Rep. Richard Curtis (R - La Center) tells the Columbian "I am not gay."

Unlike the last politician to use that phrase, Curtis isn't accused of committing a crime, he's the apparent victim. Police tell our corporate cousins at KREM in Spokane that Curtis was in Eastern Washington on a retreat with his fellow Republicans when he had a sexual encounter with another man. On Friday, someone reported Curtis was being extorted.

At this point, that's about all we know. It sounds like police and Curtis will have more to say tomorrow.

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 7:11 PM | Permalink

Mayor Tom Potter says he's "not ashamed" of walking out of last night's city council meeting.

Here's my question: If not Interstate Ave., which street should Portland rename to honor Cesar Chavez? Or should all streets be off the table?

Sean Cruz makes the case for renaming Killingsworth instead. Others have said we should look at libraries or parks instead of streets.

Make your case (or link to your case) in the comments.

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 2:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)

In light of the heated discussions underway over police not issuing citations in bike/auto crashes, a few data points to consider:

There have been two bike/auto crashes in the last 24 hours.

• The first happened last night at SW 4th & Madison. Police say the cyclist was heading the wrong way down Madison, blew through a red light, and got hit by a pickup truck. The cyclist appeared uninjured. The cyclist was cited for driving the wrong way on a one-way street and failing to obey a traffic control device.
  
  
• The second happened early this morning at SE 17th & Schiller. In that case, police say a PT Cruiser made a left turn and hit an oncoming bicycle. It was dark and foggy, but the cyclist had lights on the front and back of his bike.  He was taken to the hospital, but didn't have any trauma injuries or broken bones. The driver of the PT Cruiser was cited for making a dangerous left turn.

Portland Police Sgt. Brian Schmautz called to clarify a sentence from my previous post, and we discussed today's crashes in light of the deadly bike crashes this month. Schmautz explained that citations were issued by the officers on the scene because they weren't fatal crashes.

Any time someone is killed in a crash, the case is automatically referred to and reviewed by the District Attorney's office, and the DA's office makes the decision whether or not to bring criminal charges. If the DA doesn't bring charges, the case goes back to the investigating officer, who then has the option of issuing a traffic citation based on the evidence from the scene.

In other words: not issuing a citation at the scene is standard procedure for fatal crashes. That's an important distinction that wasn't clear enough in my previous post. Schmautz also emphasized that officers don't make a recommendation of whether or not to bring charges -- they gather evidence and report to the DA.

Obviously, police do still have the option of arresting a driver at the scene of a crash if there's obvious evidence of a crime (as you often see in DUI cases), but officers didn't find that evidence at the crashes that killed Brett Jarolimek and Tracey Sparling.

One more data point from Sgt. Schmautz, who is clearly concerned about the tone of the discussions taking place:

• For January through August 2007, Portland Police issued around 72,000 traffic citations. Of those, less than 1,000 were issued to cyclists. I realize the math is a little fuzzy, but that means cyclists received less than 1.4% of traffic tickets.
  
  
• According to the most recent numbers I could find, cyclists accounted for 4.4% of all trips to work in Portland in 2006. Bottom line: at least as far as traffic tickets go, Portland Police are not going after cyclists at a disproportionate rate.

I asked Sgt. Schmautz about attorney Mark Ginsberg's argument that police are reading a non-existent mens rea requirement into Oregon law when it comes to failure-to-yield tickets. He referred me to Lt. Krueger for that -- I'll try to get a hold of him during the day tomorrow and report back.

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 6:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I'm not sure they're going to hang a plaque on the wall for this honor, but the Washingon State Patrol was just named America's "Best-Dressed State Law Enforcement Agency" by the National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors.

First off: The National Association of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors? Wow. There's a trade association for everything.

