News Portland City Council has waded through a number of topics this morning and afternoon, after its marathon session last night on the topic of renaming 39th Avenue for Cesar E. Chavez. Mayor Sam Adams referred a proposal to give a 10-year tax break to a new housing complex back to his office Commissioner Nick Fish's office. A handful of neighbors from North Portland had testified against the proposal ...   More

News We'll flesh this news out in a bit with more from the scene, but the basic development for the moment is that City Council just voted 5-0 this morning to rename 39th Avenue for Cesar Chavez. Unless you've been living under a rock, you know the question of renaming a Portland street for the late labor icon has been contentious and long. "For my family, we would be honored to live on Cesar ...   More

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News The Portland Police Bureau has released this training video to offer advice to officers on dealing with bicyclists. The video comes just as Commissioner Dan Saltzman's office, the Bicycle Transportation Alliance, Portland Police and the Willamette Pedestrian Coalition are about to enter into a new community policing agreement, which is pasted below. City officials will present the agreement Thursday, ...   More

News Ed Garren, a family therapist who in 2008 ran unsuccessfully for former Commisioner Erik Sten's seat, is gearing up for the May 2010 primary election. This time the Hayden Island activist is running for the seat of Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who has said he will wait until January to make an official announcement about his candidacy. Garren filed his paperwork today, his mother's 97th birthday. ...   More

News Portland Police Chief Rosie Sizer has signed a letter of proposed discipline for the cops who arrested James Chasse Jr., despite a public disagreement with Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman over the punishment he recommended. Officer Chris Humphreys and Sgt. Kyle Nice got letters on Wednesday proposing 80 hours of unpaid leave for their role in Chasse's 2006 death in police custody. Sizer's signature ...   More

News In response to the news that Commissioner Randy Leonard wants Water Bureau security guards to become armed peace officers, Commissioner Dan Saltzman today issued an eight-page memo [PDF] outlining all the reasons he opposes the effort. Saltzman, of course, oversees the Portland Police Bureau that Leonard at one point wanted to manage. The document, which proposes giving security guards less lethal ...   More

News Portland Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman has directed that Police Officer Christopher Humphreys be placed on administrative leave while investigators look into Humphreys firing a beanbag round at the thigh of a 12-year-old girl at close range. In this release (PDF), police say Humphreys —who also was involved in the death of James Chasse— and Officer Aaron Dauchy responded to a ...   More

News Amid all the political speculation on the Portland Police Associations's current no-confidence vote against Chief Rosie Sizer and Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman, two recurring theories have endured. Both were swatted down today by union president Sgt. Scott Westerman in an interview with WW. The first theory making the rounds has it that the union's no-confidence vote against Sizer and ...   More

News The Portland police union has declined to release the results of last week's no-confidence vote on Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman and Chief Rosie Sizer today as planned. In a news release (PDF), the Portland Police Association says the decision came after Saltzman and Sizer agreed today to give back Officer Chris Humphreys' badge. "The (union's) rally on November 24 was designed to focus ...   More