News Violent crime has dropped in Portland in the past decade, including assaults. But the percentage of assaults that involve domestic violence has decreased only slightly—from 48 percent in 2001, t   More

News  A mother and daughter from Redmond, Oregon serving as Republican National Convention delegates told a radio reporter yesterday that Missouri Rep. Todd Akin was right that women getting pregnant from rape is "so completely rare."Toni and Emily Jarms were in Tampa this week supporting Rick Santorum. But when Public Radio International reporter Todd Zwillich John Hockenberry asked them about Akin's ...   More

Music L.V. Anderson can't be the only Decemberists fan made uneasy by Meloy's affection for folksy rape:"Will somebody just yell 'maidenhead'?" he asks the crowd, laughing."MAIDENHEAD!" they dutifully roar.Can we imagine, for a moment, what this song would be like if Meloy hadn't couched it in elaborate language and a pseudo-historical setting? Suppose "A Cautionary Song" were set in a modern-day housing ...   More