Day of Action

Friday, January 31, 2014: http://thewordsmithcollection.wordpress.com/2014/01/24/stop-tpp-fast-tract-and-unfair-trade/  12:00pm in Park Blocks in front of Smith Memorial Union  We will mark the twenty-year anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), a pact that has had devastating consequencesfor people and the environment in all three countries and beyond. The pendingTrans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been described as “NAFTA on Steroids...”
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/tpp 

Friday January 31 is the deadline to get 'priority' for your testimony. Includes email address to Federal Court. Community groups will get 30-minute time slots. Reserve your time in the agenda! Testify! consulthardesty.wordpress.com For the first time, The People will be able to weigh in on a proposed Settlement Agreement between t...

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"The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability."

Arundhati Roy, War Talk       

Police say conversation a priority; others say random stops are recipe for disaster

by: TRIBUNE PHOTO: JAMIE VALDEZ -
Gang Enforcement Team officer Patrick Murphy -- after asking permission -- pats down a young black man who had been sitting in a parked car on Southeast 119th Avenue. Officer Brian Dale looks on. Frisking for weapons is expected to increase as Portland's new "hot-spot" policing program puts more officers on foot in high-crime areas.

On a crisp, clear Thursday evening with the temperature outside hovering around freezing, Portland Gang Enforcement Team officers Brian Dale and Patrick Murphy pull their squad car to the curb on Southeast 119th Avenue. A black two-door Honda Civic is a good four or five feet from the curb — the result of either a horrible parking job or someone intentionally half-blocking the street.

As the officers walk toward the car, Murphy shines his flashlight inside and sees three young black men. They aren’t wearing gang colors or smoking dope. They’re just sitting, engine off. Dale and Murphy want to talk to them.  With Portland police rolling out the city’s new hot-spot policing program, the unfolding scene involving Dale and Murphy and the young men they are about to confront is a microcosm of what criminologists say might be the program’s defining moment.   
    more info at PDX Police Updates: http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/police

NW Alliance Portal for police accountablilty!
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/policeaccountability

Police in the USA Have Killed 5,000+ Civilians Since 9/11
Statistically speaking, Americans should be more fearful of the local cops than “terrorists.”
       By Katie Rucke
November 10, 2013 "Information Clearing House - "MintPress News" --  Though Americans commonly believe law enforcement’s role in society is to protect them and ensure peace and stability within the community, the sad reality is that police departments are often more focused on enforcing laws, making arrests and issuing citations. As a result of this as well as an increase in militarized policing techniques, Americans are eight times more likely to be killed by a police officer than by a terrorist, estimates aWashington’s Blog report based on official statistical data.

Off Duty Portland Cop Kills Man at Front Door
DA Refuses Grand Jury on August Shooting; Oregon Area Cops Continue to Shoot

We only have one Portland shooting incident to report on for this four-month period: off-duty Sgt. Gregory Stewart (#32025) shot and killed Jeffrey Dean Turpin, 42, outside Stewart's Scappoose home on October 5. Sadly, another person in psychological crisis needed help and instead ended up dead at the hands of law enforcement. Sadder still, six Scappoose police officers and two St. Helens officers had been following Turpin around for 40 minutes, talking to him and keeping him from shooting himself with his own gun. When Turpin made the mistake of pounding on a random door that had a Portland policeman behind it, he ended up dead.

Stewart's neighbors described Turpin as "angry and erratic." They said he was muttering to himself "this is a bad situation" as he wrapped himself in one resident's flag and complained of the cold. It appears he banged on Stewart's door, took a few steps away, then when Stewart opened the door, Turpin may have turned back toward the house before the off-duty Sergeant fired three times (Oregonian, October 6). There was no indication whether Stewart, who currently works on the Domestic Violence Unit, had Crisis Intervention Team training. We have not seen any follow-up stories to let us know if Stewart faces criminal charges, though he was placed on administrative leave following the incident.

