Your Friday, April 12 Daily Primer: Oregon Gave Firefighters Excessive Pensions — Racism at Basketball Game Prompts Bill

What to know, where to bike and what to listen to.

A Portland firefighter at Multnomah Falls on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017. (Thomas Teal)
By WW Staff

WHAT TO KNOW:

  • For nearly 30 years, the Oregon Military Department has been over-compensating its firefighters. Agency officials disclosed they’d been making excessive pension payments to firefighters for three decades—and now they want the law changed to make their mistake disappear.
  • A racist incident at an Oregon High School basketball game in January prompted lawmakers to draft a bill requiring equity and inclusion policies.
  • Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler wants “significant changes” to a proposal that would require landlords to give more consideration to tenants with criminal backgrounds.
  • E-scooters could be returning to Portland by the end of the month, and 12 companies have applied for inclusion in the city’s second pilot program.
  • WW‘s news partner KATU floated the Willamette River yesterday with Portland Fire and Rescue, capturing on video the mess that has washed into Portland on a swollen river.
  • A man who fled the Portland area after facing criminal charges for sexually abusing four girls was convicted April 9 in Clackamas County District Court—26 years after he was indicted.

FIVE CAMPSITES YOU CAN BIKE TO:

  • You don’t need to go far outside of Portland to take in Oregon scenery by bike. We’ve compiled a list of five campsites that are bikable within a day from Portland public transit stops.
(Joe Riedl)

MUST-LISTEN:

  • Natasha Kmeto shows a different side of herself on Verse/Versus. Each track has the feeling of a late-night emotional release that some would bury deep within the pages of a diary but that Kmeto coos into a microphone.
(courtesy of Dark Secret Media)

NOMINATE A NON-PROFIT:

  • Do you know of an impactful Portland nonprofit looking for exposure? Tell them to apply to be a part of Give!Guide’s 2019 fundraising campaign! Give!Guide is also accepting nominations for the Skidmore Prize, which will award four inspiring under-35 nonprofit employees with $4,000 and a profile in the Give!Guide magazine. Learn more about both opportunities at giveguide.org.

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