Murmurs: Pot 'n' Poultry

1. The man behind pdxmugshots.com—a site that posts booking photos and charges their subjects $39 to remove them—has identified himself. Portlander Kyle Ritter, 35, also runs pdxbars.com and previously worked at Barflymag.com. After WW’s story last week (“Mug Shot Profiteers,” WW, Aug. 24, 2011), sources identified Ritter as the main operator. He confirmed his identity to Portland blogger Jack Bogdanski; previously he had given interviews to other media outlets, identifying himself only as “Barry.” Ritter’s company, KA Marketing, runs similar sites in several cities. As our story went to press last week, the sites apparently disabled their pay-for-removal feature. Ritter declined to say whether the decision to stop charging people to have their mug shots removed is permanent.

1. Kathleen Cambron, owner of Wake n Bake Cannabis Lounge in Aloha, pleaded guilty last week to two counts of selling marijuana—the first prosecution of an Oregon medical-marijuana dispensary owner. Cambron appeared in a January cover story (“Weed, the People,” WW, Jan. 12, 2011) that described how the “irrepressibly cheerful ex-financial officer” had transformed a former reptile rescue facility into a medical-marijuana exchange pushing the boundaries of the state’s medical-marijuana law. The Washington County Sheriff’s Office raided Wake n Bake in June after U.S. Attorney Dwight Holton sent warning letters to dispensaries. Bracken McKey, a Washington County deputy district attorney, said law enforcement investigated Cambron after reading her comments about her practices in the WW story.

1. An ex-Portlander’s political campaign in the American heartland may hinge on the urban chicken. Jarrett Mitchell is running for city council in Iowa City, Iowa, on a poultry platform. Turns out it’s a hot issue in that city of 62,000—the Iowa City council has declined to lift the ban on keeping chickens within city limits. Mitchell, 33, returned to his native state two years ago after working in Portland as an educator at Prescott Elementary. When living here, he kept chickens in his Northeast Portland yard. Allowing city chickens isn’t the only Portland practice Mitchell says he’ll fight to adopt: He also hopes to increase recycling, add bike lanes and promote community gardens. “Portland showed me how an urban center can also be an agricultural center,” Mitchell says. When he’s not campaigning, Mitchell runs a coffee shop, appropriately named Wake Up Iowa City.

WWeek 2015