News Reactions are rolling in after President Barack Obama's statement to ABC News earlier today that he supports full marriage rights for same-sex couples. Obama's election-year shift on the still-controversial issue comes as a vindication to Oregon's equal-marriage advocates.Basic Rights Oregon executive director Jenna Frazzini told WW: Very exciting. This is the first U.S. President to open his...   More

News Occupy Portland activists have called for a general strike tomorrow, in honor of May Day.Portland Mayor Sam Adams this afternoon put out a press release saying he expects a "peaceful, family-friendly" May Day march by organized labor groups—but noted "the Portland Police Bureau are charged with keeping the peace."The bureau, for its own part, said in an April 22 release that "mildly aggressive" ...   More

Food & Drink With news that the Cartlandia food cart pod on 82nd Avenue has been granted a license to serve beer and wine, Mayor Sam Adams has been hysterically tweeting that this will lead to 695 individual food carts all now suddenly applying for liquor licenses—each paying $200 to apply for a limited on-premises liquor license without first bothering to read the guidelines that make it clear 99 perce...   More

News Wieden+Kennedy took a break recently from selling Old Spice and hanging with Clint Eastwood to sell a different kind of product: Portland's public schools.At a Feb. 16 conference called "GOOD Ideas for Cities: Portland," put on by GOOD, the non profit and quarterly magazine dedicated to look for solutions to public problems, representatives from the Pearl District advertising firm unveiled their p...   More

News On Sunday, The Oregonian published a story by Beth Slovic (who used to work at WW), suggesting that the conditions of roads in Portland have deteriorated under Mayor Adams, while he has funded other priorities.  The article extends the reporting done in this paper back in May of 2011, called "Dirt Road, Dead Ends." Adams has fought back, first with a column in today's O, and this morning, wit...   More

News The other day I noticed a curious tweet from our venerable mayor's Twitter account:Yes, Sam is tweeting his Yelp reviews. In addition to Mee-Sen, which he gives five stars, he has also likes Bridges Cafe & Catering ("The scrambled eggs and grits combo go together like Fred and Ginger"), the Arbor Lodge ("I love thy they serve Coavee Coffee!"), New Seasons Market Pharmacy ("They know alt medici...   More

News Earlier today, Mayor Sam Adams' office announced that the city had reached a settlement with the family of Aaron Campbell, an unarmed 25-year-old who was shot in the back by ex-Portland Police Bureau Officer Ron Frashour on the night of Jan. 29, 2010.Adams extended his personal apology to "Campbell’s family, particularly to his mother, Marva Davis, and his four children. "Today’s settlement do...   More

News Wade Nkrumah, a one-time spokesman for Mayor Sam Adams, filed his final replay brief with  the Oregon Court of Appeals on Jan. 25. Nkrumah is seeking to overturn a Multnomah County Court judge's decision to throw out Nkrumah's 2009 wrongful discharge lawsuit against the city. In that lawsuit, Nkrumah, a former Oregonian reporter, claimed he was  forced to lie to the public about Ada...   More

Headout OK, so he’s not the mayor, but when singer-songwriter Sam Adams moved to Portland a year ago from Indiana he quickly got used to the confusion.   More

News Portland Police Chief Mike Reese and Portland Fire and Rescue Chief John Klum plan to participate in a Salvation Army "Celebrity Bell Ringing Challenge" this morning, despite calls by some gay-rights activists to boycott the Christian charity. Klum and Reese (who last month abandoned his plans for a mayoral campaign) will compete to see who can raise the most change from passersby outside Nordstr...   More