of Portland to pay three men a total of $175,000 for a 2007 encounter with police at a downtown parking garage in which the men accused officers of battery, assault and false arrest. The jurors found the testimony of two independent witnesses especially compelling. The witnesses, a young college couple, saw the entire episode and corroborated the stories of the three men: Harold Hammick, Ri'Chard Booth and Alex Clay. "Justice does work," Clay said after the verdict. "The system does work." A city attorney had argued last week during the trial that...

Video story at link

In Oregon, one in four people can’t find full-time jobs Here’s the thing that worries unemployed Woodstock resident George Snipes: What if things are worse, much worse, than we are being told? They are, says Andrew Sum, an economist who heads the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston. Sum has analyzed employment data for all 50 states, and he says that those charts provide statistical verification of what Snipes feels in his gut: Oregon’s 12.2 percent official unemployment rate is something of a red herring and far from a true indicator of the social hardship taking...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A cell phone text exchange between Portland Mayor Sam Adams and the young man who was briefly his lover predicts "we are both ruined" shortly after the affair became public early this year. In documents released by the Oregon attorney general’s office on Tuesday, a four-page redacted summary of e-mail exchanges between Adams and Beau Breedlove last January show mutual concern for the breaking scandal. In one exchange on Jan. 27, apparently from Breedlove to Adams, Breedlove writes: "Well, now we are both ruined. Disgraced and ashamed. I’m sorry Sam." He continues: "I’m the felon, the slutty...

PORTLAND, Ore., -- There’s a new nightclub opening in Portland for people who like to swing. And it's not the tree-tire variety, community park child's activity or mid 1950s dance style. Club Sesso opens Friday to Portland couples who like to have sex with other couples -- or singles who enjoy having sex with other couples. And iconic porn film star Ron Jeremy has lent his name and prestige to downtown's newest destination. Club Sesso is located on SW 1st Avenue. Paul Smith, its owner, is relocating from Clackamas and expects a lot of business. Portland just doesn't have a...

Saudi Arabian Muslim Student Raed Al-Saif at Univ. of Tampa Tries To Get On Plane With 7 inch Butcher Knife in His Carry On Bag, the last name "Al-Saif" is linked to Al-Qaeda. Fifteen of the nineteen on 9/11 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia they used box cutters and small knives to take over control of the 4 airplanes on 9/11. The United States government determined that al-Qaeda, headed by Osama bin Laden, bore responsibility for the attacks, with the FBI stating "evidence linking al-Qaeda and bin Laden to the attacks of September 11 is clear and irrefutable". The Government...

PORTLAND, Ore. - Portland Mayor Sam Adams could lose two homes in north Portland after falling behind on his mortgage payments. The homes in question sit side-by-side on North McClellan Street in the Kenton neighborhood and both are now in pre-foreclosure. KATU obtained a copy of two notices of default against the properties, showing the mayor has not paid a mortgage payment on either home for five months. With late fees, that adds up to over $10,000 in back payments. Adams said Tuesday his financial problems stemmed from the fact that he had to pay up front for legal bills...

In October, as the stock market tanked and the economy shed 400,000 jobs, Matt Singer moved from Oxnard, Calif. to Portland, Ore. He didn't have a job, but he was attracted to the city's offbeat culture and hungered for change. Mr. Singer's plan was to get an editing or writing gig at an alternative weekly newspaper, the job he was doing in California. Seven months later, the 26-year-old is still without a steady job -- and still here. "I wasn't really aware of how bad the job situation was at the time," says Mr. Singer. This drizzly city along the...

Mayor Sam Adams was involved in a three-car accident Sunday that resulted in no injuries but left a few questions about the cause. Adams was driving his GMC pickup about 6:15 p.m. at 1457 North Hayden Island Drive, near the parking lot of Car Toys at Jantzen Beach. Ryan Reed said he was turning his 2002 WRX Subaru wagon right from North Hayden Island Drive into the Car Toys parking lot when Adams' pickup, which was behind his car, "T-boned" his vehicle, striking the passenger side. Reed, an employee of the Tigard Car Toys store, said the impact pushed his...

PORTLAND - Tests indicated explosives residue on the luggage of a local Islamic religious leader arrested at the Portland International Airport on charges of document fraud, a federal prosecutor said Monday at the man's arraignment. Sheik Mohamed Abdirahman Kariye, 41, was arrested at the airport without incident around noon Sunday and booked at the Multnomah County Jail. Kariye on Monday pleaded innocent to two felony charges of using false information - including a changed name - while applying for and receiving three different Social Security cards between 1983 and 1995. The federal indictment also alleges that Kariye used an altered...

