Blame Unions for High Prison Costs::

Similarly, Multnomah County’s Wapato Jail has operated 100 percent vacant for almost 13 years, costing Oregon taxpayers between $300,000 and $400,000 annually. Over the past decade, Oregon’s prison population has grown by more than 3,000 inmates, bringing the total number of inmates to over 14,000, spanning 14 prisons―including the $120 million Dear Ridge Correctional Institute which, despite 60 percent vacancy, still operates. On the bright side, union members still have their jobs.
http://cascadepolicy.org/blog/2013/07/23/blame-unions-for-high-prison-costs/
#Oregon #Prison #orpol #orcot #Portland #PulpPortland #Wapato #Grimm 

Portland May Follow Rusted, Busted, Detroit::

Will Portland eventually follow Detroit into bankruptcy? Moody’s is re-examining Portland for a possible downgrade due to Portland's $453 million in unfunded pension debt and unfunded liabilities of $2.3 billion for its police and firefighters pension and disability plan.
http://oregoncatalyst.com/24515-portland-follow-rusted-busted-detroit.html
#Portland #Multnomah #PDXBankruptcy #StumptownDown #PulPortland #MCRP #orcot #PortlandPolitics #Grimm #timmcmenamin 

Multnomah County's Wapato Jail, with 13th Anniversary Fast Approaching, Remains Dark and Unused::

With the 13th anniversary of Wapato’s completion fast approaching, current county officials, like those who preceded them, are left wondering what to do with a mothballed facility that costs taxpayers between $300,000 and $400,000 a year to maintain. That means the county has spent about $4.5 million since Wapato was completed to keep it safely in mothballs. It’s been so long since the project was launched, in fact, that all of the bonds sold to finance the jail will be paid off by 2016 – possibly before it has ever housed a single inmate. “The core issue is that a prior county board, in an ill-advised move, decided to build this facility when it wasn’t clear that it was needed or that we could afford to operate it,” board Chairman Jeff Cogen said. “Unfortunately, both turned out to be true.”
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2013/05/multnomah_countys_wapato_jail.html
#Portland #Multnomah #WapatoJail #MCRP #orcot #orpol #Taxes #MultnomahJail #Grimm #Portlandia 

Sex offenders in Oregon: Oregonian Exclusive

Sex offenders in Oregon: Oregonian Exclusive
Sex offenders in Oregon: Report exposes huge gaps in state, federal trackingOregonian reporter Maxine Bernstein started looking into sex offender registration laws to find out how a California man could move to Oregon and repeatedly flout the laws, eventually killing a 15-year-old girl and then a 32-year-old woman in Portland.http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2013/09/sex_offenders_in_oregon_oregon.html#PortlandPedophiles #Milwaukie #OakGrove #Clackamas #Multnomah #OregonPedophiles #Brentwood #EastMoreland #Sellwood 

Un-Elected Governor Brown Undermining Rights of Parents::

Un-Elected Governor Brown Undermining Rights of Parents::
Governor Brown has put herself in charge of Oregon’s Education System and Oregon’s healthcare network: the Oregon Health Authority. As a result of this double take-over, there is a Triple Threat to our children and their families. That threat includes the Network of School Based Health Centers (SBHCs); the grades K-12 Comprehensive Sexuality Education Standards that the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) promotes; and the Annual Adolescent Sexuality Conference in Seaside (ASC). And what makes this Triple Threat even more unreasonable is that the governor is using our money to pay for it! I believe that if School Boards, School Administration/Staff and parents were actually asked to make the choice to spend millions of public dollars on SBHCs, Sexuality Education, and the Adolescent Sexuality Conference, or to spend those dollars on the Education which we expect and which our children need and deserve, that the choice would overwhelmingly be for the latter! 
http://oregoncatalyst.com/25291-gov-kitzhaber-undermining-rights-parents.html
#Oregon #Portland #Milwaukie #OakGrove #Brentwood #Darlington #EastMoreland #WestMoreland #Sellwood 

GOP Candidate for Senate Booted from Editorial Meeting after Calling out 'blah blah' Disrespect

GOP Candidate for Senate Booted from Editorial Meeting after Calling out 'blah blah' Disrespect:: 
A Republican Senate candidate was kicked out of a local Oregon newspaper's editorial board meeting after daring to challenge a reporter who dissed a fellow candidate by writing "blah blah blah" in his notes instead of her actual quotes. For those folks that may not know the publisher of the Willamette Week, Richard Meeker, is the husband of our Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. Coincidence? The video of Mark Callahan's Fox & Friends interview, with Tucker Carlson, on 5/4/14, regarding the Willamette Week's contentious showdown with the liberal interview panel:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/05/04/power-trip-gop-candidate-booted-from-editorial-meeting-after-calling-out-blah.html
#MarkCallahan #Oregon #orgop #orcot #orpol #CallahanForSenate #FoxNews #WillametteWeek #Portland 

#Oregon #orgop #orcot #orpol #CallahanForSenate #FoxNews #WillametteWeek #Portland 

Mom Questions Spin Doctors’ Salaries While School Funding's Tight

Mom Questions Spin Doctors’ Salaries While School Funding's Tight
PORTLAND, Ore. – KATU’s On Your Side Investigators have discovered Portland Public Schools spends a half-million dollars on spin doctors - staff members in communications and lobbying positions. Meanwhile, schools have struggled with overcrowded classrooms. Below is the annual salary information on five employees in PPS’s community involvement and public affairs department:
Chief of Communications and Public Affairs: $124,500
Director, Government Relations - $98,047
Sr. Manager/Community & Staff Engagement – $82,197
Sr. Manager/Community & Staff Engagement - $82,197
Manager/ School News & Social Media - $71,534
Here’s how the annual salary totals for their communications departments stack up:
Portland Public Schools - $458,475
#Portland #PDX #PPS #Brentwood #Darlington #EastMoreland #WestMoreland #Sellwood #timmcmenamin