The Oregon Supreme Court approved an alternative licensing program that allows candidates to spend 675 hours working under the supervision of an experienced attorney and create a portfolio of legal work that bar officials will grade as an alternative to the traditional bar exam.
A seventh grader at Beaumont Middle School in Northeast Portland described feeling terrified after a classmate held a boxcutter to her neck and threatened to slit her throat during school hours several weeks ago. Her classmate was suspended for a few weeks, but is now back at school without supervision, she told members of the Portland school board on Tuesday, adding that she’s experiencing regular panic attacks as a result. “My school is not safe, not safe while I know people in positions that can help are not helping me and probably not helping others,” she said.
Portland and Oregon continue to struggle in 2024. While some of these numbers may be normal for bigger cities, all of these mark dramatically decreased quality of life for a city that used to have very few of these problems and only population of 600,000 people in the entire metro area.
Port of Portland’s attempt to restart container traffic failed and Portland, ironically, loses it’s port.
I’ve written about this before, but the illegal activates of the ILWU Teamsters Union (that resulted in a record setting fine and their bankruptcy) also destroyed shipping business to the Port of Portland. After attempting for several years to woo shippers back, the port admits the shippers will not come back and all remaining container traffic will end Oct 1, 2024. This affects many local businesses like Les Schwab, Jeld Wen, Bob’s Red Mill and Pacific Seafood.
A seventh grader at Beaumont Middle School in Northeast Portland described feeling terrified after a classmate held a boxcutter to her neck and threatened to slit her throat during school hours several weeks ago. Her classmate was suspended for a few weeks, but is now back at school without supervision, she told members of the Portland school board on Tuesday, adding that she’s experiencing regular panic attacks as a result. “My school is not safe, not safe while I know people in positions that can help are not helping me and probably not helping others,” she said.
Gresham High School’s 64 staff members publicly denounced the principle and district administration after 2 years of mismanagement that has created unsafe conditions for students and staff. The culprit is a principle that is largely absence and district administration that ignores documented issues. Staff said that principle “does not hold students accountable for negative behaviors, address safety concerns, maintain consistent school-wide expectations, provide clear consequences, or transparent communication” and has created an environment unsafe and detrimental to learning for students and staff.
Portland net population continues to decline – lead by middle and high earners fleeing the state
Overdose deaths go down by 10% everywhere across the country – but not Oregon. Demonstrating that legalization and harm reduction has increased the problem, not made it better.
50-57.9% of renters in Portland are considered cost-burdened – needing more than 30% of their income for housing.
Cost-burdened residents are not just the poor – but across all middle-income households. The median income required to live in Portland is $86,000/year.
Portland, despite having no need for water treatment plants and ample hydro-electricity, has some of the highest utility rates in the country.
40% of renters do not have enough money after housing to cover basic expenses.
Funding misuse is rampant – despite pouring $400 million into a hospital renovation (only $35 million could be identified), there are now 5% fewer beds than 2005.
Primary reason: 82% say it is other riders’ behavior. The behavior in question is pretty clear and Trimet has barely done anything. These are just the ones from 2024:
Since it was made illegal to enforce traffic laws during BLM riots, it turns out that 460,000 vehicles, or nearly HALF of Portland drivers, have let their tags expire. This is cited as one of the reasons for a $32 million shortfall at the Portland Bureau of Transportation.
Sept 12-15 – Mt Angel Oktoberfest – Huge Oktoberfest. Be sure to also visit Mt Angel Monastery.
Sept 13-15 – Oregon Celtic Festival – At about $50/ticket, this is cool but dang expensive
Sept 14th – Mid-Autumn Festival – Experience a day filled with Asian cultural performances, delicious food, unique merchandise, and a beautiful lantern parade.
Sept 14-15 – Polish Festival – Enjoy some amazing delicious food, amazing perogies, and music
Sept 20-22 – Los Roast Green Chili Roasting – order a half or whole bushel or 1 peck of hand-delivered New Mexican green chilis.
