ARTS: Who brought the Bacon to Portland? 7 COVER STORY: Voices 2014: Portlanders with not-so-crazy ideas. 9
DARRYL JAMES
WILL VOTERS GET A SAY ON A CONVENTION HOTEL?
Opponents of a proposed publicly subsidized hotel at the Oregon Convention Center were planning to force a vote on the question in the November 2014 election. Project opponents—downtown hoteliers who object to the $80 million subsidy underpinning the deal—wanted to challenge the way Multnomah County would handle lodging taxes in the deal. But county counsel Jenny Madkour last week determined that part of the deal isn’t subject to a public vote. Metro, the regional government, is leading plans for the $200 million Hyatt hotel project. Representatives from hotel opponents didn’t respond to WW’s calls to say if they would challenge the county counsel’s decision. “There’s an opportunity for appeal,” County Chairwoman Marissa Madrigal tells WW. “We’ll do whatever the court compels us to do.”
A N N A J AY E G O E L L N E R
Salvador Ibarra, a witness in a massive immigration fraud case, remains in a federal detention lockup in Tacoma, awaiting deportation to Mexico. But one of Ibarra’s attorneys, Alison Hall Sundby, says she’s more optimistic now that U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall’s office has twice communicated an interest in helping keep Ibarra in the United States since WW wrote about him last week (“Between ICE and a Hard Place,” WW, Dec. 25, 2013). “They are initiating efforts on their end to continue working with him as a witness and helping to secure his release from Tacoma,” Hall Sundby says. “They are interested in ensuring he’s available.” Ibarra can provide evidence of fraud that was the subject of a recent cover story (“Greed Card,” WW, Nov. 27, 2013) about two southern Oregon “notarios” who allegedly bilked scores of undocumented residents out of as much as $1 million with phony promises of help with immigration paperwork. Marshall’s office, which has not brought charges in the case, didn’t respond to questions. Progressive radio host Carl Wolfson is coming back to the airwaves this month. Nonprofit startup XRAY. FM—which aims to return talk-show personalities Wolfson and Thom Hartmann to Portland radio alongside local indie-rock shows—in 14 days collected $44,000 on fundraising website KickWOLFSON starter. That’s more than it needs to begin broadcasting in January as KXRY 90.1 FM. The pledge drive is organized by former state representative and Portland mayoral candidate Jefferson Smith, who is returning to public life with his own XRAY.FM talk show (“Air Apparent,” WW, Oct. 9, 2013). Smith is looking for further donations to buy “a station larger than a breadbox.” If XRAY. FM raises enough money, Smith says, the station will seek a studio with a restroom. Read more Murmurs and daily scuttlebutt. 6
Willamette Week JANUARY 1, 2014 wweek.com