News  A Portland hotel security guard is suing Broadway Cab and a former cabbie, claiming the cabbie beat him up.In a lawsuit filed last month in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Ahmed Alenzi says he was working security at the Lloyd District's Doubletree Hotel on April 23, 2009, when he was physically attacked by cabbie Tsegay Wenzel (see mug shot).In a police report obtained by WW, Officer Charles ...   More

News  After City Commissioner Amanda Fritz recently announced her plans to run for re-election in 2012, we asked Commissioner Randy Leonard on Wednesday whether he plans to run next year for a fourth term in City Hall.Rumors about Leonard's plans are rife in Portland political circles, but Leonard tells WW the public will have to wait a bit longer to learn of his plans. Leonard says he won't announce ...   More

News You may recall Czech President Vaclav Klaus's 2008 visit to Portland. Klaus was brought to town by the Libertarian-leaning Cascade Police Institute to discuss his skepticism about global warming.Now the conservative head of state is back in the news—this time for swiping a ceremonial pen during a visit to Chile. Check out the Guardian's coverage here and watch the video below (with excellent soundtrack) ...   More

News Christian Kaylor, a workforce analyst with the Oregon Employment Department, has just come out with his monthly snapshot of the Portland job market. Kaylor's one-page graphic analysis (PDF) based on the latest data mixes some good news and bad news.First, the main take-away: Unemployment in the Portland metro area fell to 9.1 percent in March—still lagging the national jobless rate of 8.8 percent.Next ...   More

News Nearly one year after he became Portland's top cop, Police Chief Mike Reese today defended his officers, owed up to some of their mistakes and blasted the mental-health system in a speech to the City Club of Portland.Reese praised his officers' heroism in a non-lethal shooting encounter with a machete-wielding man earlier this year and discussed errors made in the January 2010 shooting of 25-year-old ...   More

News A fan of the Portland Trail Blazers is suing the owners of the Rose Garden for $105,000 after security guards allegedly confiscated his Nicolas Batum autograph and detained the plaintiff in a dark room.In the lawsuit filed March 29 in Multnomah County Circuit Court, Mark Chernobelsky of Southwest Portland says he had courtside tickets to the Blazers' home game against the Los Angeles Lakers on April ...   More

News  The City Club of Portland today issued a study blasting Multnomah County's management of public mental-health services.The 42-page report (PDF), titled Improving the Delivery of Mental Health Services in Multnomah County, hammers county managers for operating under an opaque budget, failing to assess treatment outcomes and allowing needy patients to fall through the cracks."'Blow up the system ...   More

News In our print story today about Oregon lawmakers' efforts to rein in lingerie shops (so-called "jack shacks"), we reported on two proposed changes to the state Constitution that would give cities the right to zone for nude entertainment.In addition, the Oregon House is considering two bills that would clamp down on the exotic-entertainment industry. Unlike the proposed changes to the state Constitution, ...   More

News Our story about downtown bar owners' efforts to dissuade douchebags and pedestrianize a block of Southwest Ankeny Street apparently captured the attention of Tom Miller, head of the Portland Bureau of Transportation.The day the story hit the streets last week, Miller met with Dustin Knox outside the bar Knox owns on Ankeny in the heart of downtown's Barmuda Triangle.Miller—who could not be reached ...   More

News A story in this week's WW about bar owners' efforts to clean up a stretch of Southwest Ankeny Street in downtown Portland has prompted one man to send his plans to City Hall.In an email this morning to Mayor Sam Adams and Susan Anderson, head of the city's Bureau of Planning and Sustainability, Dennis Harper—who identifies himself as an architect—says he's long believed the area some call the "Barmuda ...   More