Here’s Part III of WW’s June 30 interview with Attorney General John Kroger. In this segment, Kroger discusses the ethics of Mayor Sam Adams’ attorneys as well as the conflicting accounts told by Adams and Beau Breedlove (Since WW’s interview earlier this week with Kroger, Breedlove has given his own interview with KGW in which he asks what his motive would be to lie)
Check back throughout the week for new video installments of WW’s interview with Kroger.
Last night’s sold-out soccer game between the Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders has fans preparing for more big crowds at PGE Park in 2011, when the Timbers officially join the Sounders in Major League Soccer competition.
In the meantime, the Timbers’ biggest fans, the Timbers Army, are taking steps to prepare for another development: the creation of a new nonprofit group in Portland dedicated to soccer.
Jeremy Wright of the Timbers Army writes:
The name is going to be “Pitch Invasion” and the concept is to utilize the human resources of the Timbers Army to go out and work with local soccer clubs, the City of Portland, local municipalities and school districts to fix up soccer pitches across the city that are currently used by kids and are not well maintained. We will concentrate our efforts in areas that are under funded, lower income and/or have a district incapable of maintaining the pitches.
We recognize that despite the best efforts of the institutions responsible for these fields there are simply not enough resources to prioritize field maintenance. Many of us are involved with local youth and adult soccer leagues and we see on a daily basis the dire state many of these fields are in. We see an opportunity to make a difference for the kids and the game in the Portland area. It also fits with our mission statement of supporting soccer in the Rose City from the grassroots to the highest professional level.
In other soccer news, the Portland City Council will consider an ordinance (PDF) on Wednesday, July 8, to increase the city’s contract with Ball Janik LLP from a maximum of $100,000 to a maximum of $225,000. Ball Janik has provided outside legal counsel for services related to the city’s deal with Timbers-owner Merritt Paulson to revamp PGE Park for Major League Soccer.
Photo of Wednesday night’s game against Seattle, courtesy Jeremy Wright
A Tigard lawyer who publishes complaints to the Oregon State Bar on the web faces a lawsuit by a Eugene lawyer claiming libel.
Former Rogue of the Week Daniel Bernath (pictured above) keeps a website where he claims to publish all complaints against Oregon lawyers submitted to the bar. Toward the bottom of that web page is the following statement:
“Michael Vergamini This Oregon lawyer committed malpractice.”
A link after that statement goes to a separate page that appears to reprint the text of a bar complaint against Vergamini brought by client Christopher Wood. The complaint claims Vergamini ignored a witness subpoena to appear in court. Bar spokeswoman Kateri Walsh says the bar is still investigating the complaint.
On June 25, Vergamini sued Bernath in Multnomah County Circuit Court for $175,000. Vergamini claims Bernath committed libel by publishing a false statement that Vergamini committed malpractice. The lawsuit notes that Bernath’s website yields search engine results saying “Michael Vergamini committed malpractice.”
Bernath has an interesting back story. He was denied membership by the Oregon State Bar in 1998 for “lack of good moral character.” The decision pointed to Bernath’s one-year suspension from the California Bar in 1995 for failure to pay child support and cashing a client’s settlement check without her permission. Bernath, according to the decision, also failed to report a $34,000 judgment against him for malicious prosecution and destroyed all his case files from California when he moved to Oregon in the late 1990s.
Despite not being a member of the bar, Bernath represents clients trying to cliam payments from the Social Security Administration, which allows anyone to represent clients in its courts.
Reached by WW for comment on the lawsuit against him, Bernath was still smarting from his Rogue of the Week moment in 2005.
“Are you gonna be a little whore of a journalist too, or are you gonna be fair?” he asked this reporter.
On the lawsuit, Bernath repeated his claim that Vergamini “committed malpractice,” citing the bar complaint.
“He says he didn’t commit malpractice. That’s something for the Oregon State Bar to determine, and others,” Bernath said. “All I’ve done is publish the official complaint that some citizen made against him.”
Read about more Juicy Suits here.
