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- Oregon Capitol News suspends publication
To our readers: Effective immediately, Oregon Capitol News is suspending publication. For more than two years, the OCN news team has been reporting on stories from the state capitol and other places where elected officials affect our lives. They also built one of the nation’s premier government transparency websites (GovDocs) and investigated many stories of poor financial management in the public sector. It has been a privilege to provide this service, and we hope you are better informed as a result. - Starr heads off against Avakian in race to be Oregon’s labor commissioner
SALEM, Ore.- With around 100 employees, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) handles several different issues involving businesses of all types and the people who work for them. Yet, many people have never heard of the agency and are unfamiliar with what it does.The non-partisan, statewide race for labor commissioner has drawn two candidates: incumbent Brad Avakian and Sen. Bruce Starr, R-Hillsboro. - Court of Appeals releases report stating a need for more judges
SALEM, Ore.- Chief Judge David Brewer of the Oregon Court of Appeals released the Annual Court of Appeals Report Wednesday morning, stressing a need in the court for more judges.“Even though for more than 90 percent of appellate litigants the Court of Appeals has the final word in their case, no new judges have been added to the Court in 35 years,” wrote Brewer. - Race for the Legislature: House District 48
SALEM, Ore.- Portland resident Jeff Reardon was really looking forward to a peaceful retirement after his last year of teaching at David Douglas High School. But instead, the Vietnam veteran has decided to take on Rep. Mike Schaufler, D-Happy Valley, in the House District 48 Democratic primary.Schaufler has served in the Oregon House of Representatives since 2003. Prior to that, he was on the Happy Valley City Council from 1997 to 2000. - Race for the Legislature: Senate District 29
SALEM, Ore.- Republican voters in Oregon Senate District 29 have two candidates to choose from in the May 15 primary election: Umatilla County Commissioner Bill Hansell and business owner Maryl Featherstone.SD 29 has been represented by Sen. David Nelson, R-Pendleton, who has decided to retire from the legislature. - Race for the Legislature: House District 36
SALEM, Ore.- Three Democrats are vying for their party’s nomination for Oregon House District 36, which includes Southwest Portland and part of its downtown area.The seat is currently held by Rep. Mary Nolan, D-Portland, who is running for a seat on the Portland City Council.
- Man, woman injured in Sellwood house fire
A man and woman were slightly injured in Saturday morning fire that damaged their Sellwood home.The husband and wife were treated for smoke inhalation at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center.The fire was reported at about 9:58 a.m. at 1136 S.E. Bidwell St. Portland Fire and Rescue firefighters from … - Police don’t suspect foul play after body found in front of house
The man found dead Friday night in front of a Southeast Clinton Street residence was identified Saturday as 43-year-old Mark Calloway.The state medical examiner has performed an autopsy and is awaiting toxicology results before determining why Calloway died. Portland police said there were no … - Argument on basketball court led to 36th gang shooting
A 20-year-old man injured in a Friday evening shooting was the 36th victim of gang violence this year.Portland police said Marquis Glover of Northeast Portland was shot several times but is expected to survive the injuries.Police said Glover was playing basketball at Rice Elementary … - Two teens held after man assaulted on MAX train
Portland police are investigating the beating of a 57-year-old man on a TriMet MAX train Friday afternoon.Police said the victim was not seriously injured in the attack. Two young men, ages 15 and 16, were arrested on charges connected with the disturbance.The incident began shortly before 5 … - Police union appeals Frashour decision
The Portland Police Association has appealed Mayor Sam Adams’ decision not to rehire Police Officer Ron Frashour.Adams is disregarding a state arbitrator’s ruling to rehire Frashour. Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese fired Frashour for violating bureau protocols when he shot Aaron Campbell in the … - Portland firm gets Chicago bike-sharing contract
Portland’s Alta Bicycle Share Inc. will launch an $18 million bike-sharing project in Chicago this summer.Members of the Chicago City Council’s Committee on Traffic and Pedestrian Safety decided Friday to award a five-year contract to operate the city’s program to the Portland …
- Oregonian Retracts Erroneous Column About Mary Nolan
Newspapers make mistakes all the time and regularly correct those mistakes. But the corrective step The Oregonian took today is fairly unusual: The daily deleted free-lance columnist Dave Lister’s April 12 column slamming State Rep. Mary Nolan (D-Portland).
