The City Club of Portland has released a new report: The Future of Money in Oregon Politics: Recommendations for policymakers (January 6, 2021).
They have made it available in front of their paywall so you can read it without being a City Club member. (Thank you to City Club members!)
City Club research tip: Portland State University has a collection of City Club of Portland 1920-2007 reports via PDX Scholar.)
Plots thicken. Yes, they do. The “little red house” saga in Portland, Oregon, is a perfect example.
One article by journalists working with Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) summed up What We Know So Far, as of December 10, 2020, which, as you know if you continue to follow the story, had to be updated the next day and the next day and ….
The lesson to be learned here is always to listen, breathe, stop, read, research, listen, stop, sleep, read, and breathe again before you decide where you stand on an (or any) idea, news story, or shouted slogan.
The owls and the tree huggers weren’t to blame after all (surprise, surprise):
“Big Money Bought Oregon’s Forests. Small Timber Communities Are Paying The Price,” by Tony Schick, The Oregonian and Lylla Younes, ProPublica, and OPB, June 11, 2020:
Excerpts:
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has an excellent Library Resources website for librarians who manage their library’s programming, websites, and research and reference services.
“SO YOUR CLIENT WANTS TO RAISE MONEY ON THE INTERNET
When: Wednesday, March 26, 2014, 12:00
Where: Kell’s Irish Restaurant & Pub, 112 SW 2nd Ave, Portland, OR
A free e-Book: 60+ Ways to Get Rid of Your Student Loans (Without Paying Them) (From SALT.)
More about this e-Book:
You might enjoy this “What’s in a Name?” blog post on Ezekiel the Banker as much as I did:
Excerpt: “.... The bank manager’s name is Ezekiel. He is the first Ezekiel I have ever known. I am a big believer that people try to live up to the promise of their name. Ezekiel, of course, was an Old Testament prophet who had wondrous visions, and he was a prophet, whose prophecies turned out to be quite accurate. So that’s another reason why I signed up with this bank. The fact that an Ezekiel would be guiding me through the process of financing my new house project really appealed to me. He has not disappointed me. He indeed been very prophetic in telling me when to dip into the well for more money at the most advantageous lending rate available….” [Link to full blog post, by Will Manley, retired librarian and city manager.]
Yes, Charles Dickens was very hard on lawyers, but he also had at least one lawyer hero (albeit a rather reluctant one, but definitely endearing rather than greedy or diabolical) and maybe more than one.
My favorite Dickens novel, “Our Mutual Friend,” has a nice-guy lawyer hero – 2 in fact – and as fabulous an array of characters as you’ll find in any Dickens’ writing.
A recent bill in the Oregon Legislature, 2009 HB 3274 (HTML or PDF), and a question from a patron, started me thinking about what my research strategy might look like if I had to draft legislation on this subject or if I had to argue for or against taxing marijuana sales (medical marijuana or other uses, if any).
(There was also this recent New York Times story: Struggling States Look to Unorthodox Taxes, by Jesse McKinley, February 28, 2009.)
And, I attended an interesting program recently on evidence-based research (origins in evidence-based medicine), which gave me even more ideas on sources one would need to consult to write the definitive guide to marijuana research, or even just marijuana taxation.
Oregon Legal Research Blog