News In the 2009 legislative session, lawmakers who sought to raise Oregon's relatively low beer taxes saw their attempts at increasing that tax crushed like the empty bottles that end up in recycling plants.Now comes veteran State Sen. Rod Monroe (D-East Portland) in the 2011 Legislature with a different version of a beer tax. Rather than trying to implement a statewide measure, Monroe wants to give individual ...   More

News  It's shaping up to be a tough month both in Portland and nationwide for the Church of Scientology.On a national level, a takedown published this week in The New Yorker can't be good for the religion founded by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard.And locally, Scientologists face a lawsuit filed Feb. 4 by a woman claiming exposure to toxic fumes in a downtown Portland building owned by the Church.The ...   More

News  As WW reported today, Gov. John Kitzhaber wants to extend and expand a subsidy for film and video production for companies that shoot in Oregon. The governor is proposing to bump the existing credit, which costs $7.5 million annually up to $12.5 million per year. The way the credit works is that taxpayers buy credits—at a discount of five to 10 percent from face value—and use them to offset ...   More

News  Early in the legislative session many bills filed that may never get a hearing or may languish in committee. This year, as in sessions past, Oregon property rights advocates are taking aim at the process around land use decisions. With unemployment remaining stubbornly high and "economic development" the buzzwords of even the most left-leaning lawmaker, there may be more interest than in recent ...   More

News Thought warning labels were just for cigarettes? Think again. A bill introduced by state Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) would require warning labels for all new cell phones and cell phone packaging sold in Oregon. Shields filed the bill on behalf of a constituent, David Morrison, over concerns about possible links connecting mobile phone radiation to brain cancer and other health problems. Morrison, ...   More

News A Southwest Portland woman is suing Snoop Dogg's uncle for $90,000 after the man allegedly drove her out of her home with noxious smoke from a barbecue joint in Johns Landing.In a lawsuit filed Jan. 31 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Gerriann Fox claims she's been forced at times to abandon her $294,000 row house because of smoke pouring out of Reo's Ribs. The restaurant opened last April in a strip ...   More

News Thanks to a class-action lawsuit, about 500,000 Comcast customers in Oregon will share compensation from a $23 million settlement in overcharged late fees by the cable company.The lawsuit under the state's Unlawful Trade Practices Act stemmed from charges Comcast collected during the past seven years—a $6 late fee it got from customers in Oregon.As a result, about 500,000 Oregon residents who use—or ...   More

News Last week, The Oregonian reported on details of an Oregon Department of Justice investigation into contracting practices at the Oregon Department of Energy. That investigation is politically fraught because it involves an ODOE subcontractor, Cylvia Hayes, who is the longtime companion of Gov. John Kitzhaber. The O based its reporting on a copy of the Justice Department investigative file that DOJ had ...   More

News Some Northeast Portland residents are trying to haul the City of Portland in to court for approving a wireless-internet tower in the Beaumont-Wilshire neighborhood.A petition filed Friday in Multnomah County Circuit Court claims the city violated its own rules last year when it approved a tower for wireless internet carrier Clearwire (a two-time Rogue of the Week).According to the court petition, the ...   More

News If and when supporters of same-sex marriage rights in Oregon bring a measure to the state ballot, they might consider enlisting Barbara Bush for the campaign.Not the former First Lady Barbara Bush who's married to former President George H.W. Bush. The ex-First Lady's granddaughter, as in the Barbara Bush who's the daughter of ex-President George W. Bush. The younger Barbara Bush is in this video below ...   More