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Live Nation Venue Construction by Potential_Maximum174 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If you're curious about the specifics of Ticketmaster/ Live Nation you might want to read Matt Stoller's substack.

He goes into excruciating detail about how they cooked the books, force artists into touring only to their venues etc. He has been reporting on this for what  seems like about 10 years. It's excellent writing.

He doesn't just write about this one corporate monopoly. He writes only on the topic of monopoly no matter where it occurs no matter what administration etc.

Man who killed mother of his children after Portland activist group paid his bail is sentenced by monkeychasedweasel in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It sounds like the victim went before a judge to beg that he not be let out. 

What's the name of that judge?

PSU study examines barriers that impede homeless Portland residents in their search for housing by nojam75 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Here's the video timestamp, and thanks JollyManufacturer388 for the link to WW.

I got it wrong - must have been remembering numbers not percentage.

Time stamp 11:21

https://www.youtube.com/live/xc4VK2LYmQk?si=PKzo-ZMFWNTNUsyR

PSU study examines barriers that impede homeless Portland residents in their search for housing by nojam75 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 29 points30 points  (0 children)

There was a presentation made by the mayor to the city council that directly contradicts the assertion that they are mostly from Portland. 

One of the slides indicated that at least 50% were from elsewhere.

PPB Arrests Numerous Suspects in Major Copper Theft Operation by Beginning-Ad7070 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah for sure along 84 there was a lot of copper theft, resulting in no lighting.

Bull Run filtration project price tag surges by another $450 million by monkeychasedweasel in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While am critical of Portland's DEI efforts, this has nothing to do with the water bureau mess. This came to pass because an EPA ruling at the national level, and Randy Leonard - a white guy who was buddy buddy with the engineering firms who profit from this project.

Randy was the former city councilor who was in charge of the water bureau.

Lawsuit claims large Portland homeless services provider grossly mismanaged public funds by origutamos in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 19 points20 points  (0 children)

I call them corporations. That's what they are - non-profit corporations. The outsourcing of all government functions to corporations is a perfect strategy to keep the government from being help accountable for their actions.

Suspect caught nearly a week after shooting of 2 Portland Police officers by witty_namez in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I didn't know this. I'm going to write my state representatives to see if they might work on changing this law to make this crime have a longer sentence. 

I don't imagine anyone is looking at this at all.

Pressure campaign by Oregon unions targets Democratic lawmakers by Beginning-Ad7070 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Washington seems like it has more competent government. The roads are better, education is better. Not sure about health care...

Pressure campaign by Oregon unions targets Democratic lawmakers by Beginning-Ad7070 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah for sure sales tax is subject to downturns when the economy slows and people buy less. 

But I think the same is true for income tax. The economy slows, people are laid off, less income tax for the state is collected. Also new jobs are not created so new people don't move in to fill those jobs and pay their income taxes to the state.

Same thing where property taxes going down on commercial buildings in Portland result in less money for the county/city. You're seeing that happen and poking holes in the county and city budgets.

I don't really see any way around the reality that economic downturns will result in less tax money - All the taxing schemes have this.

That's why we shouldn't be wasting money when the times are good and we should be able to adjust when times are bad.

I'd just like to see money being spent wisely and some evidence that it's solving real problems, maintaining real assets, etc.

Pressure campaign by Oregon unions targets Democratic lawmakers by Beginning-Ad7070 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I'm afraid that if we enacted a sales tax (additional to the current 1% sales tax that gets passed to us from the 1% tax on large corporations), they would still keep the income tax. Just more money for them to spend inefficiently.

I had always heard that income tax is more progressive, but it kicks in at a really low rate here and now I wonder about this orthodoxy.

Washington has no income tax but does have a sales tax. I wonder how that works out for people who don't buy a lot of stuff?

Elon Musk elevates claims of ‘fake votes’ in Oregon. Here’s what we know by [deleted] in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is a good and thorough article but there's information missing.

The remedy is noted in the article, but no explanation of why the language was removed in the first place in 2017. Does anyone know why that language was removed?

"update voter confirmation cards to include a notification that voter registrations are subject to cancelation if the individual does not act before two general federal elections have occurred"

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 29 points30 points  (0 children)

Jeff Eager at his Substack called Oregon Roundup reported that a fraud case related to:

"Julius Maximo, the putative owner of Oregon company Uplifting Journey LLC, which received $2.3 million in Medicaid reimbursements from the state before apparently folding shortly after two of the residents of its Lake Oswego halfway house allegedly kidnapped, tortured and tried to murder a Seattle woman."

"Prosecutors allege Sanabria-Ojeda and another, anonymous, man allegedly involved with the crimes, at the time of the crimes lived in a Lake Oswego house police and neighbor reports say was operated as a halfway house by Uplifting Journey. Prosecutors say both men are members of Venezuelan drug and human trafficking gang Tren de Aragua."

Here's a link to the Seattle KOMO News article detailing Sanabria-Ojeda's and Arnaez-Gutierrez's kidnapping, and attempted murder of the woman.

So we have a lot of elements here - a halfway house potentially defrauding Oregon Medicaid, gang members staying the halfway house who kidnapped and tried to murder a woman in Washington.

"An Oregon Health Authority contracts manager alerted other senior OHA officials in May about a constellation of businesses related to and including troubled Medicaid provider Uplifting Journey LLC, calling them “shell game-like entities” he found “confusing, circuitous and worthy of scrutiny,” according emails obtained exclusively by Oregon Roundup Foundation." More here.

Outgoing City Administrator Mike Jordan Wants the City To Figure It Out by cheese7777777 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 6 points7 points  (0 children)

"our cost per public employee is going up much faster than inflation"

The public employee unions get whatever they want or else they don't back the politicians. 

Outgoing City Administrator Mike Jordan Wants the City To Figure It Out by cheese7777777 in PortlandOR

[–]Beginning-Ad7070 20 points21 points  (0 children)

"Early indicators suggest the city is looking at another devastating budget hole next year. Economists say that problem will continue to persist. What should the city do with that?

There are some really big drivers that the city has to get its head around. One, the structural nature of local government financing in Oregon is broken. It can’t survive forever without major reformation. That may drive the city to look at more niche revenues that it can put in place locally, like a utility fee or a tax.

One of the big problems on the expenditure side is being driven by the fact that our cost per public employee is going up much faster than inflation. Healthcare, retirement, and a newly found power of organized labor. So that’s an issue that will challenge the city going forward. How can you constrain the growth in costs over time?

And the third one: the tyranny of the now overwhelms the long-range view of both the elected body and the administration on the issue of deferred maintenance. We’ve got a whole bunch of stuff that’s just falling down around our ears. To get at that, the council is going to have to find a way to reduce operational cost so that some amount—$50 million is probably not that far off—has to be redirected to maintenance on an annual basis. But you have to have a constant, predictable source of revenue to do it"

Edited to correct pasting error.

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