Where News Lands As Hard As Rudy Fernandez.

1. One of Portland’s best-known religious leaders owes the IRS big money. A federal tax lien filed late last month shows former Rabbi Emanuel Rose and his wife, Lorraine, a real-estate agent, owe the IRS $417,000 for unpaid taxes from 2005 and 2006. Rose, 77, who led Congregation Beth Israel in Northwest Portland for 46 years before retiring in 2006, declined to comment.
2. Forty-four local organizations ponied up cash and in-kind donations to bring New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman to Portland State University on Monday, March 9, for a “free” lecture. Free, of course, is a relative term. Friedman, a wealthy bestselling author, typically charges about $75,000 to shower fawning fans with platitudes about the green economy. But Ecotrust says Friedman significantly reduced his fee on the condition organizers in Portland would not reveal the final cost. One thing we can reveal: Portland’s Bureau of Planning and Sustainability contributed $2,000. To read more about Friedman’s appearance, go here.
3. The Driller and the Hook: Legislation aimed at raising $1 billion more for uninsured Oregonians is going through the Capitol, with affluent hospitals proposing less costly (to them) alternatives to a proposed hospital tax. And there’s an unlikely combination pushing the tax. One half of the unusual team is state lobbyist Paul Phillips, a former Republican state lawmaker whose firm worked to open the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge to drilling and says he represents a “coalition of labor and management groups.” The other half? Failed 2008 Senate candidate and prospective 2010 Democratic gubernatorial contender Steve Novick, who says he’s not lobbying but “communicating” with people who want greater funding.Murmurs can now confirm dirty hippies are destroying Portland in more ways than one. In part as a response to lower consumer demand for water (which costs the same to deliver even when homeowners, for example, shower less often), Portland’s Water Bureau is proposing to raise rates by 17.9 percent starting July 1. That works out to an $8.28 increase on an average quarterly bill of $46.26. Separately, the Bureau of Environmental Services is proposing a 5.95 percent increase in sewer rates, which would mean an additional $8.52 on an average quarterly bill of $143.37.A Portland cop who was subject to a drug sting is back on patrol. Fellow cops in 2003 set up Officer Miguel “Mike” Olmos to respond to an abandoned car with pot and cash inside (see “Cop Pot Sting,” WW, May 12, 2004). Olmos failed to turn the goods in, and investigators found them in his duty bag. But the Multnomah County district attorney’s office said in a 2003 memo it couldn’t prosecute because the stuff never left the precinct. Olmos was taken off patrol pending an internal investigation but returned after five-plus years to afternoon shifts at Northeast Precinct on Feb. 19. “He was investigated and found to be cleared,” says Detective Mary Wheat, a police spokeswoman. Olmos didn’t reply to requests for comment.Who says student activism is dead? On Wednesday, March 18, Lewis Clark students plan to flood TriMet’s No. 39 bus route with riders to support continued service to the campus on weekends. The weekend service is on TriMet’s current list of proposed cuts, and student leaders write in an all-campus email that “we want to send TriMet a clear message that we care deeply about the vitality of our community’s public transportation system.”
4. Murmurs can now confirm dirty hippies are destroying Portland in more ways than one. In part as a response to lower consumer demand for water (which costs the same to deliver even when homeowners, for example, shower less often), Portland’s Water Bureau is proposing to raise rates by 17.9 percent starting July 1. That works out to an $8.28 increase on an average quarterly bill of $46.26. Separately, the Bureau of Environmental Services is proposing a 5.95 percent increase in sewer rates, which would mean an additional $8.52 on an average quarterly bill of $143.37.
5. A Portland cop who was subject to a drug sting is back on patrol. Fellow cops in 2003 set up Officer Miguel “Mike” Olmos to respond to an abandoned car with pot and cash inside (see “Cop Pot Sting,” WW, May 12, 2004). Olmos failed to turn the goods in, and investigators found them in his duty bag. But the Multnomah County district attorney’s office said in a 2003 memo it couldn’t prosecute because the stuff never left the precinct. Olmos was taken off patrol pending an internal investigation but returned after five-plus years to afternoon shifts at Northeast Precinct on Feb. 19. “He was investigated and found to be cleared,” says Detective Mary Wheat, a police spokeswoman. Olmos didn’t reply to requests for comment.
6. Who says student activism is dead? On Wednesday, March 18, Lewis Clark students plan to flood TriMet’s No. 39 bus route with riders to support continued service to the campus on weekends. The weekend service is on TriMet’s current list of proposed cuts, and student leaders write in an all-campus email that “we want to send TriMet a clear message that we care deeply about the vitality of our community’s public transportation system.”

WWeek 2015