Sanity Amid The Madness.

COGEN (left) AND BARKER (right)
  1. Portland Public Schools is preparing for the possibility Mayor Sam Adams will secure a new development deal that includes the school district’s headquarters. As part of Adams’ broad vision for redesigning the Rose Quarter, the mayor has expressed interest in a new use for the district building just north of the Rose Quarter. The Portland Development Commission, under the direction of the mayor, is studying new options for the site. On Monday, PPS inked a $25,000 contract with Macadam Forbes Inc., a commercial real-estate firm that would evaluate any possible deals coming out of that study.
  1. State lawmakers are quick to suggest piling additional penalties on sex offenders—as evidenced by a recent proposal to eliminate the six-year statute of limitations on sex crimes (destined to be called Goldschmidt’s law if it passes). Then there’s their response to Rep. Jeff Barker’s House Bill 3065, which proposes expanding the scope of official misconduct by public employees to reclassify certain misdemeanors as felonies: The bill sponsored by Barker (D-Aloha) gets a hearing March 21 in the House Judiciary Committee, but he’s not hearing much interest in holding public employees to that higher standard. 
  1. Antiwar groups will hold a 1 pm rally this Saturday, March 19, at Pioneer Courthouse Square to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Organizers of the demonstration on the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq hope for a crowd of up to 2,000 protesters. The protest will highlight the links between “the problems of the economy with these long-term occupations overseas,” according to Dan Handelman of Peace and Justice Works, one of the event’s organizers.
  1. Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen reported a $2,500 contribution to Clackamas County Citizens for Jobs and Safety, which supports levying a $5 annual car-registration fee on county residents to help fund a new Sellwood Bridge. That group has raised about $25,000 so far for a May ballot fight brought on by opponents who got enough signatures to refer to the ballot the registration fee imposed by Clackamas County’s Board of Commissioners. The fee’s foes call themselves Clackamas County First and have reported only about $600 in contributions so far.
  1. U.S. Gold & Silver Investments, a Portland company in business since 1972, posted a disturbing notice on its website and stopped answering its phone recently. “The current economic situation in the U.S. has been devastating for many small business and ours is no exception,” the notice says. “We are currently not accepting new clients and are working hard to resolve current clients’ accounts.” Because the company is not registered as an investment adviser, it’s hard to know how much client money is at stake. Martin Meyers, an attorney for company owner Lawrence Heim, declined comment, and Heim was unreachable.

WWeek 2015

Willamette Week’s reporting has concrete impacts that change laws, force action from civic leaders, and drive compromised politicians from public office. Support WW's journalism today.