Posted May 16, 2014
I entered into Portland's Water War back in June of 2013, earlier than that if you count the anti-fluoride campaign. Along the way, two major events happened that I did not expect. More recently of the two, Melissa Binder at The Oregonian mentioned my name as a reference and linked to my blog.
That's way better than the time back in 2001 when I was interviewed at Escape From New York Pizza by a local TV news station (sorry I don't remember which one and I don't have a working VCR at the moment to check the tape). They were fishing for no doubt predetermined sound bites from naive people like me (at the time) who believed that invading Afghanistan was necessary, but were also concerned for innocent civilians. What a sucker I was for "humanitarian intervention".
And it was much more personal exposure than the time I got on the front cover of the Oregonian, one of a small percentage of the 10,000 opening day Occupy Portland protesters who happened to be in that photo.
I also exchanged emails with Carla Castaño at KOIN6 and had in-person conversations with Matthew Korfhage at Willamette Week. I'm glad to see the investigative journalism and honored to be recognized as an activist for Portland water & political reform.
I also had the good fortune of being invited by fellow activists to host, develop, and generally get involved in a new fact checking & whistleblowing website. Our first offering -- which I hope will receive thorough examination and ideally widespread dissemination by the above-mentioned media sources and many others hint hint wokka wokka -- is a 40+ year chronology of cronyism and conflict of interest with negative impact against the common good. It reveals the parties involved in manipulating the EPA LT2 rule making process, the National Academy's report on radon in drinking water, the Oregon Health Authority's "decision" on a variance for our open reservoirs, the City's feigned "attempt" to save them, the potential for a west coast intergovernmental agency fronted by CH2M Hill that could be formed without a public vote, the ubiquitous involvement of former PWB director Joe Glicker (current CH2M VP), and more.
Ladies and gentlemen I present to you:
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