The National Theme is Repeal the Pork, Cut Taxes -- the local event will focus on "accountability".Here's the National Website: taxdayteaparty.comMore than 50 cities this time More than 30,000 participants this time More details coming! If you are interested in collaborating in the organization and execution of this event, please email: geoffludt (at) gmail (dot) comtwitter: @breaktheirbonesphone: 503 320 4399

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The man at the center of an investigation into Mayor Sam Adams' sex scandal has done a nude photo shoot for an undisclosed amount of cash. The Advocate reported Beau Breedlove accepted Unzipped Magazine's offer to be featured on the magazine's May cover, going Los Angeles last weekend for the shoot. "He came to L.A. to prove that the Portland scandal does not define his sexuality,” Unzipped's Online Editor Sean Carnage told Advocate.com. Oregon Attorney General John Kroger is investigating whether Mayor Adams engaged in illegal activity in the relationship. A firestorm of debate has raged over...

PORTLAND, Ore. - New details are emerging every day as the pieces of the scandal surrounding Portland's embattled mayor continue to unfold and people come forward. A longtime friend of Beau Breedlove, who spoke with KATU News on condition of anonymity, has new light to shed on the scandal that has divided the city into two sides - those for and against Mayor Sam Adams. In this latest development, Breedlove's friend told KATU News that he heard from him almost four years ago that he was having sex with a Portland politician - at a time when Breedlove was 17...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Mayor Sam Adams, who has admitted lying about a sexual relationship with a teenager, said Sunday that he would not resign. A city commissioner, Randy Leonard, told The Associated Press that Mr. Adams had left a phone message in the morning saying he had decided to remain in office. Two other commissioners told The Oregonian of Portland that Mr. Adams, the city’s first openly gay mayor, had told them the same thing. The fourth, Amanda Fritz, declined to comment. Efforts to reach Mr. Adams were unsuccessful. The Oregonian’s editorial page has called for his resignation, as...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A man opened fire outside a downtown Portland nightclub Saturday night, killing two girls and wounding seven other people before shooting himself in the head, police said. Gunfire erupted near the popular downtown bar Kells Irish Pub and the underage nightclub The Zone at about 10:30 p.m., according to the Portland Police Bureau. Police said nine people were shot on the sidewalks and streets outside the two establishments. By the time police arrived, a teenage girl had already died, police said. A second teenage girl died after being taken to a Portland hospital. The victims have been...

You'd think, listening to Portland Mayor Sam Adams' apologies for his poor judgment in having sex with a teenager, that the whole thing was a passing mistake. A misjudgment, maybe, covered up by a pro forma lie in the heat of a campaign. When pressed, Adams on Monday reversed that long-standing lie about his 2005 relationship with a young man named Beau Breedlove and admitted that it was sexual, not platonic or mentoring. Adams apologized Tuesday for lying and for pressuring Breedlove into lying, too, when the rumors about them first arose in 2007, early in the mayoral campaign. Adams...

One thing we seem to breed in Oregon are big political scandals, and the latest one is hitting Portland Mayor Sam Adams with gale force. Adams admitted to The Oregonian and Willamette Week Monday that he lied back in September of 2007 when he denied rumors that he had had a sexual relationship with a teenager who had been a legislative intern. Adams, who is openly gay, said that while he first met the intern, Beau Breedlove, when he was 17, the two did not have sex until after Breedlove turned 18. When rumors about the two first surfaced in...

Story Updated: Jan 19, 2009 at 5:25 PM PST By KATU.com Staff PORTLAND, Ore. - Newly sworn-in Mayor Sam Adams has admitted having a sexual relationship with a teenage intern he met in 2005, according to Willamette Week, a news partner of KATU. The paper said it spoke with Adams Monday afternoon while the mayor was in Washington D.C. In that interview, the paper reports, Adams said the relationship with Beau Breedlove lasted for a couple of months in 2005. Adams and Breedlove met in 2005 when Breedlove was 17 years old. Adams told Willamette Week the pair had a...

Mayor Sam Adams acknowledged today that he had a sexual relationship in 2005 with an 18-year-old man he had mentored. He said he lied when asked about it in 2007 and told the young man, Beau Breedlove, to lie about it, too. The revelations come nearly a year and a half after Adams and Breedlove insisted, in the weeks after rumors surfaced in summer 2007, that their relationship was strictly platonic. Adams, who is openly gay, said he had acted as a mentor to Breedlove, then 17, at a time when the legislative intern was struggling to come out of...