There were a couple of “money quotes” in today’s story in The Oregonian about President Obama’s response to the Healthy Americans Act proposed by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Obama was quoted in the roundtable with The O’s Charles Pope and other reporters as saying he agreed with “90 percent” of Wyden’s thinking on the topic but that parts of the plan were too “radical” for the country.
Guess which part Wyden focused on when WW reached him this afternoon for his comment on the A-1 piece in The O.
“Whenever the president of the United States says he agrees with 90 percent of what you’re doing, I say with a smile, ‘Mr. President, that sounds pretty good. Let’s go get the other 10 percent,”‘ said Wyden, a former colleague in the Senate with Obama.
As for the president’s comment that the plan is too “radical,” Wyden pushed back by questioning how that could be when the Congressional Budget Office has concluded the bill — unlike other proposals floating around the Capitol — would be budget-neutral and has support from 14 Republicans and Democrats.
Obama is not alone among Democrats or their union allies in shooting down Wyden’s proposal, which would de-couple health insurance from employment by giving workers their health benefits in the form of a pay raise (along with tax deductions for that pay increase) — making them responsible for going out and buying their insurance.
When asked how his bill could survive given that the president wouldn’t support it, Wyden responded, “I’ve never said the legislative process is my way or the highway … The president says he’s for 90 percent of what we’re thinking and we’ve got 14 senators, I say we’ve got a lot to work with.”
“The shaping of the landscape where we live can no longer be achieved by the traditional resources of town planning, urban design, and architecture. New ways must be explored, which are as yet unclear.”
-Thomas Sieverts, German urban planner
inspiration for suddenly
Hannes Wingate digging a fire pit in the I-5 median. Photo by Michael Mcmanus.
Michael Hebb is a wild man. From his bizarre survival experiments in the median on I-5 to his aversion to textual capitalization, the former Portland restaurateur and founder of the corridor project is nothing if not eccentric. His latest escapade, suddenly: where we live now, is aimed at “re-imagining our relationship to the built and natural environment.” The group of involved artists, who include Hebb, Elias Hansen, Michael McManus, Hannes Wingate, Molly Dilworth, and many others, seek to reshape the identity of Seattle as an urban space through a series of art displays, literature and “activities.”
One such activity, called Corridor Project IIII: habitat, transpired on June 22. Hebb, Michael McManus and Hannes Wingate plunged into the questionable wilderness of a highway median on I-5, bearing nothing more than two knives, a hatchet, and food and water to last the adventurers three days. As Hebb puts it, the goal of the expedition was “creating habitat—making fire, cooking, and building a shelter, tables, chairs, and other objects such as eating utensils, rope, brooms, and mats exclusively from materials found on site.” The results and photographs from the project will be presented July 3 at Corridor V: sieverts in the square, a one pot dinner and art opening hosted by curator Stephanie Snyder to kick off the suddenly exhibition, which will continue with subsequent events though July 15th. Check out Hebb’s corridor project blog for a event full listing and more information on his roguish ways, and click here for tickets to the kickoff dinner.
UPDATE: Woolson resigned Thursday evening, as reported here by the Portland Business Journal. Below is the original story WW ran earlier Thursday.
Next Thursday, July 9, will bring the next round in the face-off between Metro Council President David Bragdon and Metropolitan Exposition Recreation Commission CEO David Woolson (above).
As previously reported, Bragdon wants to oust Woolson. Through the quirky relationship between Metro and MERC, Woolson indirectly reports to Bragdon though Bragdon has no direct authority over him.
On Monday, July 6, Bragdon is expected to name two new MERC Commissioners: former legislator and Lake Oswego Mayor Judie Hammerstad and Cynthia Haruyama, executive director of the Portland Classical Chinese Garden.
Those appointments, should they be confirmed, would fill two of the three empty seats on the seven-member MERC Commission. MERC — which operates the Schnitz, the Expo Center and the Oregon Convention Center — is part of Metro but has its own independent board.
