Murmurs: Emmons’ Controversial Campaign Mailer Hits Homelessness

In other news: City effort to hide public records from union busters falls flat.

Stuart Emmons (Walker Stockly)

Emmons' Controversial Campaign Mailer Hits Homelessness: Architect Stuart Emmons, who is running for the Portland City Council, sent out a notable campaign mailer last week—capturing attention both for its novel technique of personalizing the message to each recipient's neighborhood and for fear-mongering about homelessness. The mailer features a street sign emblazoned with the name of the street to which the flier is addressed, with the accompanying message: "Before homeless tarps cover your street, demand City Hall take action." The photo shows bungalows with a line of tents in front. "I am trying to wake people up to the fact that we are going backwards on homelessness, despite the positive spin coming from City Hall and the county," Emmons tells WW. "My mailer says 'demand City Hall take action,' and I hope people do just that."

City Lawsuit Tossed: The city of Portland's efforts to withhold public records from the Freedom Foundation, a union-busting nonprofit, have ended in failure. Last year, the group requested the names of all city employees represented by Laborers' Local 483. The city refused, but Multnomah County District Attorney Rod Underhill ordered the names released. When the city declined to comply with Underhill's order, the Freedom Foundation sued successfully in Multnomah County Circuit Court. But then the city of Portland filed a lawsuit of its own, seeking to block the Freedom Foundation from requesting a list of union members in the future—rather than just a list of those represented by Laborers' 483. On April 20, Judge Pro Tem Thomas Christ dismissed the city's lawsuit, noting it wanted him to rule on a request the foundation hadn't made. "The city's lawsuit was a clear waste of taxpayer money," said Freedom Foundation attorney Christi Goeller. "From day one, it was a frivolous action." A city spokeswoman declined to comment.

Parent Complains About PSU Research: Gretchen Hallberg, a Portland mother of two, filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education on April 30, asking the federal agency to investigate a research project that may have violated students' right to privacy. Hallberg has two children, 12 and 9, who attend Beverly Cleary School in Northeast Portland. The concerns over data privacy surfaced after WW reported that Portland State University grad students working as student teachers in K-12 classrooms may have improperly accessed demographic data at the behest of their professors ("PSU Researchers May Have Violated Federal Law," WW, March 7, 2018). Hallberg says she's especially concerned that her children's data was recorded because they are biracial and may be easy to identify even if their names were removed.

Cultivation Classic Features Haute Cannabis Cuisine: Cultivation Classic, the organic cannabis competition presented by WW, will include deluxe munchies. On Friday, May 11, limited seats are available for a VIP dinner by chef Leather Storrs, benefiting the Open Cannabis Project. The menu boasts THC-infused tropical cured fish on a chip, stuffed morels and CBD mascarpone. Tickets for the dinner and the next day's event at Revolution Hall are available at cultivationclassic.cc.

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