Rita Skeeter must be writing for The Oregonian these days. For those of you not familiar with the Harry Potter books, the Rita Skeeter character is a reporter who writes articles that are so thoroughly slanted towards a particular point of view that they contain very little truth (if any). It appears that since leaving The Daily Prophet, Rita Skeeter is now working and writing for The Oregonian under the pen name of Betsy Hammond. Portland's biggest newspaper published Hammond's article in their Sunday edition, titled In a Changing World, Portland remains overwhelmingly white, that is so full of libtarded...

Servers suffer as gratuities, and their incomes, plummet with the economyNobody is sitting at the rack at Mary’s Club on a Friday afternoon. The rack is the counter that lines the stage at Mary’s, an institution among Portland strip clubs, at 129 S.W. Broadway Ave. Customers who sit at the rack, up close to the dancers, are expected to tip dollar bills or more throughout the performances. In fact, there’s a sign in Mary’s Club that reads, “If you’re watching and not tipping, you’re stealing.” But it’s easier to watch and not tip from seats further back or at the...

Still seeking to out lib the liberal Mecca’s of San Francisco and Seattle, Portland, Oregon is home to a class of professional protesters who live only to protest. Nothing energizes these moonbats more than the United States defending itself or fighting those who seek our total destruction. It should come as no surprise that once again, the malcontents that have infested Portland are seeking to make Portland a Sanctuary City where those who desert the obligation they volunteered for in our Military can come to when they need a safe place to live. The anti-war ilk in Portland desire the...

Activists from several peace groups will go before the Portland City Council today seeking support for making Portland a sanctuary for military resisters -- service members who have gone AWOL to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They hope the City Council will instruct police officers to ignore federal arrest warrants if they make a traffic stop of a soldier absent without leave. The activists say such a stance is backed by the city's formal opposition to the Iraq war. And, they say, it's in line with the city's withdrawal from the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force as well...

PORTLAND -- Students are trying to get a Portland school re-named after President-elect Barack Obama. Portland Public Schools was already in the process of re-naming the school currently known as “Clark K-8 at Binnsmead School” and a naming committee is working on a list of suggestions that the public will eventually vote on. But after the November election, some of the students got the idea to throw Obama’s name into the ring. A couple of people have e-mailed the school, suggesting it be named after the new American leader and Willamette Week was even reporting that students at the school...

The presidential campaign got a little too hot for two Portland men who were arrest early Saturday morning, Oct. 11, and charged with burning a John McCain campaign sign in Southeast Portland. Portland Fire and Rescue investigators said the two men made a Molotov cocktail and threw it at the sign in the 7900 block of Southeast 17th Avenue. Leslie Brockette Leudtke, 23, and Kevin Carl Robinson, 23, were held on at least eight felony charges of making a destructive device and possession of a destructive device. Leudtke also was charged with reckless burning.

Portland police are testing a high-tech camera system that rivals anything in a science fiction movie. It can reach back in time and track your movements across the city — and even produce photos of your previous locations. But — while some are raising Big Brother civil liberties questions about the concept — the police promise they will only use it to solve crimes, like finding stolen cars or locating wanted criminals. The system features a series of cameras that mount on patrol cars that automatically read and photograph the license plates of all passing vehicles — including those parked...

Brian Williams says "there are real concerns the Portland Press Herald might not be around much longer ... another victim of the web and our changing times." Watch Janet Shamlian's report. || Earlier: Press Herald publisher says closing of paper not likely.

Two weeks after federal agents raided the largest Iranian charity in Oregon, employees at Child Foundation have regained possession of their seized cell phones and fax machines. But the feds are still holding the charity’s computers and remaining silent about the reasons behind a raid that’s alarmed Iranians locally and on the Internet after bloggers published WW’s account of the raid (see “Mystery Raid,” WW, July 23, 2008). Online comments ranged from fear of an Orwellian crackdown on Iranian-Americans to speculation about whether Child Foundation was violating tightened U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. “I would like the Iranian-American community…to follow...

Recently I saw two movies that attacked the controversial Wal-mart department store. A PBS documentary called Is Wal-Mart good for America? And Wal-Mart the high cost of low price an independent movie about Wal-mart and the Walton family. I also visited wakeupwalmart.com for more info this article is a refutation on most of the BS that appeared on the two documentaries. First of all we need to ask ourselves why "Wal-Mart is under ferocious attack by the left?" Wal-Mart delivers well on its promise of low prices to Americans. Being a resident of one of the poorest and liberal states...

