Public defenders say petty criminal charges police issue to TriMet riders are wasting Portland-metro area court resources This past July, at the Tigard Transit Center, Chris Tejero was arrested and slapped with two misdemeanor charges after he boarded Tri ...
10 Mar 2015 - Emily Green
How Portland police and local courts wasted time and money on a petty theft of mere fractions of a penny There are common misdemeanor offenses and then there are the obscure. This past July, a homeless Portland woman was charged with third-degree theft wh ...
6 Mar 2015 - Emily Green
Climate scientist Susan Kaspari talks about our black carbon footprint As snowpack levels hit record lows, and wildfire seasons hit record highs, a geological sciences professor in Washington is studying the connection between forest fires and accelerated ...
27 Feb 2015 - Emily Green
Oregon has the stiffest water pollution regulations of any state in the U.S. Sounds impressive, right? Think again. Oregon is dead last nationwide when it comes to keeping wastewater permits current with state regulations. According to the EPA’s most rece ...
24 Feb 2015 - Emily Green
As Oregon adds marijuana to its list of taxable sins, Street Roots examines the financial impact of the state’s excise taxes, also known as “sin taxes.” How much revenue do sin taxes generate for the state and what do the taxed sins ultimately cost reside ...
19 Feb 2015 - Emily Green
During a speech he delivered on World Environment Day 2013, Portland Mayor Charlie Hales urged the state to stop investing in fossil fuels. One month later, during a visit with environmental journalist Bill McKibben, he reaffirmed his commitment to steeri ...
6 Feb 2015 - Emily Green
Batula Mohamud can’t tell you her age. On paper she’s 26, but she says she’s most likely younger – probably 22 or 23 years old. She was born in Somalia but was forced to flee the country with her mother and siblings when she was a baby to escape the ongoi ...
4 Feb 2015 - Emily Green
Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Staton’s plan to replace in-person visits with video visiting has caught the attention of county commissioners, who want to see in-person visiting preserved. Both County Chair Deborah Kafoury and Commissioner Loretta Smith ask ...
21 Jan 2015 - Emily Green
In 1891, George Breckonridge was the first juvenile to be placed into custody at the reform school for boys in Woodburn, Ore. His crime was stealing a newspaper off his neighbor’s porch. Fast-forward 124 years, and the population within the walls of what ...
10 Jan 2015 - Emily Green
There’s big money to be made in our jails and prisons. Just ask Securus Technologies, Inc. In 2013, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) signed a four-year contract with the Texas-based prison-industry giant, allowing it and two other out-of-state ...
6 Jan 2015 - Emily Green