Local News

Bill Me Later

After taking a thumping over the past year, which has been characterized by cutbacks and staff layoffs, the city is ready to put the final stamp on its budget blueprint for the next two years. The council meets Wednesday night, after this issue has gone to press, to approve the final version of the 2009-11 City Budget. And it isn't pretty, especially for ratepayers who are getting socked with hefty increases for water and sewer services next year. Residents will see an additional 8.25 percent tacked onto their water bills and a hefty 14.5 percent increase in their sewer rates. Councilor Jim Clinton said he opposes both increases because the staff has failed to provide any incentive for conservation in the rate structure.
Clinton said he's particularly miffed about the new sewer rates, which are totally unrelated to actual water usage.
"It doesn't matter if you're the most heavy water user dumping millions of gallons down the drain, or you're the most frugal person on a fixed income who flushes your toilet twice a day," Clinton said.

courting race on the court."All of these folks are capable or they wouldn't have been considered for confirmation," offers Mathew McCoy as we start our discussion of Judge Sonia Sotomayor's ongoing confirmation to replace Justice David Souter on the Supreme Court. Sitting in his COCC office, I have obviously come to the right person for an insider's perspective on the process. McCoy witnessed the 27th failed nomination to the Supreme Court in our country's
history, and the most virulent - personal and political – attacks on otherwise qualified and respected judges.

Scott Van Bergen settled onto a bench at the back of U.S. District Judge James Redden's Portland courtroom on a Friday morning in March and waited for the ninth – or perhaps the 29th – round of Pacific Northwest salmon vs. the dams to begin. His high school zoology class had just studied endangered species, and his teacher offered him the opportunity to see where a significant part of the effort to save imperiled creatures takes place – the federal courts.
Van Bergen is a bright Oregon native who aspires to become a marine biologist. He hopes "there will be a movement to bring the river back to where it was naturally," and that healthy runs of wild salmon and steelhead will swim the Columbia and Snake rivers by the time he gets his college degree.