Rosenblum fails ‘the vulnerable’

Michael Scott Simons confessed to sexually abusing three women with Alzheimer’s disease. Ellen Rosenblum, candidate for Oregon’s Attorney General, let him out of prison. As a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals, Rosenblum wrote the opinion in 2007 freeing Simons four years after a 98-year prison sentence. Joshua Norman Kelley’s confessions about molesting two […]


Rodney King’s ‘Junkyard of Dreams’

The last time I saw Rodney King was in a small courtroom in Fontana, Calif., east of L.A. It was seven years after the riot that correctly bears his name. He was wearing shoes that looked like Bruno Magli and a suit made of fine cloth, the kind that drapes just so. He still had […]


AG’s Race Goes Up in Smoke

If politics makes for strange bedfellows, Ellen Rosenblum’s husband might be wondering who she’s curling up with, now that she’s running for Oregon Attorney General. Or perhaps Richard Meeker doesn’t care. As publisher of Willamette Week newspaper he’ll gladly take money from advertisers selling the hottest girls (“Give in to your wildest fantasies!”) or pushing […]


Doing the Wrong Thing

The more we talk about race the less we are allowed to say – at least some of us. “If the city of Portland can’t fix this, it’s going to be a long, hot summer,” Jo Ann Hardesty (formerly known as state Rep. Jo Ann Bowman) declared at one of the recent protests against the […]


The Man With The Megaphone

When black men gathered at Self Enhancement Inc. to talk about Trayvon Martin and how to improve their families, it was a segregated affair. The men met in the auditorium. The dozen or so women who showed up were sent to a classroom. A woman leading the discussion for the females assured them that the […]


Wild Shots in the Dark

A man hears a noise in his yard, grabs a rifle, steps outside and sees someone running away in the dark. The man fires four times and kills 19-year-old Daniel Moore. You’ve never heard of Daniel Moore. He was white. He was walking home from a friend’s house one evening where he had been playing […]


Headline News From the After Life

In the 1998 Japanese film “After Life,” the recently deceased arrive at a celestial way station (it looks like a social services bureaucracy), where they are assigned caseworkers who help them find a moment in their lives that they can relive for all eternity. At one point, the caseworkers complain about how boring and predictable […]


Dr. Strangelove Will See You Now

How sacred is your life? How much should be spent to insure your health? With the continuing debate over President Obama’s health care reform, the questions are worth considering. Personally, my life isn’t as sacred as it used to be. A few months after Obama’s health care reform passed, my insurance carrier dropped me because […]


Failing With ‘Fluffy’ Words

Portland public schools are still looking for a bridge to the 21st Century. Or some magic guidelines to show them the way. Or a white paper. Or another study on “welcoming, warm learning environments.” A lot of school districts are apparently looking for the same thing. “All you have to do is a Google search,” said […]


Gay Bullies: It Gets Worse

LaGrande, Ore., Mayor Daniel Pokorney has joined CNN commentator Roland Martin on an apology tour seeking forgiveness from gays. If you could read the minds of Pokorney and Martin, would you find sincere apologies? Or would you find fear? The gay community mobilizes and pounces at the slightest offense – demanding apologies, firings, resignations. This […]