Nolan is in a contentious race for Portland City Council against incumbent Commissioner Amanda Fritz. It’s worth noting that Lister’s column ran one week after The O endorsed Fritz.
Here’s what the daily published this morning:
Freelance opinion writer Dave Lister’s Thursday column about state Rep. Mary Nolan’s bid for Amanda Fritz’s Portland City Council seat contained numerous errors about Nolan’s campaign donors.
The column has been deleted, and the following correction was published April 14 in Commentary and online:
Dave Lister’s column on Thursday (“Generous backers dwarf community funding,” Commentary, April 12) implied that several campaign donors were supporting state Rep. Mary Nolan’s bid for Portland City Council. In fact, most of the donors listed — Comcast, Portland General Electric, Oregon Trial Lawyers Association, Motorola, Walmart, Philip Morris and the Oregon Forest Industries Council PAC — had donated to prior legislative campaigns, not Nolan’s city race. Donating to Nolan’s council bid were Portland Metro Fire Fighters PAC, $20,000; Local 189 Oregon AFSCME, $5,000; and the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, $1,000.
Additionally, since she declared July 5, Nolan has raised more than $239,000 in campaign money, according to filings with the Oregon Secretary of State’s office. Lister’s column gave incorrect numbers.
Finally, the column may have implied Walmart had difficulty siting new Portland stores. Walmart has applied for a permit and plans to build a store at Hayden Meadows. - Willamette Weekend
Friday, April 13Alcest, Amber Asylum, Eight Bells, Anne[MUSIC] Although blunted black metal spikes do occasionally pierce the diaphanous haze of Alcest’s most recent album, Les Voyages de l’Âme, they are but tastefully applied adornments to a ranging, frequently epic sound. Alcest mastermind Neige (Stéphane Paut to his parents), late of Peste Noire and Amesoeurs, arrives at blastbeat catharsis only after traveling through vast post-rock soundscapes, shoegaze drifts and even brief stretches of cheeseball balladry. It’s not an immediately gripping listen, but Les Voyages de l’Âme’s twilit evocation of mossy caverns and drippy crypts and other Romantic spaces rewards patience and perseverance. Sit back and let it swallow you. CHRIS STAMM. Someday Lounge, 125 NW 5th Ave. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
TurkkuSex Contest[SEX] TurkkuSex, “northern Europe’s largest sex festival,” is hosting a local competition to find Portland’s most talented erotic performer with the TurkkuSex International Stripsearch. One lucky entertainer (ladies only!) will win a cash prize and a trip to Finland to perform at TurkkuSex 2012. Expect stiff competition. Dante’s, 350 W Burnside St., 226-6630. 9 pm. $10. 21+.
Opera Theater Oregon
[FILM, MUSIC] The innovative little company with the big ideas continues its increasingly ambitious and improbable mashups of film and opera, this time with a rarely screened silent 1920 version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde that stars the great Shakespearean stage actor John Barrymore. Tenor Daniel Buchanan, pianist Douglas Schneider, percussionist Ian Kerr and flutist Jayde Weide will improvise their way to a new soundtrack using music from John Adams’ acclaimed 2005 opera Doctor Atomic, about nuclear scientist Robert Oppenheimer. Mission Theater, 1624 NW Glisan St., 223-4527. 7 pm. $9-$12.
Saturday, April 14
Bridgetown Comedy Festival
[COMEDY] This weekend, the Bridgetown Comedy Festival will bring more than 200 comedians to nine venues along Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard. That’s a lot of funny people. Thursday-Sunday, April 12-15. $70-$150 festival passes, $10-$30 single shows. Full schedule and tickets at bridgetowncomedy.com.Soul’d Out Festival: Curtis Salgado[MUSIC] Blues is one of the few genres of music in which an artist can hit his or her stride around what would normally be considered retirement age. At 58 years old, Portland’s Curtis Salgado is ramping up to his prime: New disc Soul Shot, his debut for the seminal Alligator label, is among his best-produced outings to date. The disc features Salgado’s able band blasting through blues, soul and funk cuts, but it also features a number of notable contributions from artists like legendary Latin percussionist Lenny Castro and Pleasure/Dazz Band alum Marlon McClain. Jimmy Mak’s, 221 NW 10th Ave. 9 pm. $20 advance, $25 day of show. 21+.Best of the Northwest Filmmakers’ Festival[FILM] The NW Film Center pulls together a highlight reel from the shorts it screened last fall. The best by a country mile is Basin, David Geiss’ ominous, wordless travelogue of Alberta’s oil sands. Images of factories shooting flames into the sky make Canada look like Mordor. The longer, dramatic features don’t resonate as deeply (though Woman Waiting tries damned hard to suffocate you in economic despond), and the overwhelming memory from this omnibus is of skittering stop-motion: unspooling cassette tapes in Strands, screen prints in Old-Time Film, and the time-lapse rain forest of Kurtis Hough’s placid giant-slug doc, Mossgrove. What kind of slugs are they? I don’t know. Big-ass slugs. NW Film Center’s Whitsell Auditorium. 7 pm Friday-Saturday, April 13-14.
