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Alternative News Bytes! Were the cavemen smarter than us?I am confounded that we have collectively abandoned responsibility for ourselves. Why have we as a society turned our backs on providing for our own personal safety, as well as our loved one’s? Were the cavemen smarter than us? Our ancestors never left the cave without a club. Don Dupay for Salem Insider Half of Americans
are "Poor" or "Low-Income" Based on the Census Department's Relative Poverty Measure, the which is "most commonly used in developed countries to measure poverty." The Economic Policy Institute says half of us are "economically vulnerable." According to this standard, 18 percent of Americans are below the poverty threshold and 32 percent are below twice the threshold, putting them in the low-income category. The official poverty rate increased by 25 percent between 2000 and 2011. Seniors and children feel the greatest impact, with 55 percent of the elderly and almost 60 percent of children classified as poor or low-income under the relative poverty measure. Wider Opportunities for Women reports that "60% of women age 65 and older who live alone or live with a spouse have incomes insufficient to cover basic, daily expenses." "We have documented graft and corruption in the Portland Development Commission, and it's time to hold them accountable." http://thewordsmithcollection.wordpress.com/2013/11/15/portland-development-commission-graft-and-corruption/ ~Tim Flanagan, writer, educator, and editorial coordinator at The NW Alliance
The Stump › oped Oct 27, 2011 - Dave Lister: "The PDC has written off $9.6 million in bad debt on misbegotten projects in the past 10 years, including $1.8 million for a failed condominium project overseen by Judy Shiprack, who later was elected to the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners. The agency also promotes a culture of secrecy. As reported in The Oregonian, two high-level PDC staffers were recently awarded severance packages totaling $150,000 on the condition that they leave quietly and not disparage the agency. When asked why the PDC has backed these failed projects, its answer has been that the projects were too risky to obtain conventional financing. If that's the case, why were they backed at all? Why are Portland's taxpayers in the banking business? Is it really the city's role to select winners and losers? Ultimately, that is a question for the city's voters. Maybe it's time to do away with the PDC. What the voters did in 1958 can be undone." Dave Lister is a small-business owner who served on Portland's Small Business Advisory Council. Randy Leonard www.portlandmonthlymag.com/news-and-profiles/people-and-profiles/articles/whats-next-for-randy-leonard-may-2012 Image: Andy Batt
"The PDC was interested in acquiring the old Police Bureau property on the corner of SW 3rd and Oak in 2002. They had an appraisal done that indicated the property was worth $850,000. The PDC promptly paid $1.2 million for the property and then spent another $500,000 removing the building and cleaning up contamination to make the property "shovel ready" for a developer. PDC then had the very same appraisal firm do another appraisal in 2006. The second appraisal now indicated the property was worth negative $2.7 million. Yes, you read that right. NEGATIVE $2.7 million dollars. And yes, that property is in downtown Portland. But wait. There's more. Then the PDC commission voted to give the property to a private developer to construct a 168 unit condominium project on the condition that 15% of the condominiums initially be affordable for people earning 120% of median family income, which is about 40% higher than the nearest threshold for City Council approval. After nine months, the development proposal says, any units not sold can be sold to people of any income level. At a time when we have senior citizens who are in poverty on multi-year waiting lists to get into decent housing, the PDC constructed a deal on the SW 3rd and Oak property that benefits upper income Portlander's with a huge taxpayer subsidy. And for the icing on the cake, the PDC communicated to the private developer that the project would not be prevailing wage because prevailing wage law is triggered by a government subsidy, and since the property on SW 3rd and Oak had a negative value it did not amount to a subsidy, and would not trigger prevailing wage. ... since I was first elected to the city council in November, 2002, the PDC has refused to allow the city council to look at its line item annual budget during the city councils annual budgeting process. There is to this date no accountability to any elected official as to how and why PDC spends its money." SPECIAL EDITION The Black Panthers in the Pacific NorthWest To read the whole Black History Edition click here Somali American Council of Oregon Seeks to Unite Frightened Community African youth are at-risk from extremists, but they are also caught in the school to prison pipeline… To read all about it click here Published on Saturday, February 23, 2013 by Common Dreams Now Six - Not One - Hanford Tanks Leaking Radioactive WasteGovernor: "This is disturbing news"Six aging, single-walled underground storage tanks are leaking radioactive waste, threatening groundwater below the Hanford nuclear site, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee announced on Friday afternoon. The seeping waste adds to decades of soil contamination caused by leaking storage tanks at Hanford in the past and threatens to further taint groundwater below the Columbia River, officials said. The newly disclosed leaking tanks were revealed by Inslee just a week after the U.S. Energy Department disclosed that radioactive waste was found to be escaping from only one tank at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. "This is disturbing news for all Washingtonians," Inslee said in a statement released by his office. "This certainly raises serious questions about the integrity of all 149 single-shell tanks with radioactive liquid and sludge at Hanford... We received very disturbing news today. I think that we are going to have a course of new action and that will be vigorously pursued in the next several weeks." Obama's 'Playbook' for Targeted Strikes Has a Gaping Hole--CIA's Killer Drones in Pakistan ExemptedPhoto Credit: Shutterstock.com January 22, 2013 |
The Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) campaign of drone strikes in tribal areas in Pakistan will continue to run wild in the coming year. A “playbook” for how the U.S. conducts targeted killing operations by drone that is nearly completed will exempt the CIA’s drone strikes in Pakistan, making the “playbook” essentially useless, considering that the vast majority of strikes occur in Pakistan. From the Daily Kos! Am I My Brother's Keeper?
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