Free Republic

The Oregonian Editorial Board gave a big update to their Clean Slate program this month. Some of their goals are to (1) cease posting most criminal mug shots (2) stop reporting on minor crimes and (3) removing old crime stories as a way to help criminals restart their lives. On stopping reporting on current minor crime stories, The Oregonian said… “…we decided that the lasting effect of publicity for relatively minor scrapes with the law can create an unfair and outsized burden on someone trying to find a job or apartment. Our decision was guided by several factors: Unlike in...

Portland-based newspaper deletes tweet amid backlash The Oregonian newspaper received fierce backlash Friday after it revealed the race of the victim of a police-involved shooting in Portland in an apparent effort to quell potential riots. The Portland-based paper reported that police had responded to reports of a man in a park with a gun. The victim was described by the paper, which cited sources, as a "[W]hite man in his 30s." ...."Did a newspaper just imply that they leaked info about the skin color of a police shooting victim in order to avert a riot? Or is something else going...

Video at Link Warning: Graphic Language and Content Conservative Reporter Andy Ngo was attacked in Portland by Antifa protesters wearing masks and protective gear. He was also robbed and hospitalized. Police were told to stand down by Portland mayor.

PORTLAND, Ore - The Oregonian announced on Thursday that it will cut down home delivery and put more emphasis on its digital product, slashing some jobs in the process. Home delivery will be cut to Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, plus a trimmed down Saturday edition. The three regular editions will be beefed up versions of the current product, while the Saturday edition will heavily emphasize sports, along with some news and classified advertising.

Bob Caldwell, editor of The Oregonian's editorial pages, was in the Tigard apartment of a 23-year-old woman when he went into cardiac arrest Saturday afternoon. The woman called 9-1-1 at 4:43 p.m. to report that Caldwell, 63, was coughing and then unresponsive after a sex act. Washington County sheriff's officers and medical personnel responded and transported him to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, where he later was pronounced dead. The woman told deputies she met Caldwell about a year ago at Portland Community College. Caldwell, she said, knew she didn't have much money, so he provided her cash for books...

The drumbeat of discontent from the so-called "birthers" has started again. Nearly six months after President Barack Obama was inaugurated, fringe members of the conservative party are finding public platforms to argue that Obama has no right to the presidency because he does not have a valid U.S. birth certificate. Never mind the bigoted undertones of these claims, the unspoken assertion that because Obama does not look like "us," he is not American. Such rumors take on an even more sinister hue when birthers rant that Obama is trying to cheat "us" -- that he really was born in Kenya,...

The Oregonian this morning announced an expense-reduction plan in response to the difficult economic conditions facing newspapers and all businesses. Publisher Fred A. Stickel and President Patrick F. Stickel announced the steps in a letter to employees (PDF) and in company meetings. Stickel said the steps were necessary to keep the paper profitable after losing "several million dollars" in 2008. Among the steps: • Pay reductions of 5 or 10 percent depending on pay level. • Unpaid furloughs of four days for full-time employees. • Freezing of pension benefits in the company's traditional plan, but an increase in the company...

Fred A. Stickel, publisher of The Oregonian, on Wednesday announced an early retirement offer for newsroom employees. "I wish I did not think this action were necessary," but it is needed to keep the company payroll in line with revenue, Stickel told the newsroom employees. The retirement offer is voluntary and is available to 32 full-time employees with at least 20 years with the company. Several in the group have worked for The Oregonian more than 40 years. The offer includes a year's salary, company-paid health insurance until age 65 for the employee and spouse and additional benefits. "These employees...

Jack Ohman/The Oregonian

A t opinion-writers school, right after you learn "all money is fungible," "now comes the hard part" and "(INSERT NAME OF LATEST WAR) has become another Vietnam -- a quagmire," you're ready to tackle the lesson of Watergate: "It's not the crime; it's the cover-up." It grows more tempting every day to say just that about The New York Times' decision to publicize the U.S. government's top-secret program to track suspected terrorists' financial transactions. Except for one thing: A disclosure like this in wartime is the crime. New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller's defense of the disclosure is only...

