News ripped from our cold dead hands.

[April 9th, 2008]

• Former Portland Police Lt. Jeff Kaer fought to get his job back at a five-day arbitration last week, after Mayor Tom Potter fired him last August for fatally shooting Dennis Young (“Brother in Arms,” WW, April 11, 2007). About 15 cops, experts and eyewitnesses to the 2006 shooting testified last week. “I think we made a very compelling argument,” says Portland Police Cmdr. Dave Benson, head of the command officers’ union backing Kaer. Potter blamed a series of poor decisions by Kaer in the officer’s shooting of the unarmed Young in a stolen car outside the Northeast Portland home of Kaer’s sister. A final decision is expected within 90 days.

• When the Legislature passed Senate Bill 10 last year, the sweeping ethics bill tightened rules governing lobbyists’ interactions with lawmakers. The measure banned entertainment, reclassified meals as gifts, reduced gift limits and required much more disclosure (see “Ethics Bomb,” WW, Dec. 19, 2007). That’s obviously complicated professional relationships between lawmakers and the lobby, as in the case of newly-divorced Rep. Larry Galizio (D-Tigard). He is dating Janice O’Malley, a lobbyist for AFSCME —one of Oregon’s three most powerful public employee unions. Galizio confirmed that he’s in a relationship with O’Malley, who runs AFSCME’s endorsement process. But he refused to say how SB 10’s many limits, disclosure requirements or bans affect him and O’Malley. “I’d be glad to discuss the substantive issues that affect my district but otherwise, I’m entitled to a private life,” Galizio says.

• Good news for the $34 million renovation of the state Capitol building in Salem: The project is on track for completion before the Nov. 1 end date and is about $3 million under budget, says Legislative Administrator Dave Henderson. The hitch: Workers have discovered a leaky roof and needed repairs around the governor’s balcony, which will use up about $1 million of the unused funds.

• Why wait until summer when gas is expected to hit $4 a gallon to feel rising oil prices? On April 9, the City Council will vote whether to increase taxi fares within Portland by 10 cents a mile. (The Council changes would end a 20-cents-per-mile fuel surcharge, but raise the base meter rate by 30 cents from $2 to $2.30 per mile.) The city’s taxi board recommended the hike, which is likely to pass after talk about how cabbies aren’t making any money yet enduring so much shit (see “Night Cabbie,” Page 67).

• Political season is adding oomph to a union’s boycott of the Portland Hilton Hotel & Executive Tower downtown over the lack of a new contract for about 275 workers (see “Pillow Fight,” Jan. 9, 2008). Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton stayed instead at the Benson when they came to town recently. And if there’s not a signed union contract by April 15, the state D’s have told the Hilton they will schedule no campaign events there this year. Trent Lutz, Democratic Party of Oregon executive director, says that alone could cost the Hilton $600,000 based on previous election-year hotel tabs. So far, UNITE HERE Local 9 says 10 events have been cancelled and at least 15 scheduled elsewhere.

• All they’re saying is give peace a chance, as in a Department of Peace. That’s the goal of activists this weekend (April 11-13) at a regional meeting at Vancouver’s Red Lion Inn to discuss a federal peace department. The proposed department is the subject of a bill in Congress that has 69 sponsors, including Oregon Democratic Reps. David Wu and Peter DeFazio. And Candy Neville, running in Oregon’s Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, is all for the department. Still, some peace activists are firing on the notion. Tom Hastings, professor of conflict resolution at Portland State University, calls the proposal “mostly symbolic” unless there’s more funding to go with the idea. For more details of the conference, go to peak.org/~innercom/ORSDOPC.html.