Sunday, April 15
North by Northwest[FILM] North by Northwest is not a suspense film, though those remembering the oft-homaged cropdusting attack and the climactic melee atop Mount Rushmore can be forgiven for remembering it as such. Those scenes are iconic. But they’re also kind of stupid. So is NxNW, and that’s the point. When most of us remember Hitch, we forget the master of suspense was also a cut-up, and the fourth and final pairing of Hollywood’s greatest director and its greatest star is a gas from front to back, a mistakenidentity caper in which Cary Grant plays Cary Grant on a train-hopping adventure that serves as an excuse to watch the man crack wise in nice suits and romance a dame half his age. The charm of the whole goofy affair is augmented by Eva Marie Saint oozing sexuality, and amazing turns by James Mason and Martin Landau, who play it straight as the film’s villains and score by layering nuance on top of stereotypical scumbaggery. AP KRYZA. Fifth Avenue Cinema, 510 SW Hall St. 7 pm, 9:30 pm Friday-Saturday, April 13-14; 3 pm Sunday, April 15.Guitar Wolf, The Transistors, Mean Jeans[MUSIC] In Japanese music culture, imitation truly is the sincerest form of flattery. Over there, bands are judged less by artistic innovation than by how accurately they mimic their chosen Western source material. In the case of Nagasaki’s Guitar Wolf, the band has been pulling off a pretty great Ramones impression going on 25 years now. Wrapped in leather jackets that never seem to come off, the group basically put its collective head down in 1987 and charged through the proceeding two decades, releasing a dozen albums of dirt-simple punk rock. Even the death of its original bassist in 2005 barely slowed the band down. Its shows play out the same way its career has: loud and fast, with hardly any pauses in the action. Hawthorne Theatre, 3862 SE Hawthorne Blvd. 8 pm. $13.50 advance, $15 day of show. 21+. - Judge’s Remedy In Yogi Case Lets ‘Shady Dealings’ Stand, For Now
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Plaintiffs in a convoluted lawsuit involving the last wishes of a charismatic religious leader have posted a draft copy of a proposed judicial remedy in the dispute.
Multnomah County Circuit Judge Leslie Roberts had previously ruled against the defendants in the case, who included a splinter group of Oregon followers of a group called Sikh Dharma. After the death of their spiritual leader, Yogi Bhajan, the defendants took control of the sect’s nearly $1 billion corporate and non-profit empire and began enriching themselves while cutting out the group’s New Mexico-based religious leaders.
WW laid out the details of the case in a cover story last summer.
The judge’s remedy would leave the defendants in positions of legal authority but render them personally liable for misappropriated funds. It also addresses an unresolved question, tangential to the lawsuit itself but central to WW‘s reporting: The true last wishes of Yogi Bhajan.
Roberts’ draft opinion on remedies notes that the corporate structure established after Bhajan’s death may have been based on invalid or fraudulent documents, as alleged by the plaintiffs.
“The private plaintiffs may be very correct that all is not as it seems with the corporate documents,” Roberts writes.The court noted the highly suspicious chain of events whereby the controlling corporate documents for [Unto Infinity an umbrella company set up after Bhajan's death] were amended and amended again in final days of Yogi Bhajan’s life, supposedly at his direction, notwithstanding he was incoherent and often highly drugged during this period according to the credible testimony of his attending physician. It was difficult to comprehend why, if all these amendments had been ordered at the beginning of October 2004 (the approval having been witnesses and attested to only by a single individual who was favored by the changes), none were recorded until significantly after the fact; and when recorded, they were recorded at intervals in the order of execution, such that each of the first two was already superceded when at last they were recorded, by a document stil unecorded until several months after the death of the Yogi Bhajan.
