News Vancouver anti-light rail activists got financial shot this weekend with a fundraiser to pay for legal fees in their fight against extending Portland's MAX to downtown.The activists are leading a petition drive to bring a vote before city voters that would prohibit the city of Vancouver from spending any time or resources on light rail. (Clark County voters already shut down a sales tax ask last f...   More

News As budget cuts loom for the department, the Portland Police Bureau is pitching a new "hot spot policing" technique, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon is worried that it may increase racial tensions between minorities and the cops.The new method was pitched to the Portland City Council this week. Hot spot policing uses data to show exactly where crime occurs, and then officers are di...   More

News Former TriMet driver and prolific blogger Al Margulies has filed a multimillion-dollar class action lawsuit against the transit agency, alleging unfair labor practices.On Wednesday, TriMet's lawyer filed a motion to move the case from Multnomah County Circuit Court to Oregon District Court, saying the suit is a federal question.The suit asks for $20 million, with $10 million in state labor claims ...   More

Q & A In 1970, Michael Kazin wanted to get to Portland so badly, he hitchhiked his way across the USA. It took Kazin, then in his early 20s, a week to thumb it from New York to Portland, where he wrot   More

News Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Craig Berkman was arrested and charged today for $8 million in securities fraud schemes.First reported by the Portland Business Journal, Berkman is in hot water with the Securities and Exchange Commission for allegedly defrauding i...   More

News Portland lost a journalism titan on Friday.

Kathie Durbin, 68, a longtime Portland-area journalist and author, died March 15 of cancer.

I sat next to Kathie at The Columbian in Vancouver for two years. She’d already worked at WW in the late ‘70s, for the Eugene Register-Guard, and for The Oregonian for 16 years.

When I met her, I'd been in the journalism game for just th...   More

News The corner of Northeast Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Freemont Street has gained a rep as one of Portland's "cursed" restaurant spots, with Carpaccio Trattoria being the latest to close its doors.The Italian restaurant shut down last month. Now, its owners are facing a lawsuit...   More

News A second ethics complaint has been filed against Patricia McCaig, Gov. John Kitzhaber's top adviser on the Columbia River Crossing.WW reported last month that McCaig worked to help push the $3.4 billion megaproject through the Oregon Legislature, and although she spent 219 hours on legislativ...   More

News In a surprising display of humor, the Portland Police Bureau just put up their own version of a Harlem shake video.

First seeing this, we at WW rolled our eyes, as this meme has definitely jumped the shark. But, the PPB's version has a twist.

It seems that Portland's cops agree: no more Harlem shake videos. The solo dancer—a guy in plain clothes doing some serious white guy wigg...   More

News When Oregon lawmakers recently agreed to hand over $450 million for the Columbia River Crossing, they put a condition on the money: Settle questions about how high the bridge needs to be. CRC    More