That board has acted extemely independently lately: six of its seven members rejected Bragdon’s push to get rid of Woolson, a former entertainment lawyer who has built strong ties with his board and enjoys the support of his staff. In the subsequent skirimishing, two board members resigned. A third — board chairman Don Trotter, the only member who supports Bragdon’s desire that Woolson leave — also quit because he won election to a Clackamas fire board. By MERC rules, that meant Trotter had to step down.
On July 9, Metro councillors are scheduled to vote on a resolution that would change the reporting relationship with MERC, allowing Metro councillors, who are publicly elected, to hire and fire the MERC boss.
The MERC board beat back a similar challenge to its autonomy in 2003; if history is any guide, this week’s meeting at Metro Council chambers at 2:00 pm should be a barnburner.
Diabetes. It sucks, and it’s everywhere. I have a family history of the disease, which disrupts the body’s ability to properly break down sugars, and lots of relatives whose lives are rendered colorless and bland by the inability to drink alcohol. For this reason, I was given yogurt instead of ice cream as a child. All birthday cake has a specter of doom lingering over it.
Luckily, diabetes can be staved off with a combination of the right diet and exercise. That makes the Portland Tour de Cure, on July 25, a particularly fitting fundraiser, a bike ride fit for all ages and athletic abilities through the Willamette Valley. You can register for anywhere from a fun 10-miler all the way up to the staggering 110-miler. Themed rest stops, along with food and live music, will accompany the riders along the way out and back from Hillsboro Stadium.
Funds raised benefit the American Diabetes Association. And you can keep an eye out for the Red Riders, who are riders with type 1 or type 2 diabetes. If you have diabetes yourself, you can also register as a Red Rider and get–in addition to tons of support–free gifts.
To ride in the Tour de Cure or find other ways to participate as a vendor or donor, visit the website here or contact Kris Bockmier at kbockmier@diabetes.org.
Portland Tour de Cure, Hillsboro Stadium, Hwy 26 at Cornelius Pass Road, Saturday, July 25. 6 am-5 pm. $25.
Here’s Part II of WW’s June 30 interview with Attorney General John Kroger. In this segment, Kroger discusses Mayor Sam Adams’ level of cooperation with the investigation along with Beau Breedlove’s motives (Since WW’s interview earlier this week with Kroger, Breedlove has given his own interview with KGW in which he asks what his motive would be to lie)
Check back throughout the week for new video installments of WW’s interview with Kroger.
Beau Breedlove tells KGW that Mayor Sam Adams lied about whether or not the two kissed in a City Hall bathroom before Breedlove turned 18, and that he’s angry at the mayor for leaving him to look like the liar in the situation
In his first interview since Attorney General John Kroger released his report last week about the Adams-Breedlove affair, Breedlove insists his story about the incident never changed. Breedlove says Adams and his attorneys worked to get a statement from Breedlove that omitted the alleged kissing between Adams and Breedlove when Breedlove was 17 (The age of consent for sexual contact in Oregon is 18.)
In the interview, Breedlove describes his reaction now as “mad” and “angry” toward Adams after reading Adams’ account in the AG’s report.
“I assumed he would tell the truth in the investigation,” Breedlove tells KGW. “And I assumed there would be some kind of safety net to prevent people from lying.”
“Up until recent weeks, I really thought I had a friendship with Sam,” Breedlove said. “I really thought I could trust him.”
“I had no reason to lie,” he said. “Sam had everything to gain by lying.”
The mayor is on vacation this week. and a message this morning seeking comment from Adams spokesman Roy Kaufmann has not yet been returned.
UPDATE: Mayoral spokesman Roy Kaufmann emailed a statement to WW that refers to the conclusions from Kroger’s report but does not respond directly to Breedlove’s comments about that report and the mayor. Here is the email from Kaufmann:
(Photo taken by Byron Beck)
Here’s Part I of WW’s June 30 interview with Attorney General John Kroger. In this segment, Kroger discusses the credibility of Beau Breedlove and whether investigators believe Breedlove is telling the truth. Check back throughout the week for new video installments of this interview.
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