News After a Friday afternoon press conference with Mayor Sam Adams and Police Chief Mike Reese, plenty remains unclear about why a Central Precinct officer on Thursday shot a 20-year-old man with a gun that under police rules should never carry lethal ammunition. Police bureau managers suggested Officer Dane Reister violated several safeguards when he fired four live rounds from a bright-orange shotgun ...   More

News After waiting more than three months to hear back from Mayor Sam Adams about Adams' own plan to have Portland take over river-patrol duties, Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton on Tuesday sent Adams a stinging letter calling the matter "closed.""Unfortunately, even after numerous attempts by my staff to contact your office over the last three months, we have been unable to further the inquiry or come ...   More

News U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sent one of his top deputies to Portland on Wednesday to announce a review of the Portland Police Bureau, aimed at determining whether police officers have exhibited a pattern of civil rights abuses. The review is a part of the Obama Justice Department's renewed pursuit of civil rights cases following years of neglect during the George W. Bush years—and ...   More

News While ballots are still being counted in Tuesday's election, one high-profile local politician is already looking to the future.Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen told WW earlier this week that he was waiting until after the election to begin seriously exploring whether to run for Portland mayor in 2012. Besides running the county, Cogen had also been working on the campaign to pass the Portland Public ...   More

News Last week's print edition of WW looked at 10 earmarks Mayor Sam Adams and city commissioners wanted in the mayor's upcoming budget. Today Adams unveiled his $400-plus million spending proposal for the fiscal year that starts July 1. Here are the winners and losers from among the 10 groups we highlighted last week.Winners:Oregon Food Bank: Adams upped Commissioner Randy Leonard's $75,000 request for ...   More

News A seemingly mundane discussion today at Portland City Hall about bonds related to a $72.4 million fire-equipment measure morphed into a verbal tussle over the planned purchase of four emergency vehicles.Those four emergency vehicles were part of the ballot measure that city voters narrowly approved last year to beef up emergency-response infrastructure in Portland. But, as Commissioners Amanda Fritz ...   More

News Portlanders for Schools, the campaign fund for both Portland Public Schools' $548 million construction bond and its $57 million-a-year operating levy, recently crossed the half-million mark in fund-raising.To date, the group has raised just over $577,ooo for the two tax-increase measures on the May ballot.Among the top donors in recent weeks: Walsh Construction gave $12,500, for a total now of $25,000; ...   More

News Last week we blogged about the Oregon State Marine Board boss's skepticism regarding Portland Mayor Sam Adams' proposal to save Multnomah County money by taking over the river patrol.Now we can add one more naysayer to the plan: Detective Todd Shanks, head of the Multnomah County Deputy Sheriffs Association.Shanks says his 90-member union—which is heavily influential in sheriff's elections with its ...   More

News In his State of the City speech last month, Portland Mayor Sam Adams took Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton by surprise when Adams proposed that the city take over the sheriff's duty of providing law enforcement on local waterways.Adams said that by absorbing river-patrol costs (currently $1.8 million, according to city estimates), the city would let the county invest that money in cash-starved mental-health ...   More

News Despite the cancellation of today’s City Council hearing on whether Portland should rejoin the federal Joint Terrorism Task Force, about 70 protesters still turned out at City Hall this afternoon to oppose the city’s participation in the JTTF. Chanting “No secrets, no spies, we want our civil rights” and carrying signs reading “Stop FBI Harassment,” protesters said participation in the ...   More