Every August is the PDX Hot Sauce Festival. It’s a celebration of all things hot and spicy. There are dozens of vendors from around both the local area as well as around the country. It’s interesting to see how many different kinds of hot stuff that people make.
Then there is the contests. The stage of doom hosts actual Guinness World Record attempts to eat the most Carolina Reapers. Or maybe try your hand at bobbing for Reapers, Burning BBQ Pork challenge, or Spicy Tacos from hell.
The star of the show, in my opinion is Ed Curry and his creations. I always stop in because he usually brings a bunch of Carolina Reapers for sale. This year you could buy a bag of 10 reapers for $5
Also present, you can taste test all of his hot sauce creations. All the way up to pure Reaper puree (Reaper Squeezins) and his new Xperience made from the supposedly even hotter Pepper X. I didn’t even see those latter ones on his website yet.
New for this year, he even brought Pepper X Oil, and even Pepper X ‘sludge’ that’s the purest of the Pepper X extract. It comes in a simple printed bottle and is supposed to be the hottest thing in the world (literally and figuratively). I bought a bottle. Lets see how it goes.
Ed Curry comes to the PDX Hot Sauce festival every year and brings along his latest creations. Good Mythical Morning sat down and ate ONE Carolina Reaper chili – and hilarity ensues.
My favorite quotes:
“It’s started”
“I’ve been here before, but never like this”
“I hate the world. I hate that we exist.”
“I can’t do it. Every breath out…is like time travel … into a stupid, stupid place”
“We’ve been told it peaks at 6 minutes”
<dry heaves>”Nothing came up. I wish something would have.”
I can confirm they are stupid hot. Honestly though, the Carolina Reaper sauce, when mixed with chili and other foods in proper amounts – actually has a great taste.
Even more interesting is that in 2024 he brought his Pepper X extract and sauce. It supposedly even more hot. I bought a bottle to test it out. Is it bad when there is just a simple typed label?
How does Oregon schools stand up? A bastion of progressive leadership over the last 30 years and funding in which almost 50% of the entire state budget is spent on education.
The damage to Oregon’s reputation and economy hits even their most famous products: breweries.
Axios reported that in 2023 there were 22 brewery and brewpub closings in Oregon included well-known names like Ex Novo, Ecliptic, and Cascade Brewing. Only 12 breweries opened. Even worse, for those that stayed open, their sales overwhelmingly decreased.
The gotcha for Oregon is that it defied national trends showing more openings than closings. More evidence the luster has worn of Oregon breweries.
Conner Slevin, a local resident paralyzed in an accident in 2020, is suing his former attorney Jessica Molligan who he claims made legal arrangements, sent communications, and negotiated settlements without his knowledge. Molligan allegedly made dozens of ADA violation lawsuits in his name against local Portland businesses with the real goal of making herself rich.
In many cases, the property owners said they didn’t know there was an ADA compliance issue until they received a demand letter from the Portland lawyer. The initial letter didn’t specify what needed to be fixed but proposed a settlement agreement. Molligan wouldn’t sue if the owner agreed to make repairs, bring the property into compliance, and pay attorney’s fees of roughly $10,000 or more.
The only problem is that Slevin didn’t know she was doing all this in his name. She’s now being sued by Slevin.
Oregon is one of seven states with highest levels of COVID-19 detected in its wastewater. Monitoring wastewater is a reliable method of determining the COVID-19 infection rates in the general population for a given area.
Interactive map of current viral activity levels of SARS-COV-2 in wastewater
The CDC’s most recent figures from July 11 show an activity level of 10 across 23 wastewater treatment plants in Oregon with recorded data. Activity is classified as “very high” once it exceeds level eight. Oregon Health Authority’s respiratory virus databoard recorded an 8.9% rate of positive COVID-19 tests. The rate hadn’t been that high since mid-February.
45% of Oregon communities have COVID-19 wastewater levels in an increasing or sustained increasing pattern.
At the turn of 2024, new strain JN.1. — a variant of Omicron — made up 86% of Oregon’s COVID-19 cases