The previous Portland-based shooting, when Lesley Stewart (no relation) was hit in the head by glass or by an AR-15 assault rifle bullet on August 20 (PPR #42), was not reviewed for criminal conduct by the District Attorney. Assistant DA Traci Anderson said they would not review a shooting "if no one was hurt" (Oregonian, August 28). Portland Copwatch and the NW Constitutional Rights Center sent a letter to DA Mike Schrunk pointing out not only that Mr. Stewart was injured, but that Officer Stephanie Rabey's action of using deadly force could be criminal if there was no reasonable suspicion that someone's life was in imminent danger. Stewart's girlfriend, who called the police, and her 21-year-old son left the apartment four minutes prior to the shooting, and no gun was found in the apartment (Oregonian, August 21 and 22).

Although the SERT Team was mobilized, Rabey (#29993) is a regular patrol officer. Also, despite the similarity between this case and the shooting of Raymond Gwerder, the Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT) was not involved (according to Chief Sizer). This seems strange, since Gwerder was alone, while Stewart's girlfriend and her son were considered hostages.

http://www.UnionResource.org

 UNCENSORED NEWS   Of, by and for the People!

                 http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/impeach

Anyone who doesn’t think Obama should be impeached, but who supported
the impeachment of the previous administration for these same crimes is
dealing in double standards and blatant hypocrisy.  Listen to the facts: 


"The corporate revolution will collapse if we refuse to buy what they are selling – their ideas, their version of history, their wars, their weapons, their notion of inevitability." '

Barack Obama is guilty of multiple high crimes including five new illegal wars
and his failure to prosecute lawbreakers, profiteers and corporate cons from 
this and the previous administration.   What makes him especially dangerous
is the perception that he is progressive when nothing could be further from
the truth. He governs like a right-wing corporatist war hawk. Facts matter. 

Is Congress Guilty of Torture?

The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program: Despite the unconstitutional horrors and atrocities that have taken place at Guantanamo Bay since it first began taking in prisoners 12 years ago, the prison doors are still open, and the horrors are continuing.

Read the Article http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/truthout

http://www.ThePortlandAliance.org/vday
 

• Event Information: V-Day Stop Violence Against Women!

  PCC students, faculty and staff come together to take a stand to end violence against women and girls at PCC, Portland and the world!

  February 14, 2014 7pm
  http://vspot.vday.org/vday/events/52245
  PCC Sylvania Little Theater / CT Building 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219 United States
  February 15, 2014 7pm
  English
  PCC Sylvania Little Theater / CT Building 12000 SW 49th Ave. Portland, OR 97219  
  _____________________________________________

  "AT LEAST ONE OUT OF EVERY THREE WOMEN WORLDWIDE HAS BEEN BEATEN, FORCED INTO SEX OR OTHERWISE ABUSED IN HER LIFETIME BY A PARTNER, RELATIVE, FRIEND, STRANGER, EMPLOYER, AND/OR COLLEAGUE. OF THESE CRIMES, LESS THAN 50% ARE REPORTED TO THE POLICE.
  IT'S TIME TO MAKE A CHANGE.  http://takebackthenight.org/

February 1, 2014 – What is it like to be a Black woman working in the construction trades in America? And if I’m not that woman, why should I care? How does her life impact mine?

The answer to that question will become apparent when you join the August Wilson Red Door Project and Portland Playhouse, who are co-hosting My Walk Has Never Been Average as a Fertile Ground event, on February 1^st at 7:30 p.m.  Portland Playhouse is located at 602 NE Prescott Street. Tickets are $5.00 and are available through boxofficetickets.com at (503) 445-6658 or at this link: https://www.boxofficetickets.com/go/event?id=259245. Tickets are going fast.

My Walk Has Never Been Average is a multimedia presentation based on the lives of women whose stories are rarely told. more info:  http://www.theportlandalliance.org/breakingnews

 Portland Films:     http://www.theportlandalliance.org/film

PORTLAND, OR) – The Northwest Film Center is proud to announce the 37^th Portland International Film Festival (PIFF 37) dates and Opening Night films, as well as the inclusion of the newly renovated, state-of-the-art Empirical Theater at OMSI as a PIFF 37 venue.  This year’s Festival begins on February 6^th and will run through the 22^nd of the month.  Returning to an earlier model, the Festival will begin with Opening Night selections at multiple venues.  At OMSI and Cinema 21, the final work from master animator Hayao Miyazaki, THE WIND RISES, will screen at 6:45p.m., while the critically-acclaimed feature BELLE, starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Emily Watson, and Tom Wilkinson screens at the Whitsell Auditorium, located in the Portland Art Museum, at 7p.m. 

