MaxRedline

Go Buy Streetcar!

The TriMet board of directors on Wednesday adopted a $510.5 million budget for the 2016 fiscal year that promises to continue expanding and restoring services.

At the same time, the only fare increase pass by the board this year targets the agency's most financially vulnerable riders. Meanwhile, transit managers and other non-union employees will receive pay raises of up to 3 percent.

Gotta pay for two-car "trains" and streetcars somehow, and the best way to do that is to jack up fees on those least likely to be able to raise a ruckus. And hey, raises all around!

There Are People With More Money Than Brains

An Apple I computer - if you really want to call it that - sold for $200,000 to a collector in San Jose after a woman who was cleaning out the garage following her husband's death dropped it off at a recycling company. The company has an established policy of splitting any profits earned from a sale 50-50 to the donor, so they're looking for her. Presumably, "donors" are lined up around the block.

Related articles

Recycling center looking for woman who left rare $200,000 Apple I computer

Bend Over, And Place A Firm Grip On Your Wallet

Here's a surprise: Obamacare premiums are expected to increase sharply next year. Yeah, that's the "Affordable Healthcare Act", and who would ever have seen this coming? Certainly, no Democratics.

"We have to pass this bill so you can see what's in it!"

Well, Nanny, we're seeing it now, aren't we?

And here in Oregon - well, the bills are going up. The Democratics tried rewriting the employment contract to cut pension benefits to retired public employees a couple of years ago, and guess what? They ended up with a bit fat pocketful of Nope. In two years, we can expect howls for Moar Munny. For the children™!

The "Dread Pirate" And Brian Williams

The guy who created and ran the dark-web "Silk Road" site was sentenced Friday to life without parole. That was a particularly ugly story of a kid who thought he could outsmart the government and will now be our guest for the rest of his life. It was an amazingly successful - if stupid - idea: using TOR for anonymous dark-web access to a drug-selling marketplace and transacting business in BITCOIN was supposed to keep everything hidden?

Uhhh...TOR was built by the US government. If they really want to find you, does it not occur to you that they might have developed tools for that? Well, hey - at least he won't be having to buy Obamacare.

And speaking of idiocy, there's the whole Brian Williams/NBC mess. It appears that management there hope to keep Brian on in some capacity, though perhaps not as a "news anchor". Maybe they see him as a potential "Saturday Night Live" cast member?

Hot Town, Summer In The City

As we hit the half-way mark for the year, there already have been some 60 shootings or other "gang-related violence" - up 33% this year. The latest, in which three people were shot last Thursday was performed by a 16 year-old punk who claimed that one of the people he shot was "eyeing" him. Apparently that's punkspeak for "looking at him".

He didn't get far, and is now cooling his heels while looking at attempted murder and assorted other charges. It seems likely that charges relating to his illegal possession of the weapon will also be added to the list. Naturally, he wasn't from the northeast Portland neighborhood that he decided to shoot up.

And yet there are sure to be howls of protest from the usual suspects because the police are going to be getting a little more involved over there on the east side:

"Right now, this summer, tonight, we need to make sure they're being watched carefully, and that it's OK for police officers to stop and question people in the street," Hales said. "And everyone needs to understand that that's part of them doing their job. It's not about profiling. It's about doing our job."

It's a safe bet that the 22 year old "rapper" from the Pants Up! Don't Loot! crowd is going to be out in the streets with his buddies over this - depending on how his court appearance goes.

Never Fast Enough

As has been mentioned here previously, researchers appear to be making significant strides toward a cure for brain cancer. Unfortunately, it never seems to happen fast enough.

Zu Gnus

Apparently having been given the usual public employee choice of either being fired or resigning, Oregon Zoo's deputy director chose the latter and has now packed up and moved to Birmingham, Alabama, where he can presumably continue his longstanding policy of ruining otherwise fairly decent zoos by hiring incompetent staff.

Interestingly, this transition occurs on the heels of the Oregon Zoo's decision to euthanize a young, tuberculosis-ridden elephant while maintaining 53 year-old Packy, who also has TB. Of course, Packy is an attraction.

No elephants suffered from tuberculosis prior to a management decision to begin walking elephants around public spaces, against advice from veterinary and elephant management specialists.

Related articles

Cross An Elephant With A Rhino, And What Do You Get?

Certain Death, From The Ankles On Down

Our guard dog takes his job very seriously, and should you attempt to break through the steel-reinforced doors or otherwise attempt to gain access to our home, a merciless fate awaits.

When he gets ahold of your ankle (not if, but when) you're in serious trouble. There is no force in the known universe that will prevent him from stopping you via exsanguination. You're gonna bleed to death because of an ankle-biter.

I think it's the terrier in him; once he latches on, he shakes and rips, and once blood starts flowing, he goes full-auto. People always thing that it's the pit-bulls  or other big dogs that they have to be concerned about. Not so: it's the ankle-biting terriers that do the most damage.

Man, I like this dog.

Oregon Health Authority - Your Government At Work

A former employee in the public health division of the Oregon Health Authority committed misconduct in 56 case reports about Clostridium difficile infections in Klamath County, Oregon, as well as in a manuscript submitted to JAMA Internal Medicine and a published report in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report in March, 2012.

The paper — about a potentially deadly infection that’s a common feature of healthcare settings — has been cited 75 times, according to Thomson Scientific’s Web of Knowledge.

Yeah, well - they were probably too busy "overseeing" the Cover Oregon website thing to pay much attention. Or engaging in other important health stuff. There's so much deception and fraud in what passes for "science" today that the credibility of the entire body is now becoming questionable.

Heading off the critics: no, I'm not a "science denier". But what we see today was unheard of a few decades ago.

Another One Pulls The Plug On "Business-Friendly" Portland

Columbia Biogas planned to spend $55 million on a plant in northeast Portland that would convert food waste - in anaerobic digesters - into electricity and natural gas. But it appears that the price of doing business in "business-friendly Portland" has just become a little too much to handle.

Columbia Biogas is exploring opportunities elsewhere in Oregon to develop capacity to convert commercial and industrial food waste into renewable energy.

Smart move. Streetcar Charlie was all for a propane export facility at the Port of Portland, until he suddenly decided against it, and as noted here yesterday, the City Council's new park fees will add astronomical new costs to any development projects in Portland.