DMV fees waived to encourage license reinstatement, but barriers remain for those with debt from minor infractions Malik Seamster needs to get his daughter to and from school, go to the grocery store, landscaping or warehouse jobs and elsewhere. Without a ...
29 Dec 2021 - Jake Thomas
The legal action resulted in a settlement reached with the Employment Department in June giving people more time and clarity on how they can keep their benefits Matt Belanger recalled laughing with his wife in May while bringing in the mail at their St. H ...
21 Jul 2021 - Jake Thomas
The complaint describes a desperate situation: The institution charged with managing almost all of your financial decisions won’t give you enough of your own money to pay rent. “My rent is $380. So I know I had more monies available,” reads a handwritten ...
30 Dec 2014 - Jake Thomas
This fall, Oregon voters could make the state the third in the country to legalize marijuana for recreational use. However, what that might mean for Oregonians depends on where they fall on the economic spectrum. If Oregon voters approve Measure 91, which ...
14 Oct 2014 - Jake Thomas
Richard Harris spent much of his working life with people addicted to various substances, and he knows about drugs and what they can do to people. So when Harris came out in support of Measure 91, which would legalize recreational marijuana use if approve ...
14 Oct 2014 - Jake Thomas
Law enforcement and police accountability advocates alike are warming to the idea of requiring officers to film their encounters with citizens – a trend that promises to profoundly change law enforcement. Proponents of the idea expect that equipping offic ...
3 Oct 2014 - Jake Thomas
Gary Spanovich is a cheery 65-year-old man, who, from a tidy office in Northeast Portland has been working for the last 15 years toward a simple, yet seemingly impossible goal: prevent people from being violently killed. Spanovich is the executive directo ...
9 Sep 2014 - Jake Thomas
For decades, cities have spent untold sums of money trying to prevent people from possessing and consuming drugs. With Oregon potentially poised to legalize marijuana, the state’s largest city is already taking steps to benefit financially from pot being ...
12 Aug 2014 - Jake Thomas
It’s been four months and John Munro still doesn’t know where his money is or when he’ll see it. Munro entrusted a $130,000 inheritance to Safety Net of Oregon, a now shuttered Portland nonprofit that was tasked with administering the federal disability a ...
7 Aug 2014 - Jake Thomas
Congressman Earl Blumenauer has the veneer of a seasoned Beltway politician, trademark bowtie aside. But to his core, he’s a true Portlander. Much has been written about his enthusiasm and support of cycling, mass transit and civic engagement. But on a de ...
2 Jul 2014 - Jake Thomas