In short, Roberts says the question of whether the Yogi’s last wishes were forged or falsified deserves to be resolved, but that it must be resolved elsewhere.
There is no satisfactory explanation, as well, for [Portland attorney] Roy Lambert’s contradictory statements identifying a Yogi Bhajan appointed [successor corporate] board, and subsequently denying he had received any list of [successor corporation] designated directors form Yogi Bhajan.
However, the allegations of the complaint and the basis upon which this litigation ultimately came to trial, and the issues litigated, were not directed to a remedy for what may have been shady dealings with the corporate documents, but to the misapplication of assets impressed with a trust. - Ninkasi to Brew Out Yonder
On the heels of a big festival celebrating the confluence of beer and music—the daylong Malt Ball that paired local bands with their brew counterparts—Eugene-based Ninkasi reveals it will brew a exclusive light,summer ale for the Annual String Summit.
Thefour-day twang-fest featuring bluegrass, folk, and jam bands is alwaysheadlined by Yonder Mountain String Band. Notonly does the brewery return as a sponsor, but along with Cascadia Coffeehouse,Ninkasi Brewery presents the Northwest Local Stage reserved for dozens of local artists.
Publicist Jesse Cutler says that, starting June 1, Ninkasi will be distributing four-pack summer beer samplerswith an insert CD compilation featuring tracks from Yonder and other Summiters.Included will be a discount voucher for the fest. Whether members of the bandwill come in to help brew the one-off beer is unclear (and unlikely), butCutler notes, “They’re big craft beer geeks.”
The String Summit is August 9-12 in at Horning’s Hideoutin North Plains, located a half hour west of Portland off Hwy 26. Advancefour-day passes are currently $155 and jump to $190 at the gate.
In other news…
Of course, there are myriad brewfests before August. Hereare the local ones remaining this month:
April 21 is Portland’sCheers to Belgian Beers, where some 40 breweries concoct a unique beer brewed with a high gravityCanadian/Belgian ale yeast (as selected by the people’s choice winner(s) of theprevious year which, this year, means Hopworks Urban Brewery, and furtherdetermined by a dart throw. Yes, literally, the brewer’s throw of a dart todetermine factors like luvibond (color). Very few darts landed in the lightzone, so when you go to sample these Belgian classics, don’t be a friteof the dark.Eugene brewer 16 Tons operates both a taphouse and a cafe, with 18 and 12 taps respectively.To commemorate its second anniversary, it’s throwing Week of Wild Ales forthe second time, wherein wild and spontaneously fermented beers will spring from the collective 30 taps. Owner Mike Coplin says that starting the 23rd,look for rarities like Upright’s “El Coloquiode Cervantes,” a blend of Upright 6 and the elusive Upright 8 and then some,making it a barrel-aged dark rye saison with raspberries. Then over theweekend, Coplin says bottled sour adds the fray as 52 special bottles will comeout including Oakshire Skookumchuck,the Eugene brewery’s blend of wine-barrel aged wild ales. “If we kick a keg onone day, “ says Coplin of the weeklong fest analogous to Belmont Station’sPuckerfest, “we’ll replace with another wild beer.”April 27-28, the OregonGarden Brewfest returns for the eighth time to Silverton and few beer fests are held insuch a picturesque locale. Not So Professional Beer Blog went through the effort to list the nearly 100 beers (and ciders) that’ll betapped. - Mayoral Madness Finalist Gert Boyle Weighs In On the Real Race
The intrepid Aaron Mesh has been hunting down our Mayoral Madness semi-finalists in real life, ambushing them at their places of work with a flip cam and an unquenchable thirst for the truth. You can see his revealing interviews with legal eagle Jody Stahancyk and University of Portland soccer wunderkind Micaela Capelle here. Yesterday, he managed to pin down 87-year-old Columbia Sportswear big boss Gert Boyle for this candid phone interview:
Boyle has plenty of opinions on the city’s actual politics. Asked who she’d vote for in the real mayoral election, she replied: “Not the lady. And not Smith. So who’s left?”
