Governor John Kitzhaber really WAS going to quit yesterday, according to several of the Oregonian's sources, who went into remarkably deep, keen, and insightful detail about the governor's decision-making over the past several days. Seems some time after calling Secretary of State Kate Brown, his successor, back to Oregon, he changed his mind. The turnabout—and defiant statement yesterday affirming his new decision—came after meeting with his lawyer and his fiancée and partner in scandal, Cylvia Hayes.
Need a cab? In case you missed it, Dirk was the only reporter in the room yesterday watching the city's taxi control board nimbly approve the largest single increase in taxi permits Portland's ever seen.
"The Oregon Court of Appeals, for the first time in state history, issued a de facto warning to all Oregonians on the issue: If you have an STD"—like, say, herpes, which is uncurable—"and engage in unprotected sex without first warning your partner, you could end up paying—big time." Big time like $900,000 big time.
An experiment in more flexible police staffing downtown, in inner Southeast, and in Southwest Portland is troubling some anonymous veteran cops and the police union—the latter of which is using it as an argument for hiring more officer.
The wailing here about Terminal 6 losing Hanjin Shipping is part of a much bigger story about a labor dispute with between longshore workers and port officials up and down the West Coast.
Vladimir Putin, who reportedly pressured rebels into going along with it all, was allowed the honor of announcing a new Ukraine cease-fire, effective February 15. It's not a stretch to say the deal, despite smiles today, remains incredibly fragile. Especially amid news that Russia's been spotted moving dozens of tanks and armored vehicles across its border with Ukraine like nothing's changed.
After the fall of Yemen's government to Iranian-allied Islamist militants, prominent western nations' decided to flee the place in a bit of a rush. The militants reportedly seized leftover American vehicles and weapon caches
Virginity, for high school girls in part of Indonesia, almost became a new graduation requirement. Until everyone freaked out.
Thanks, anti-vaxxers! Someone with measles spent the past few days commuting 35 minutes each way on the San Francisco Bay Area's BART trains—possibly exposing tens of thousands of people to a disease that was supposed to have been wiped out by now.
Muslims across the world are questioning and mourning the loss of three beloved University of North Carolina students gunned down by a neighbor in what police are frantically trying to paint as a dispute over parking—even as they also allow the possibility of a hate crime.
New York City set a big deal record that wouldn't be such a big deal in other places: It's gone 10 days without a killing.
MURDER! OH GOOD HEAVENS.