“Just one more lane, bro!” What a masterclass in wasting taxpayer money. According to program administrators, the cost estimate increase is due largely to having to delay/rearrange work because they can’t pay for it. Who knew we didn’t have the money? Literally fucking everyone.

Price tag of Portland’s Rose Quarter road project jumps past $3B as funding gap balloons, records show

The project’s funding gap raises questions about whether it will proceed as planned.

oregonlive.com

WOAH. Blazers leaked emails show they refused to respond to city emails asking basic questions, weeks before any “first-class” claim was mentioned, contradicting Dewayne Hankins claim that that claim “chilled negotiations” They were not negotiating in good faith since the beginning.

@wrightkatu.bsky.social · 15h ago

NEW: Internal emails obtained by KATU show Portland Trail Blazers leaders debated whether to respond to the City of Portland's questions on key pieces of a proposed Moda Center deal, with one executive saying the city's requests felt like "a trap”. katu.com/news/investi...

The “Safer Portland” initiative—proposed using climate funds to hire police—has failed to acquire enough signatures to get on the November ballot. The campaign was heavily criticized for canvassers lying to the public, some of whom reported the campaign themselves because of how they were trained.

Portland tech executives having an invitation-only meetup at the Flexential data center in Hillsboro on August 27. Seems in poor taste given the past few months of people trying to fend off a data center takeover in town.

Private Executive Experience for Portland's IT Leaders

Join Portland's IT Executives for an Invitation-Only Evening featuring a Private Flexential Data Center Tour, Whiskey tasting and networking

eventbrite.com

Sometimes I like when companies enshittify their own stuff because it means I spend less time on my phone. Like Reddit trying to force me to get the app and an account, I’m good.

Highly recommend checking out this series. Feels particularly relevant given the flagrant violations of law and due process by federal immigration officers in the US. No amount of telling them what they’re doing is illegal will change anything. Rights are only as good as the effort to protect them.

Cool Zone Media@coolzonemedia.bsky.social · 4w ago

New It Could Happen Here Mick and @jamesstout.bsky.social discuss the concept of Human Rights and how they sometimes fail to ensure people around the world are treated with dignity. linktr.ee/ICHHpod

A frozen kielbasa going through a garbage disposal.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 3d ago

RFK Jr yelling at Dana Bash sounds like a rabid dog barking

I wonder if the Blazers understand how insane it sounds that they’re worried the Moda renovation plans could hurt them in a lawsuit. If they actually maintained Moda in first-class condition, they shouldn’t have much to worry about. The Oregonian Ed. Board didn’t wanna dive into that I guess.

Kevin Foster@kevinhfoster.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Oregonian Editorial Board must be choking on Tom Dundon’s boot. A senile and one-sided analysis of the Moda Center work session, lambasting council for moderate pushback while basically writing off the Blazers’ request to post-hoc edit a lease agreement.

The Oregonian Editorial Board must be choking on Tom Dundon’s boot. A senile and one-sided analysis of the Moda Center work session, lambasting council for moderate pushback while basically writing off the Blazers’ request to post-hoc edit a lease agreement.

Editorial: Stay on track, Portland, and show the Trail Blazers a partnership worth keeping

As the clock ticks toward a deadline for getting a Moda Center deal done, Portland city councilors should focus on what they control — finalizing a framework to negotiate a new long-term lease and sho...

oregonlive.com

I had my car broken into and laptop stolen in front of a police station in San Francisco and when I walked in to report the crime the officer on duty asked what I wanted him to do about it

Em, midly@lefttheprairie.bsky.social · 4d ago

It’s so funny when people are like “sure you’re an abolitionist now but wait until you’re the victim of a property crime.” Buddy, the most useful thing the police have ever done for property crime is put the form you need to submit to your insurance online.

Maybe the funniest part of the arena shakedown is seeing investment groups claim loss of "foot traffic" for "small businesses" in the area. Like, what in the fuck are you even talking about? The place is bound by a freeway on one side, an abandoned river silo on the other, and jack shit between.

I want to emphasize there seems to be a solid chunk of public money that’s worth investing from an economic standpoint where we may have a positive return—could be more or less than people say, I’m not an Econ PhD—so these billionaires are legitimately harming the public by fucking around.

