Portland, as well as other cities throughout the region, has had an ongoing problem with predatory tow truck operators. Ostensibly, they are providing a service to private parking lot owners in enforcing parking restrictions within the parking lots of businesses and apartment complexes. The main problem with this situation is that the individual drivers are [...]
Another week has gone by — it’s time to go over a few of the stories that made it more colorful: Supporters of the University of Washington Football Team are behind a plan to spend $300 million on renovating the 88-year-old Husky Stadium. Half of the money would be raised by the University from among [...]
In the US, we are fascinated with the private lives of our elected officials. It is probably healthy that we have a curiosity in such matters. When this curiosity becomes the means with which we try to drive those officials out of office, it becomes a serious problem. This problem has come up again, this [...]
I’m looking forward to it. You’re looking forward to it. We are all going to watch the Obama Inauguration and we will have a better view of it on television than all of those suckers standing in the cold. In a crowd. In a crowd so large that the folks in the back will be [...]
As we approach the time where Barack Obama finally gets to step up to the presidency, it is with joy that an era has ended, and joy that a new era is beginning. We are ending a time where the stage was set for economic and social failure. Indeed, we now have the opportunity to [...]
I am too young to have personally seen the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. In some ways, he changed the way Americans dealt with race relations during his time. More importantly, he and others like him laid the foundation for us to change our thinking on the subject over generations. In honor of the [...]
This week I am starting a project that I have wanted to do for a while. There are lots of stories out there that I would like to comment on, but don’t quite seem to measure up to needing a whole blog entry at the time. Besides, I wanted a way to make sure I [...]
You know, I couldn’t have made this up if I tried. I get a relentless amount of e-mail from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). While I agree with a lot of the things their organization talks about, sometimes they do something that just leaves a person asking “What’s that about?” and [...]
We have known for a long time that the newspaper industry is in decline. Newspapers, large and small, have been cutting their staffs and the size of their print publications for several years now. Despite the fact that the presence of competing media is good for the quality of journalism, it is looking like Seattle [...]
As the legislators in both Washington and Oregon are beginning their sessions this week, our leaders are being faced with some difficult choices to make. Because of the recession’s effects on the economy, we have fewer dollars to spend on the services that we require or are used to receiving from government. At the same [...]
