Nick Caleb News Today

The final weeks of the campaign to replace Rep. Earl Blumeaneur in Congress have been dominated by reporting on a single issue: the millions of dollars of outside spending that have flooded in to try to stop the candidacy of former Multnomah County Commissioner Susheela Jayapal. The money, as The Intercept and other outlets have reported, is coming predominantly from one source: AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby that appears to have soured on Jayapal for her...

Oil transport company Zenith Energy spent time courting Portland elected officials in 2022, hoping they would approve a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) allowing the company to continue its operations in the city. While Zenith's efforts were successful—the Portland Bureau of Development Services (BDS) approved the LUCS in 2022 after an initial denial the year prior—the company violated city lobbying rules in the process, according to the Portland Elections Office. In a Mar...

Why should popular, valuable Portland initiatives wither away from a lack of funding when there’s a city treasure trove available to bail them out? That appeared to be the question on Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s mind when she offered Portland Street Response (PSR) a life raft in the form of $3 million from the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) earlier this week. But clean energy fund advocates are hesitant about using money from the...

As the city’s Small Donor Elections funding dwindles during a pivotal election year, campaigns face greater pressure to court donors City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez has jumped out to a sizable fundraising advantage over fellow commissioners Mingus Mapps and Carmen Rubio in the race for Portland mayor. The mayoral candidate currently has more than double the funds of his opponents. Gonzalez, who announced his candidacy in December, has already raised around $92,000, —with the vast maj...

Last spring Zenith Energy, the Houston-based fossil fuel company who has been operating a massive oil-by-rail operation in Portland Harbor, met secretly with staff from city commissioner Dan Ryan's and Carmen Rubio's offices, to hammer out a backroom deal that granted the company a necessary permit to continue its operation. Now the ball is in the court of the Oregon

In late August 2021, after months of grassroots pressure, Portland City Council rejected Zenith Energy's Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) that was required before the company could get a Clean Air permit from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. Despite Zenith's numerous appeals it looked very likely that its days as an oil-by-rail facility were numbered.

A judge last week ruled the young plaintiffs have the right to a clean environment – and experts say this changed the climate litigation landscape

A judge last week ruled the young plaintiffs have the right to a clean environment – and experts say this changed the climate litigation landscape

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