PORTLAND, Maine — Poor John McCain. Tonight was supposed to be republican presidential hopeful's night in southern Maine. A chance to make a blue state — Maine has voted for a democrat for president in the last four elections — a red one. But Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz, among a handful of the most popular human beings who reside in New England, needed to get some at-bats about five miles to the north at Hadlock Field, home of the Red Sox Double-A affiliate Portland Sea Dogs. And with Ortiz followed all of the local sportscasters, news anchors and...

Portland, Oregon, possibly vying to be the most liberal city on the west coast, recently set up a day labor site for American employers to come and hire Illegal Immigrants looking for work (here and here) The site opened for “business” Monday, June 16, 2008, with little initial interest from local employers, shy of possible media exposure. The second day brought a little interest and a local man protesting the city of Portland encouraging Illegal Activity within city limits. He called the Victoria Taft Radio Program this evening to report that for sitting on the curb in the driveway, holding...

A group of teenagers on a MAX train robbed some recent high school graduates from Boise who were on a road trip to Portland, police said. Police arrested Alan Jamerson, a 17-year-old described in court papers as the ringleader in the Wednesday robbery. He was charged with four counts of second-degree robbery and appeared in court today. Three other suspects, ages 13, 15 and 16, were taken to juvenile detention on robbery charges. The teenagers from Boise were waiting at the Overlook Park platform in North Portland and told police that 10 to 15 young men started to harass them....

Metro doesn't dismiss a Portland-to-Vancouver "mega-bridge" with up to 12 lanes A divided Metro Council on Thursday endorsed building a new Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River that will extend light-rail transit into Vancouver from Portland, require tolls to cross and have room for pedestrians and bicyclists. The 5-2 decision, after a six-hour public hearing, did not specify how many lanes the bridge should have. Rather, it established Metro's position on what may be the region's costliest public works project in a generation. Also, it rejected a proposal to back off from what critics called an unnecessary "mega-bridge" solution....

The activist pleads guilty in two arsons and will serve at the Sheridan federal prisonTre Arrow, a radical environmentalist who was once one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of arson. Appearing before U.S. District Judge James Redden, Arrow agreed to serve to 78 months in federal prison, with credit for time served since March 2004 in jails in Canada and the United States. Arrow, who will be formally sentenced Aug. 12, will serve about two years and four months at the Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution. His sentence could be further reduced by 54 days...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Radical environmentalist Tre Arrow on Tuesday pleaded guilty to arson charges as part of a deal with prosecutors that will keep him behind bars for more than two years. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, was charged with firebombing three cement trucks at Ross Island Sand & Gravel in Portland and setting fire to logging trucks and a tractor near Estacada. On his Web site, the 34-year-old said recently he did not want to risk receiving a life prison sentence and called the plea deal an offer he "couldn't refuse." On Tuesday, he entered...

A hip rock band that features the Soviet national anthem and communist-inspired lyrics was on stage to open for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at his record-breaking Portland, Ore., rally that attracted 75,000. The Decemberists, a Portland-based group with a large local following, also closed the May 18 event. The Decemberists typically begin their concerts with a Russian-language recording of the USSR's national anthem. A YouTube video shows the Decemberists beginning an April 31, 2007, concert at Messiah College in Grantham, Pa., with the anthem.

Councilman Sam Adams easily won the Portland mayoral race, making this city the largest in the U.S. to ever elect an openly gay mayor. Adams avoided a November runoff, with 58 percent of the votes after more than 80 percent of the ballots were counted Tuesday night. Businessman Sho Dozono had 34 percent and almost a dozen minor candidates split the rest. Adams, 44, said his main goals are improving the economy, reducing the dropout rate in schools and preparing for an influx of people to the region

I 'm with Joyce Kilmer -- "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree." I'm even with city Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who recently waxed poetical before the Portland City Council on the "incredible" "show-stopping" trees growing in Portland. But before I could recall the last lines of Kilmer's poem -- "Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree!" -- Saltzman went on to say something that's creepy and chilling: "It sometimes pains me to think that we have no ability to control their destiny -- that a private...

If the British and French can design and build spectacular bridges at a modest or at least reasonable cost, why can’t we? Or maybe we can, but we haven’t tried it lately, at least not in Oregon. The question comes up because Peter DeFazio, our man in Washington, is chairman of the highways and transit subcommittee in the U.S. House. His committee will write the next highway bill, probably by the end of 2009. And when DeFazio led his colleagues on a fact-finding trip to Europe, he saw the viaduct at Millau. It’s the most spectacular bridge he has ever...

