2011 got off with a bang in beautiful, walkable, sustainable downtown Portland as a fight outside a club on SW 9th and Taylor escalated into a shooting. One is dead, while the number of injured is unknown.
Officers on scene reported seeing several hundred people exiting the club and in the street at the time of the shooting.
And Oregonians get to pay an additional 6 cents per gallon for gasoline, starting today. If you make minimum wage in Oregon, you just got a 10-cent hourly pay raise. These two increases alone should go far toward reducing the state's glut of jobs, goods, and services.
Still, things could be worse. You could be living in California, where 725 new laws take effect today. It's great to see that they've solved all of their other problems so that they could address the really important things like banning trans-fats in food facilities (which one might suspect involves restaurants). This is good news, as the Constitution clearly empowers governments to regulate time, place, and manner of food preparation and consumption.
Meet the New Year.
Same as the Old Year.