The Foals, in concert, Wonder Ballroom, Portland, December 2013; photograph: Larry Cwik

The Foals – In Concert, Portland,
December 2013

Larry Cwik

What kind of music do you get from a band influenced by Nirvana and the Talking Heads and the Aphex Twin genre of electronic music, a band also influenced by folk, metal, jazz, and gospel music? You get music by The Foals, a band from Oxford, England. They appeared in concert in December at Portland’s Wonder Ballroom as part of Portland station KNRK-FM’s annual December to Remember concert series.

Checkout a book review in the Alliance!
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/behindthebadge

"Habeas Corpus, which dates back more than 600 years to the Magna Carta, remains currently suspended. People who are arrested, at the discretion of the DHS, NSA, or other operatives in the executive branch of the government, have no right to know the charges against them."
BlueGreenAlliance

The BlueGreen Alliance... http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/bluegreenalliance ...unites 14 of our country’s largest unions and environmental organizations. Acting together, through more than 15 million members and supporters, we are a powerful voice for building a cleaner, fairer and more competitive American economy.

No Fear, No Compromise, & No Surrender.
Shannon Wheeler's Too Much Coffee Man Portal
at The Portland Alliance

Arts & Culture

Visual Arts, Music, Theatre,

http://www.theportlandalliance.org/poetry
Alliance Poetry Page /
including poetry by Buddy Bee Anthony, Walidah Imarisha,
Christopher Luna, Theresa Kennedy Dupay / Nicole Taylor /
Dan Raphael /  Max Linden Levy, and Mary Otte
ThePortlandAlliance.org/MaryOtte
New Poetry from  Mary Ought Six

Cartoons, Movies,

Portland Films
Film Reviews & More...
theportlandalliance.org/film

Announcements

Checkout B-Media! Inequality for All Published on October 8th, 2013 At the heart of the film is a simple proposition: what is a good society, and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of our nation’s economic health? We are endeavoring for Inequality for All to be a paradigm-shifting, eye-opening experience for the American public. We want to accurately show through a non-partisan perspective why extreme income inequality is such an important topic for our citizens today and for the future of America. Starts Friday October 11th  6 0 - See more at: http://hollywoodtheatre.org/inequality-for-all/#sthash.MLjShSBy.ZqntgYHh.dpuf Inequality for All Published on October 8th, 2013 At the heart of the film is a simple proposition: what is a good society, and what role does the widening income gap play in the deterioration of our nation’s economic health? We are endeavoring for Inequality for All to be a paradigm-shifting, eye-opening experience for the American public. We want to accurately show through a non-partisan perspective why extreme income inequality is such an important topic for our citizens today and for the future of America. Starts Friday October 11th  6 0 - See more at: http://hollywoodtheatre.org/inequality-for-all/#sthash.MLjShSBy.ZqntgYHh.dpuf   www.bmediacollective.org:

