News Seth Woolley, a Green Party activist and two-time candidate for Secretary of State, has filed suit (PDF) in Marion County Court against Secretary of State Kate Brown alleging that the elections division, which Brown controls, failed to properly investigate an earlier elections complaint Woolley filed aga...   More

News Clean Water Portland, the committee opposing the proposed fluoridation of Portland's water reported receiving three checks in recent days. The committee got $5,000 from a Utah company call Abundant Living Information Services; $3,000 from a local man named Roger Burt and $1,000 from a Californi...   More

Cover Story Oregon has one of America’s best prison systems.  Gov. John Kitzhaber knows that. After all, he helped build it. When Kitzhaber was governor from 1995 to 2003, he spent hundreds of millions   More

News The City of Portland employs an ombudswoman named Margie Sollinger as a repository for complaints about city agencies. In the past, the ombudsperson has been in the thick of serious doings—the federal investigation that resulted city parking meter czar Ellis McCoy's f...   More

News State Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) today redefined what a tax is. Buckley, a five-term incumbent, knows a lot about taxes—he's co-chairman of the Joint Ways and Means Committee, which writes the state's budget.But when Buckley stood today to talk about a new proposal from the Oregon School Boards Association that would cut public employee retirement benefits by $1.8 billion, he c...   More

News The May 21 election this year has something for everyone—school board races; a renewal of City Commissioner Dan Saltzman's children's levy; the fluoride war; and even a Metro ballot measure seeking some operating funds for its green spaces.
The early money is flowing towards the kids. Saltzman's raising money through ...   More

News The three-member Oregon State Bar trial panel tasked with deciding a major legal ethics case has pushed the date of its decision back to May 7. As WW reported last fall, Barnes Ellis and Lois Rosenbaum, two of the Northwest's leading securities lawyers, face conflict of interest charg...   More

News City officials finally produced details last week of a new arts tax that voters passed last November, requiring Portlanders to pay $35 a year to fund arts teachers in the public schools and suppor   More

News The campaign proposing to fluoridate Portland's drinking water is raking in hefty contributions ahead of the May 21 ballot battle over the issue.
Healthy Kids, Healthy Portland reported $5,000 checks from the Nurses United Political Action Committee; the Oregon Dental Hygienists' Association and from Heal...   More

News The Oregon Senate today approved legislation that will move the controversial $3.4 billion Columbia River Crossing to the next stage.Prior to the bill being introduced, Senate President Peter Courtney (D-Salem) took the unusual step of admonishing visitors and spectators to mind their manners, in recognition of the passionate opposition the project has generated.
After a low-key floor discussi...   More