Twenty-one tenants at an apartment complex in Southeast Portland have announced that they’re not going to pay rent until the landlord meets their demands. The investment company that bought the Holgate Manor earlier this year offered tenants cash if they were willing to leave and raised the rent 9.9 percent. Tenants say the building is an active construction zone and also that their apartments need urgent repairs.
Firefighters are currently battling a half-dozen wildfires in Southern Oregon. The Taylor Creek Fire has reached 30,000 acres and shut down a popular recreation area of the Rogue River. The Klondike Fire nearby is burning through wilderness along the edge of last year’s Chetco Bar fireline. OPB Reporter Emily Cureton is on the scene.
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian filed a complaint with his own Bureau of Labor and Industries on Wednesday accusing state legislative leaders of ignoring complaints of sexual harassment and creating a hostile work environment. OPB politics reporter Dirk Vanderhart fills us in.
A proposed new law called “malicious summoning” would punish people for calling police unnecessarily, often based on racial bias. We hear from attorney Erious Johnson, who is one of the people behind the proposal. He says it was inspired by incidents where police have been called to investigate African-Americans going about their daily lives — campaigning for office, mowing someone’s lawn, or simply sitting in Starbucks.
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