Books & Book Reviews

A Portal to a story about Medical Marijuana, "Snake in the Grass" by Don Dupray http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/snake http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/heartless   "Utterly Heartlesss," by Jan Underwood   "Who would kill a Latin professor and cut her heart out? A jealous colleague? A union-busting dean? Or a student, driven to violence by the treacheries of Latin syntax?" Jan Underwood's funny second novel is a murder mystery, a satire on the high cost of college, a work of magic realism and a love song to the Romance languages. Book Review of Cheryl Strayed's memoir Wild, by Theresa Kennedy DuPay http://www.theportlandalliance.org/bookreview/strayed ThePortlandAlliance.org/bookreview Capitalist Globalization Consequences, Resistance, and Alternatives by  Martin Hart-Landsberg Partners: ACLU: / American Civil Liberties Union AFL-CIO / AFD / Alliance for Democracy AMA / Backspace B-Media Collective Bread & Roses / CIO / Center for Intercultural Organizing Consult Hardesty "Consult Hardesty  concurs with the widening understanding that any sincere desire to reform PPB can only begin with the replacement of Chief Michael Reese." Consult Hardesty was an active participant at the ACLU NW Civil Liberties Conference panel on ‘Can We Have Police Accountability?’  Some say we were hecklers.   CAUSA / Latino immigrant rights CLG / Citizens for Legitimate Govt. Code Pink Common Dreams / CWA / Communication Workers of America Counterpunch DIA/Democracy in Action Democracy Now / Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) First Unitarian Church / FSP / Freedom Socialist Party General Strike Green Shadow Cabinet! Huffington Post Portal Idealist Jobs Portal ISO / International Socialist Org. Jobs w\ Justice / Kathy Kelly KBOO / Labor Notes Arts & Culture / AIPAC / Beatles / Books / Bradley Manning / Cartoons /  Civil Rights / Coal / Death Penalty / Drones / Economic Justice / Education / Election 2012 / Fascism / Fair Trade / F-29 / Environment / Film / Fluoridation Foreclosure / Topics:  G-R Health Care / Homeless / Iraq J-Street / Jill Stein / Justice Party /  Middle East / Music / Occupy Blog / Peace / Persian / Police / Post Office / Quotes Topics: S-Z STRIKE! / Theatre / The Pongo Fund / Torture / TPP /   Tri-Met / Union / Unionresource /  VDay / Viewpoints Visual Arts Voices in Action War & Peace / Women / Writing / WritingResource Yell   Come hear Steve Early talk about his new book "Save Our Unions: Dispatches from a Movement in Distress" Labor Radio / LGBTQ : Lesbian Bisexual Idealist Jobs Porta Gay Transgendr Queer / MRG / McKenzie River Gathering Milagro / Mobile T's Cover the News Mosaic / Move-On / Move to Amend PDX NAACP / NWLaborPress Occupy / OEA / Oregon Education Assoc. Occupy PDX / Oregon Peace & Justice / Peace House Peace & Justice Works Peace worker / Peter Parks' Portal PCASC / PDX Central America Solidarity Committee. PPRC / PDX Peaceful Response PDX Rising Portland Solidarity Network Resist Right 2 Dream Too / Sisters of The Road Street Roots / Skanner / The Skanner Foundation's 2014 Martin Luther King Breakfast In a departure from our usual format, The Skanner News will take three questions for speaker Bruce Goldberg from the floor… For all the information click here SocialistWorker.org / The Nation / TruthOut / The 99% Urban League / Veterans for Peace / VFP / Veterans for Peace Voz / Workers Rights Education War Resisters League We Are Oregon Whitefeather Witness for Peace / Writingresource.org Topics: A-F Arts & Culture / AIPAC / Beatles / Books / Bradley Manning / Cartoons /  Civil Rights / Coal / Death Penalty / Drones / Economic Justice / Education / Election 2012 / Fascism / Fair Trade / F-29 / Environment / Film / Fluoridation Foreclosure / Topics:  G-R Health Care / Homeless / Iraq J-Street / Jill Stein / Justice Party /  Middle East / Music / Occupy Blog / Peace / Persian / Police / Post Office / Quotes Topics: S-Z STRIKE! / Theatre / The Pongo Fund / Torture / TPP /   Tri-Met / Union / Unionresource /  VDay / Viewpoints Visual Arts Voices in Action War & Peace / Women / Writing / WritingResource Yell

Coming up in April!

2014: New York City’s homeless population continues to grow

By Elliott Vernon
3 January 2014

According to the 2013 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) presented to Congress by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in November, nearly 64,000 people, including 22,000 children, are homeless in New York City.

In 2013, the number of homeless in New York City increased by 13 percent compared to January 2012. New York State led the nation with the largest increase over 2012. These statistics, coming on top of federal cuts to unemployment benefits and food stamps, reveal the increasing misery in the city with the largest number of billionaires on the planet.
Homeless in America:
http://www.ThePortlandAlliance.org/homeless

The Rise of R2D2:

By Brendan Welch

The homeless are coming!

...Right 2 Dream Too, a non-profit Portland based organization, began renting an empty lot on SW 4^th and Burnside in October 2011. The goal was to set up a safeO refuge for the homeless of Portland seeking respite from the elements on the condition that those sheltering would abstain from drugs and violence.