Business Unfriendly From the Oregonian today... "Gov. Kulongoski has eye on corporate tax kicker Rebate - Business leaders will consider plans to pump cash from the $205 million tax break back to the state" Again, government, and in this case, the governor, wants to steal $205 Million dollars of corporate tax surpluses, to fund myriad of dreamt up State programs. Oregon law requires that any surpluses over 2% be returned to the taxpayers…now the governor is eying the corporate portion of the excess to fund his liberal agenda. What bothers me most is that the law is part of the...

...Terry McAuliffe called the program "an illegal in-kind contribution" to the Bush campaign and said the Democratic National Committee is filing a complaint with the Federal Election Commission. Over at the FCC, Democratic Commissioner Michael Copps interrupted his Columbus Day holiday to dub the broadcast "an abuse of the public trust." More ominously, Kerry adviser Chad Clanton told Fox News yesterday that "I think they (Sinclair) are going to regret doing this, and they better hope we don't win." ...It wasn't the intention of the Founders to give elected officials veto power over press reports.... The excuse for such broadcast...

Saturday, May 15, 2004 Is it clear now for you liberals? You wanted proof that al-Qaida was connected to Iraq and now [with the beheading of American businessman Nicholas Berg], you have it. Every day this page has leftists ripping apart the Bush administration, and yet I rarely see attacks on the real enemy, the radical Islamists. It is they who started this war. It is they who lack the courage to show their faces on TV. It is they who murdered Daniel Pearl and Nicholas Berg. It is they who attacked the United States on 9/11, and yet liberals...

Vote Linn and others from officeLeaders who disregard the public so blatantly on big issues should not be trusted with county government 03/21/04 Multnomah County Chairwoman Diane Linn and the three commissioners who conspired in secret to approve gay marriages may believe history will judge them kindly. It had better, because the present does not. They have proved themselves unfit for public office. They should be recalled or voted out. Leaders in both Multnomah and Benton counties agreed this month to ignore state statutes and start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, under the belief that denying licenses to gay...

By Steve Duin of the Oregonian 02/29/04 Maybe it was the timing. "The Passion of the Christ" is so much in the news. And it was against the backdrop of that depiction of real persecution and unforgettable suffering that Roy S. Moore swept through town. You remember Roy. While an Alabama circuit judge in 1997, Moore ignored a court order to remove the Ten Commandments from the wall behind his bench. Owing to the publicity of that stand, Moore was elected chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court three years later . . . and subsequently ousted from the post...

I t was a match worthy of World Wrestling Entertainment. In this corner, one mild-mannered, wordy academic; in the other, Kevin Mannix's minister of information, the pistol-packing Godzilla of Portland talk radio, Lars Larson. It was the fall of 2001. I was a visiting professor at Duke University. A Portland radio show wanted someone to explain the new policy of trying foreign terrorists in front of military commissions. I boned up on the topic and called in at the appointed time. "You're on the air with Lars Larson," said a voice. Then another -- it sounded like God on steroids...

Congress did it in World War I. And in World War II. Again in the Korean War. Why not now? The United States is at war in Iraq, in Afghanistan and globally against terrorism. President Bush confirms the ventures' seriousness by asking Congress for an extra $87 billion of military- and reconstruction-related funding plus $41.3 billion for the Department of Homeland Security. Daily counts of our casualties tell us that the costs are not only economic. The expense will rise because, the president says, U.S. resolve is firm, and we won't quit until the job is done. It is deeply...

Scheer tells me all I need to know about local tax advocates. The Oregonian almost had me convinced. In this Sunday's commentary section. I waded soberly through the first two articles telling me how proud I should be for swallowing a local tax increase that, although it might break this family's budget, is surely good for the County. Then I get to Robert Scheer's propaganda. One week after its original publication (seven days of discrediting), the original editorial has been exposed as nothing more than hateful propaganda from enemies at the BBC (the same BBC that refuses now to defend...