July 2010
11 posts
Court Under Roberts Is Most Conservative in... →
Chief Justice [John] Roberts has not served nearly as long as his three most recent predecessors. The court he leads has been in flux. But five years of data are now available, and they point almost uniformly in one direction: to the right.
Steady, if Not Flashy, Growth for Soccer in U.S. →
Obama Program to Help Prevent Foreclosures Falls... →
“It’s a simple recommendation that we made, that Treasury put forth how many people it truly expects to help stay in their houses through permanent modifications,” Mr. Barofsky told members of the Senate Finance Committee. “It’s a recommendation that all three of us on this panel have made to Treasury and that Treasury has ignored.”
Shocker.
“As long as there’s no fundamental change in the structure of Wall Street...”
– Robert Reich, Former U.S. Secretary of Labor, in a column titled “The New Finance Bill”
The Wall Street Reform Bill: How Much Did We Lose... →
This is a fantastic, and incredibly wonky, essay from U.S. Senator Ted Kaufman about the recently passed financial legislation. He discusses the good parts of the law, as well the significant items that were left out and could still bring down the entire world economy. Historians will want to refer to this article when the next financial crisis occurs — whether that is this year or in ten...
“It is a good step towards fixing some of the worst practices, most notably by...”
– Dean Baker, economist with the Center for Economic Policy and Research, commenting on today’s Senate passage of the financial regulation bill.
“We’re facing a coalition of the heartless, the clueless and the confused…...”
– Paul Krugman, “Punishing the Jobless”
Suburban high school teachers stretched thin, and... →
Good article on teacher to student ratios in Oregon schools. Here’s an interesting excerpt:
Only California and Arizona spread their high school teachers thinner… The generous compensation paid to Oregon educators, particularly health and retirement benefits, also helps explain why high schools can’t afford more teachers.
“For the last few months, I and others have watched, with amazement and horror,...”
– Paul Krugman from “Myths of Austerity”
Big Phone, Big Screen, Big Pleasure →
June 2010
28 posts
Farmworkers dare Americans to ‘Take Our Jobs!’ →
This is awesome. All those folks who think that immigrants (both legal and illegal) are taking jobs from hardworking Americans, can now go to a website to sign up for fieldwork. I’m sure there will be a ton of takers…
In Ireland, a Picture of the High Cost of... →
“When our public finance situation blew wide open, the dominant consideration was ensuring that there was international investor confidence in Ireland so we could continue to borrow,” said Alan Barrett, chief economist at the Economic and Social Research Institute of Ireland… Rather than being rewarded for its actions, though, Ireland is being penalized. Its downturn has certainly been...
Oregon salmon rated as "avoid" on Monterey Bay... →
Ohio 6-Year-Old Turns Up on Terror Watch List →
The father of a 6-year-old Ohio girl who turned up on the U.S. government’s terror watch list says the worst thing his daughter has ever done is probably been mean to her sister… Now they’ve received a letter from the government addressed to 6-year-old Alyssa, telling her that nothing in her file will be changed.
“He [Obama] trusts people too much. He trusted Wall Street. He trusted the...”
– Eliot Spitzer on CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS” (6/27/10)
Billy Moore's family absorbs double tragedy of his... →
“Billy Moore was just a great kid,” said Bob Brandts, the activities director. “He was a kid who was trying to do his life right. He graduated from high school, got a job and was trying to help support his family.”
This is just so sad and so wrong.
New iPhone Arrives; Rivals, Beware →
“Salazar and M.M.S. [Minerals Management Service ] continued to give BP free rein...”
– Frank Rich from Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock.
Willamette Week Sources: Search for Kyron Horman... →
Willamette Week has learned that federal, county and city law-enforcement officials say the reason for the search of Sauvie Island is that cell-phone records reveal Kyron’s step-mother, Terri Moulton Horman, may have been on the island the day he disappeared… This information comes from five separate law-enforcement officials from agencies at the city, county and federal level… Four...
June is wettest on record in Portland -- and there... →
June has soaked through Portland’s record books. Rain continues to drench ballfields and bike riders, flood backyards and basements, shattering the precipitation record for the month. The total: 4.24 inches as of 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Faced with nightmarish weekend traffic jams, ODOT... →
Thank you! This was a complete mess-up by ODOT. I rarely drive my car but taking an hour to drive from downtown Portland to Jantzen Beach on a weekend (trying to support some businesses) is not acceptable.
Drug-Testing Labs Getting Better At Spotting Fake... →
Labs have moved on to test for other chemicals you’d expect to find in real human urine, as well as smelling specimens and shaking them to see if they foam naturally.
Apple's Censorship: Bad for Customers, Worse for... →
Aiming at Rivals, Starbucks Will Offer Free Wi-Fi →
Starbucks has never offered unlimited free Internet access. Customers who bought and registered a Starbucks card and used it in the last month have been able to use the Web for two hours, after a somewhat complicated log-in process.
WatchCurrently the Senate and House are negotiating which provisions will exist in the final financial regulatory bill. Quite possibly, the most important provision being negotiated is the so-called “Volcker rule.” This video from Marketplace gives a great explanation of what the Volcker rule is and what it means to ban “proprietary trading.”
Soros Says ‘We Have Just Entered Act II’ of Crisis →
“The collapse of the financial system as we know it is real, and the crisis is far from over,” Soros said today at a conference in Vienna. “Indeed, we have just entered Act II of the drama.”
Portland leaves empty promises instead of... →
The tram was funded and built. The park and streetcar were funded and built, even though both projects — priorities for developers — had been scheduled to come after the first low-income apartments. “The excuse has been we don’t have the money,” Emmons said. “But we seem to have the money to do things we want to do. We want to build an aerial tram, we find...
American Apparel: Internal Documents Reveal Uglies... →
I had already heard about this from a former employee. Glad it’s being exposed.
Calif. Voting Change Could Signal Big Political... →
This same measure failed two years ago in Oregon. I wonder if it could pass now?
Legacy for One Billionaire: Death, but No Taxes →
Arizona Does It Again →
A group of artists has been asked to lighten the faces of children depicted in a giant public mural at a Prescott school.
May 2010
40 posts
California Patrol credits Oregon man with saving... →
The whole rig was engulfed in flames, and a few spectators had gathered at the top of the embankment, just watching the fire. “I just said, ‘Oh, my God!’,” Hammons said. “There could have been a family trapped in there.”
$100 Laptop Project Switches to Tablets →
Former Portland Trail Blazer Brian Grant launches... →
WatchDiving straight into the oil and chemicals in the Gulf…
“Alaskan Palin conservatism: big government socialism, masked by pioneer...”
– The Palin Brand (via matasar)
Soldier in Iraq Loses Home Over $800 Debt →
Wow.
Initiative in California Would Change How It Votes →
Washington State already has the “top 2” primary system but Oregon defeated a similar measure in 2008.
New King of Technology: Apple Overtakes Microsoft →
Apple Is Said to Face Inquiry About Online Music →
The Senate should override Jim DeMint and limit... →