Secondly, I'd feel a whole lot better if I ever got pulled over by a trooper in a bow tie:

Judges were impressed by the Washington troopers' formal uniform, which includes the black bow tie on a long-sleeved blue shirt, with darker blue pocket flaps, epaulets and cuffs. (Link)

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 12:24 PM | Permalink

As word spreads of Sam Adams (patriot, brewer) sending nastygrams to KEX's Mark & Dave for buying domain names in support of Sam Adams (politician, non-brewer), the inevitable boycott has begun. Rusty blogs:

I call on whoever sees this to boycott Sam Adams Beer for being un-American and generally ridiculous, for having no sense of humor, and for generally sucking. And, while you're at it, tell them they suck and that they should drop this idiotic issue before they get even more negative press than they're already getting from it. (Link)

Here's Scott Burton's take on the story from Tuesday night.

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 10:23 AM | Permalink

Update, Thursday 7:00 pm: This post has a follow-up with details on two new bike/auto crashes in which a driver and a cyclist received citations.

We had a rather heated discussion in the newsroom this afternoon about the tragic death of Brett Jarolimek, the cyclist killed in a crash with a garbage truck on Monday.

The one thing I couldn't figure out: why wasn't the garbage truck driver cited under ORS 811.050 -- Failure to yield to rider on bicycle lane? It's a short law:

A person commits the offense of failure of a motor vehicle operator to yield to a rider on a bicycle lane if the person is operating a motor vehicle and the person does not yield the right of way to a person operating a bicycle... upon a bicycle lane. (Link, those ellipses shortened a long list of other things you can ride in a bike lane.)

That seemed cut and dry to me, but Portland Police see a more nuanced situation.

I called up Portland police spokesman Sgt. Brian Schmautz for clarification. He said that yielding the right of way, and determining whether a traffic violation has occurred, comes down to a matter of perception. Basically, the driver has to perceive he has to yield the right of way. ("Perceive" came up a lot in our conversation.)

In this case, did the truck driver reasonably believe it was safe to turn? Schmautz said a witness to the crash saw the garbage truck pass the cyclist at the top of the hill, and turn on his right turn signal well before the turn. The truck began its turn around two blocks ahead of the bicycle. The question the investigating officers had to decide: would a reasonable person in that circumstance believe he could safely turn?

Schmautz noted that in some cases, "speed negates right of way." He brought up a rather odd analogy, noting that if one driver is making a left turn, and an oncoming driver traveling 110 mph crashes into him, the left turn driver certainly isn't at fault. So I asked how fast Jarolimek was traveling. Schmautz's answer: we don't know. So much for that analogy, then.

The investigating officers made their decision "based on the totality of circumstances" at the scene, Schmautz said. In this case, the witness statement and length of the skid mark left by the bicycle led police to decide not to issue any citations so far.

The case is now in the hands of the District Attorney's office. If prosecutors find evidence of negligence or recklessness, they could bring criminal charges, but police aren't recommending that.

Clarification from Sgt. Schmautz, Thursday 4:30 pm: Police don't make recommendations as to whether charges should be filed -- they collect evidence and report to the DA's office, which makes the decision about filing charges.

If the DA's office doesn't file charges, the investigating officers could still issue a traffic citation later on.

While it appears unlikely anything will happen to the truck driver in this case, the deaths of Brett Jarolimek and Tracey Sparling are leading to a broader discussion about cyclist safety and the rather confusing state of Oregon law when it comes to bike lanes.

Jonathan at BikePortland just reported that Sam Adams is planning an "emergency meeting" to avoid more dead cyclists. Lots of BikePortland commenters have observed that punishing drivers who kill cyclists would be a good start.

What do you think: Is this an enforcement problem? An education problem? A road design problem? All of the above? Can Portland's diverse bike community agree on what should happen next? Have at it in the comments.

Update, Wednesday 12:02 pm:
Jonathan Maus follows up with an interview with bike lawyer Mark Ginsburg, who says

"The cops are miscontruing the law in a biased way. There's no mental state requirement [also known by its latin name of "mens rea"] for traffic violations. You can accidentally run a red light, or purposely run a red light, either way you are guilty."(Link)

Ginsburg isn't the only lawyer getting involved now. Jonathan also posts a scan of this flyer handed out last night by attorney Robert Reid, and says Robert Mionske will make the crash the subject of an upcoming VeloNews column.

