News City Commissioner Steve Novick wants Portland to change its phone-hold music. So he made the city bureaus a playlist.

In this week's cover story on changes at City Hall, WW reported that Novick, who took off...   More

News This week's WW cover story on new Portland Mayor Charlie Hales takes a closer look at how most of the real deal-making in City Hall takes place in an improvised dance of one-on-one office meetings between commissioners and the...   More

News Stop us if you’ve heard this one: A bureaucrat, a preacher and The New York Times walk into a bar. The punch line? The Times’ glowing story Jan. 20 revealing that the Portland Development Co   More

Cover Story Portland City Hall is awfully quiet for a palace amid a revolution. Since the start of the year, the place has felt like a barely solvent art gallery sold to absentee bankers. Outside the mayor’    More

News Portland Mayor Charlie Hales promised upon taking office to cut non-essential expenses out of the city budget.
This afternoon, he announced the first one he's cutting: a public-private partnership to give summer jobs to teenagers.

Hales' office said today it will not bring to City Council two items it removed from the agenda earlier this month: A grant and a contrac...   More

News City Commissioner Amanda Fritz spent her nest egg last year—more than $375,000 of her own money—to buy four more years in Portland City Hall. “Most people could not and would not do what   More

News For five months, it's been clear that the only operational American-made streetcar has a list of glitches.Now Portland knows the bill.
In a contract amendment that goes before City Council on Wednesday, Portland Streetcar is asking the City of Portland for $145,000 to fix a malfunctioning propulsion system on the only streetcar that manufacturer United Streetcar has ...   More

News Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden sent a letter yesterday to President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Central Intelligence Agency. The letter asks for the secret legal opinions that say when the president can kill Americans with drones.
That letter is getting    More

News For six years, Portland Fire & Rescue has been waging a border war against illegal fireworks from Washington state. Now it's looking to Washington, D.C. to fund that war.

Portland City Council will vote Wednesday to approve an application by the fire bureau for $120,000 in Federal Emergency Management Agency money.

The Assistance to Firefighters, Fire Preven...   More

News Update, 10:30 am: Sitting at his desk in the mayor's office, Hales repeated his call for weapons bans at the state and federal level.

"Every potential common-sense step ought to be considered," Hales said. "I don't believe we are without options here."

But the mayor's bully pulpit was interrupted by conservative talk radio host Lars Larson, who provided some soapboxing of his own in...   More