That leaves Charlie Hales, Mesh said.
“Doesn’t it, though?” quipped Boyle.
In her own race, Boyle currently has 107 votes, to Timothy Hutton’s 1,320. You can vote for her here.
We’re coming for you next, Hutton. We know where you work (because Leverage trucks are taking up all the damn parking in the Pearl). - Kickstart my Heart: Constructing Super Mario Bros Level 1-1 Out of Lego
Kickstart my Heart is a semi-regular blog series on Portland Kickstarter projects we don’t hate.
If you’ve ever considered constructing the realm of your favorite childhood video game out of your favorite childhood toy, Portland artist Zachary Pollock is about to beat you to it—provided he can raise $26,400 to purchase 780,000 Lego bricks.
“By recreating level 1-1 of Super Mario Brothers in Lego bricks, this project trumps all of my other work by leaping to almost 780,000 Lego studs,” Pollock explains on his Kickstarter page. “No one that I am aware of has done a Lego mosaic on this scale before. Only a couple of people have done work with this number of bricks. The final project will stand over six feet tall and over 90 feet wide.”
Playing with Lego since he was a young boy in the ’80s, Pollock designed his first set at age 6 (for which he drew instructions and sent them to the Lego company). It was also the year that he received his first Nintendo console and was introduced to the world of Super Mario Brothers. Though he designed many more Lego sets through his teenage years, including a series of spy vehicles—“cars with hidden machine guns, and vans that opened up to reveal one man helicopters”—Pollock remained intrigued by the pixelated land of Mario.
A few years ago, while working on a series of cross-stitched Mario hand towels, the idea for the Lego mosaic came to life.
“While telling my friends about the hand towels, we began playing with the idea of doing what would be the equivalent of a television screen’s worth of the level in Lego,” Pollock explains. “From there it was an easy leap to creating the entire first level. To my knowledge no one has done the entire level before, and most of the mosaics of eight-bit characters don’t adhere to a one-brick-per-pixel ratio.”
But Pollock, who is currently working on his master’s degree in applied craft and design at PNCA, has more ambition behind the mosiac than just making something cool. He plans use the project as a means to test the potential for a foundation where he could work on Lego art with children in hospitals. “I will go in to the hospitals and work directly with the kids to get them excited about the project and work with them developing a project that they would like to build.”
With just under a month left on his Kickstarter campaign, Pollock is hoping to tap into the nostalgic Lego (and video game) lover in us all. “I think that there is something innate about our desire to create things, and Lego bricks offer a infinite number of possibilities to foster that creative need,” says Pollock.
He hopes to take the finished mosaic to the 2012 BrickCon expo in Seattle and possibly Comic-Con as well.
However, one very important decision remains: Where will Mario be in the mosaic, and will there be more than one?
“Mario has 28 different poses in the first level of the video game,” Pollock explains. “I will either include one of each of those all at once so that each panel of the project will have one Mario in it, or I will swap out the Mario models at different times during the duration of the display, so over time Mario will actually progress through the level, smashing bricks and stomping Goombas along the way.”
The project currently has $999 of its $26,400 goal. You have 26 days to pledge here.
- House fire causes extensive damage in Sellwood, requires additional crews
Flames traveling between the walls of the house and into its many concealed spaces made fighting the fire difficult, Simmons said. Three additional ladder trucks ultimately were called to provide additional support. - Families walk together with multiple sclerosis victims during annual Walk MS
The Portland walk is just one of many in the country this weekend, and there are several in the region, such as in Vancouver and Salem, next weekend. Walk MS is the largest fundraiser for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, which supports people with MS and their families. - Flash mob theft at Lloyd Center is second such incident in Portland in a little over a week
Portland police don’t have any suspects in the incidents in which teens stole items from Nordstrom at Lloyd Center and from a Chevron store in Southeast Portland April 7. - Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber waltzes through the first 16 months in office but the hard part is ahead
Oregon’s agenda is filled with politically contentious issues, including tax reform, prison sentencing and public employee benefits - Police investigate assault on MAX train, arrest two teenagers at Northeast 60th Avenue stop
Two male teenagers, ages 15 and 16, were arrested on charges related to the disturbance, police said. - Police identify dead body found in Southeast Portland
Mark Calloway, 43, was passed out in front of a Southeast Clinton Street home, police said.