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 6:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (104)

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 5:53 PM | Permalink

Huffington Post blogger Chris Case had a not-so-pleasant experience flying from Portland to LA on Horizon.

When my wife and I got to the airport, we were informed that I was checked in but she was in danger of being bumped off the flight because it was oversold. I reacted to this news by informing the agent I felt that this was "unfair." The ticket was pre-purchased. We were traveling together. It was the last flight of the night and we needed to be on it. I was firm but I wasn't overly aggressive -- no cursing, no loud talking, no six vodka tonics before boarding (three, max). Plain and simple, the woman behind the counter was being a derogatory term for the female anatomy. I asked if I could speak to a supervisor, to which she replied, "Go sit down or you can talk to the police." After I wondered aloud if Sting and Stuart Copeland were on the flight, she repeated herself. "Go sit down or you can talk to the police." Yep, she was serious. She was trying to turn a minor disagreement into a jail-worthy confrontation. (Link)

Case isn't the only one who's run into overzealous airline employees. The Consumerist ran this frightening story of an ATA flight attendant who tried to get a passenger arrested for using his iPhone... in airplane mode!

What do you think -- is "do what I say or I'll call the cops" the new mantra for power-tripping airline employees?

Posted by Aaron Weiss at 4:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Maybe they just wanted an early listen. Or maybe they suspect a top-selling Northwest rock group of being a terrorist front. Either way, guitarist and producer Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie says Border Patrol guards snagged the master recording of his new solo album as a courier tried to bring it across the border from a Canadian recording studio to a Seattle-based record label.

As Walla writes on his blog, he's been told it's at "computer forensics" in Quantico, but no one can tell him what that means. A spokesman for the U.S. Customs Agency told the AP he doesn't have any information on the seizure, but is looking into it. No truth to the rumor neighbors have knocked on the windows over at Quantico yelling at them to turn down the music.

The folks over at Pitchfork are smelling a conspiracy - turns out, the album, named Field Manual is "very political" and touches on

"the war in Iraq, Hurricane Katrina, and contraception. One wonders just how a border guard might've gleaned all that from a sidelong glance at the hard drive from under the courier's arm. Scary..."

Anyways, Walla has back-up copies he's now working with, and Field Manual is scheduled for a January '08 release. Death Cab is also working on a new album. Walla has a tight Portland connection - he's produced albums for local tunesters The Decembrists and The Thermals.

Posted by Rich Kurz at 2:27 PM | Permalink

In case you missed it, Stephen Colbert's new book hit stores this week (ok, fine, I'll link to it here). Titled I Am America (And So Can You!), the Comedy Central host hopes to get viewers to turn off the TV and pick up a book - at least after The Colbert Report ends.

Colbert covered the opening sales "rush" on his show the other night, with a shout-out - or is it shout-down? - of Portland, and Powell's Books. Check out the clip from the show. At a nighttime event, fans clutching beers line up to buy the book. But when the camera catches the cash register knocking off a few bucks for a sale price, Colbert sees his earnings taking a hit. And Powell's be warned - Colbert wants his $8. And at the rate sales are going, he'll want a lot more. I Am America (And So Can You!) ranks #5 on Powell's best-seller charts as of Wednesday.

Posted by Rich Kurz at 6:15 PM | Permalink

So fall lasted all of six hours this year - all that means is that ski season is just days away (right?). Need proof? Just check out the forecast. Newschannel-8 meteorologist Joe Michaels is predicting snow down to 3500 feet. That's below pass level at Govy. Need more proof? Check out the webcams up at Timberline Lodge - snow, snow everywhere! Same deal over at the top of Mt. Hood Express at Mt. Hood Meadows.

Oh.... and there's this. Warren Miller's latest film, Playground, hits Salem on the 25th of October, and Portland the next night. Click here for the schedule.

And we're now less than a month away from the Portland Ski and Snowboard show. Bring on winter - with any luck, the slopes will be covered in white and the lifts will be running by then.

Posted by Rich Kurz at 11:16 AM | Permalink