Funerals are emotional enough without red-tinged liquid pooling underneath the casket. That’s what the survivors of an 84-year-old Portland woman said they witnessed, and they claimed the image forever tainted what should have been a celebration of a wonderful life. Jean McCurdy described her mother’s last days as peaceful, with her slipping away as the last of her five daughters rushed to her bedside. "My sister from Florida had only been there about a half-hour, and she went into a coma," she told News 8. Days later, at Portland’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the gathering to celebrate Helen Glazier’s...

Should the city of Portland change the name of N. Interstate Ave. to Cesar Chavez Boulevard?

by Steven ErteltLifeNews.com EditorAugust 31, 2007McMinnville, OR (LifeNews.com) -- Planned Parenthood has caused a national stir with a new abortion center in Aurora, Illinois that it built under the table without the public knowing until the last minute. The abortion business is preparing a new center in Oregon that is already drawing significant opposition because it will target college students.Planned Parenthood has already upset pro-life advocates and African Americans in Portland by choosing to build an abortion center in a predominantly black community.Now the abortion business is headed for McMinnville, a city southwest of Portland that is the home to...

Though many people consider Portland, Ore., a model of 21st-century urban planning, the region's integrated land-use and transportation plans have greatly reduced the area's livability. To halt urban sprawl and reduce people's dependence on the automobile, Portland's plans use an urban-growth boundary to greatly increase the area's population density, spend most of the region's transportation funds on various rail transit projects, and promote construction of scores of high-density, mixed-use developments, says Randal O'Toole, a senior fellow with the Cato Institute. When judged by the results rather than the intentions, the costs of Portland's planning far outweigh the benefits, explains O'Toole:...

DUI plea - A murder suspect disclosed his illegal status in court last year, but officials never acted Authorities had clear reason to suspect Alejandro Emeterio Rivera Gamboa was in the United States illegally nine months before he was accused of slaying 15-year-old Dani Countryman. On Nov. 13, 2006, Rivera Gamboa pleaded guilty to two counts of drunken driving. He also disclosed that he was not a U.S. citizen and signed a plea agreement that read, in part: "I understand that if I am not a citizen of the United States, a criminal conviction could cause me to be deported,...

Town hall meeting - Sen. Ron Wyden takes heat for Congress not bringing the troops home Although few senators can match U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden's long record opposing the war in Iraq, it didn't protect him from being thoroughly roasted Tuesday by angry anti-war activists at a town hall meeting in Portland. The noontime event at Portland State University attracted more than 300 people, many of whom charged that the Oregon Democrat hasn't done enough to end the war. The senator was also repeatedly verbally flayed for not supporting the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "Do...

PORTLAND - Two bicyclists collided Sunday, leaving one with life-threatening injuries. Police say this two-bike crash was not related to the bridge pedal event that was going on at the time. The riders were two white men in their 50s. A 56-year-old was riding his bicycle southbound on the sidewalk in the area of Southeast 11 Avenue and Southeast Stark Street, when he collided with a 52-year-old riding eastbound through a parking lot near the intersection. The 56-year old was transported to a local hospital with what appeared to be life-threatening injuries. The 52-year-old was not injured. Police said both...

If you're in downtown Portland after business hours and you have to use a restroom -- come on over to the Mayor's place. Now, as part of the Mayor's Street Access for Everyone, known as SAFE, the first floor of City Hall's restrooms will be open overnight. Mayor Tom Potter said the program will increase downtown livability. "What we're trying to do is make it better not only for homeless people but for all people in Portland," said Mayor Potter. The new hours, from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. are expected to be in place by August second. Currently, City...

Radio talk show host Lars Larson wants to know if you think it’s appropriate to display this anti-American “art” at the tax-funded Portland Airport: IMAGE Christian-bashing? Check. Anti-gun message? Check. Anti-war zealotry? Check. Anti-capitalism symbolism? Check. American flag mockery? Check. I agree with Lars: This should not hang in a public space. Michael Moore’s living room? Nancy Pelosi’s beach house? Fine. But in a publicly-subsidized airport? No. What’s next: A display of the soldier burnt in effigy in Portland earlier this spring? Or how about the flag that was defecated upon by a Portland peacenik at the anti-war rally? Contact...

 Mayor Potter’s statement on arrests Tuesday (6/12) by immigration & customs enforcement officers (June 12, 2007)   “I am angered by this morning’s arrest by federal officers of approximately 150 Portland residents who were working at a local produce company.   “I certainly understand why federal officials executed criminal warrants against three individuals who stole and sold Social Security numbers. But to go after local workers who are here to support their families while filling the demands of local businesses for their labor is bad policy. It also serves as a reminder of the failure of our national leaders...