Kevin Foster@kevinhfoster.bsky.social · 3d ago

There is a level of public investment that makes sense economically, but that number cannot be determined without renovation details. This genuinely comes off as corporate billionaires whining about not getting handed the bag. Some real lazy scumbag behavior that could seriously hurt the public.

“And although we entered negotiations in good faith, the first-class standard has been wielded as a weapon, chilling our negotiations.” -Dewayne Hankins, Blazers President of Business Operations Soooo, you admit you’re negotiating in bad faith, then? This city has fucking Stockholm syndrome.

Kevin Foster@kevinhfoster.bsky.social · 3d ago

The Blazers are demanding Portland give up a primary bargaining chip: the fact that the current lease says the Blazers have to maintain the arena in first-class condition. So much of the negotiations, or lack thereof, hinge on this one point. Idk if I’ll have time for a full write up, so here’s a 🧵

The Blazers are demanding Portland give up a primary bargaining chip: the fact that the current lease says the Blazers have to maintain the arena in first-class condition. So much of the negotiations, or lack thereof, hinge on this one point. Idk if I’ll have time for a full write up, so here’s a 🧵

The diarrhea lettuce company, Taylor Farms, uses slave labor contracted from the Arizona Dept. of Corrections. The backbreaking labor is often performed by imprisoned Mexican nationals who would be otherwise ineligble to work in the US. They are paid $1.50 an hour.

The Diarrhea Lettuce Company Has Been Linked to Forced Labor

The lettuce-producing Taylor Farms was linked to the widespread use of prison labor before its involvement in a cyclospora outbreak.

futurism.com

I feel like it was not talked about enough that Loretta Smith basically suggested she wants to shoot activists in council chambers.

🚨 WE HAVE A DEAL! After three years, in a major step forward for our members, we have ratified our first contract with @propublica.org’s management. We deeply appreciate everyone who supported us along the way. Here are some of our big wins👇

At the work session on the Moda Center yesterday, Portland City Councilor Loretta Smith highlighted what she saw as the Blazers walking away from the negotiating table. Blazers leadership has consistently alluded to high taxes and Portland’s economy as part of their issue with the term sheet deal.

Google Earth's new AI feature lets anyone fabricate inaccurate satellite imagery, from making it look like a place has been drone striked to manifesting a nuclear plant in Iran. What could go wrong? @evystadium.bsky.social has more. Story @josephcox.bsky.social: www.404media.co/google-earth...

finally, the Democratic party has a plan.

I love to go visit nice places in the region but it really sucks to come home to a really great place like Portland & see a bunch of hacky business people constantly trashing on the city because no one likes their dumb ideas. Bunch of whiny losers with too much $ & wayyy too much media attention.

Sort of neat to think about how in 20 years I could become a religious studies professor in the university system we’re rebuilding from scratch after the wars end and the oceans have reshaped the continents

Love watching a Blazers dickhead get mad when a councilor asks about the most basic of financials for the renovation. Like these guys are actually fucking crazy. He near directly mirrored Trump saying they have concepts of a plan. Morillo was absolutely right to call out the bs word salad answer.

To be clear, I am not voting for anything that uses PCEF for anything that is not PCEFable.

I think if Tina Kotek wants to win re-election she needs to do Mamdani one better: state-run Burgervilles. This is the only way.

I think we can all agree someone named Tommy Tuberville belongs in a children’s folk tale, not in high office being a bigot.

Truthout@truthout.org · 7d ago

Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville has called for New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani to be imprisoned in the notorious Guantanámo Bay torture camp, labelling the Muslim politician a “thug” amid a rise in racist and Islamophobic attacks against him ahead of the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attack.

This guy? Uh yeah...

Scott Bryan@scottygb.bsky.social · last wk.

New BBC investigation. Four women accuse Jared Leto of criminal sexual conduct www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

“Albania is not poor. It gets stolen over and over.” Please go watch this heartbreaking video on the Flamingo Revolution in Albania and how Jared Kushner is destroying natural spaces for a billionaire resort. Stan is doing better work than entire broadcast teams. He deserves so much support.

I visited the Trump family's Albanian resort project site

YouTube video by Barely Informed

youtu.be