Hochul Approved Permits That Could Help Clients of Her Husband’s Firm Opponents of a natural gas pipeline approved by Gov. Kathy Hochul of New York noted that the project would benefit a client of the prominent law firm where her husband works.

Kathy Hochul could bring down bills and protect our future by building 15 gigawatts of public renewables.

Instead, she's raising bills to build Trump's fracked gas pipeline and a crypto mine.

Is this why?

www.nytimes.com/2025/11/13/n...

Portland’s Mayor, much of City Council, and many Portlanders spent recent days aligning themselves directly with Trump’s policies towards our precariously housed and homeless neighbors, while rabidly promoting a local extension of it.

It’s been utterly disgraceful and profoundly disappointing.

Some people are obvious in their hatred for their unsheltered neighbors but other people I’m like…do you genuinely actually believe sweeps are helping people and connecting them to services? It’s 3 guys in a bio rapid response truck…

Federal Infrastructure Spending on Transportation, Four Years after the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is up for reauthorization in 2026. New analysis shows that the act increased spending on transportation infrastructure, but…

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed 4 years ago. In new research @urbaninstitute.bsky.social we study its effects.

US transport spending increased by 30%, but:
—Funding for non-highway projects flatlined
—Construction cost increases resulted in no actual increase in infrastructure

Portland Said It Was Investing in Homeless People’s Safety. Deaths Have Quadrupled. The city responded to an increase in homeless deaths by intensifying encampment sweeps and adding emergency shelter at the expense of permanent housing. Experts say this has perpetuated the problem.

Here's another piece about how Portland's methods, ie sweeps without bountiful supportive housing and services for people to be "swept" into, do not work, and kill people www.propublica.org/article/port...

The only reason S&P didn’t give PacifiCorp a lower rating is because they acknowledge Berkshire could help solve the company’s “liquidity crisis.” Meanwhile PacifiCorp execs continue to say they need state legislatures to protect them: oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/03/31/p...

S&P downgrades PacifiCorp to lowest investment-grade rating - Portland Business Journal PacifiCorp last week described a cascade of financial and operational challenges it could face if its credit were to fall below investment grade. It's now a step closer to that happening.

It’s increasingly clear Berkshire’s strategy to keep PacifiCorp solvent in face of wildfire lawsuits is to have its lobbyists pressure state lawmakers into providing liability limits (at ratepayer expense) rather than dipping into Berkshire’s extraordinary profits
www.bizjournals.com/portland/new...

The lesson that Schumer learned from the March debacle:
- do a better job timing the cave to Trump so it happens on Sunday night, not during the day when offices can be lobbied
- do a better job picking senators who are retiring or not up in '26 to vote aye
- make sure you don't have to vote aye

The Sierra Club Embraced Social Justice. Then It Tore Itself Apart.

This article contends that the Sierra Club's effort to integrate social justice into its mission was the cause of turmoil. My perspective suggests a simpler reason: Poor leadership.

Climate Action Rooted in Justice Multnomah County is taking action to stop the climate crisis from getting worse, and is working toward a vision of making our community healthier, more resilient and fair.

NW Natural, Zenith, and the Portland Business Alliance tried (unsuccessfully) to kill the Office of Sustainability earlier this year and are now using fossil fuel industry delay tactics -- whining about allegedly unfair process -- to try to stop the Climate Justice Plan from being adopted.

Not often one to hand it to Gov. Kotek but "we got in there and took the funds the court order required the feds to give us, before anyone could try to stop us" is the kind of action we ought to be seeing more of.

A little unclear from the press release but seems like they were able to access federal funds? mailchi.mp/oregon/gover...

"ODHS was able to work quickly with its electronic benefits transfer (EBT) vendor to ensure the funds were available as soon as the federal order was issued."

Nuremburg trials is the moderate position

Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’ Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given

Quite a headline.

Exxon’s Latest Supreme Court Hail Mary - The American Prospect Oil companies insist that if cases are allowed to proceed, it could have major ramifications for the future of their industry. Will a Supreme Court willing to grant Trump immunity for his crimes do th...

It is nuts that recusal policies for the Supreme Court are so weak and self-determined that justices with oil industry holdings & even familial oil industry ties could participate in cases involving the oil industry. Our friends at @revolvingdoordc.bsky.social explain:
prospect.org/2025/11/07/e...

What Zohran Mamdani’s Win Means for New York's Climate Politics The mayor-elect’s approach reflects a view that is going mainstream: To succeed, climate policies may need to lose the label.

“'Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns,' Mamdani told The Nation magazine in April. 'They are, in fact, one and the same.'”

Hard to overstate what it means for a socialist mayor elect of the wealthiest city in the US to have been paying attention to the issues of energy affordability and wretched failures to regulate the utility corporations for years. The new age is not gonna be limited to only rent, buses & childcare.

It’s a great night to be a socialist!

It’s a great night if you believe in the power of the working class!

It’s a great night to commit yourself to the project of building a city that works for the many and not the few!

Join us: portlanddsa.org/join-us/

Zohran Mamdani: potentially the NYC Streets Mayor of our wildest dreams

Zohran Mamdani's Establishment-Fighting Campaign Built Community for Young People “What Mamdani has done is not only inspire and mobilize young people, but he has exposed the establishment and some of their calcified views of participation and inclusion.”

here is my story about how Zohran's focus on community amid the loneliness epidemic helped young people connect their politics to an organizing infrastructure, that interviewed ZM, and does not use the NYT's framing of "they don't know how to make friends" :-) and also ran 4 days before NYT's lol

Wow it turns out the entire country is not permanently reactionary because Trump won an election by 1.5%

I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win

Energy retailers to be directed to offer free power three hours a day Saying there is enough solar power for everyone in the daytime, Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen will direct retailers to provide three hours of free power every day to consumers.

Absolutely amazing: they've got so much solar in Australia that they need more people to use more of it, so the gov't has instructed energy retailers to offer *at least three hours of free power* during the middle of the day.

Meanwhile fossil-addled US struggles with an energy-price crisis ...

...and less than 24 hours later Condé Nast has fired Lex and the rest of the Teen Vogue political desk, even as stories like this were bringing huge numbers of readers to the site

Terrible

Three of my neighbors in district 1 were killed in three separate car collisions last night. We need action now to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

YOU need to do more to improve your own driving. Do better. Keep your neighbors alive.

If a bike/walk project isn't good enough to get more people out of cars and onto the street with their feet, it's a waste of money. That's why we need leaders who won't stand for compromised projects that get watered down by bad faith haters and the weak elected officials who sympathize w them.

Just to be clear, socialism is *not* when the Republican Party and their corrupt billionaire president cut your food stamps to punish you for being poor while they enrich themselves and their buddies.

That’s actually happening right now in the center of global capitalism.

Opinion | A Nazi Tattoo Exposes Democrats’ Greatest Weakness

honestly the only piece worth reading on the platner situation. @tressiemcphd.bsky.social is absolutely cooking here. (gift link)

Climate Justice Plan Community Forum Join us for a series of events to discuss the strategies and metrics for the twelve goals of our Climate Justice Plan. Have your voice heard and help shape our community's climate justice future.

Make sure to put some of these community forums on your calendar.

It's really important to continue to show up as industry tries to undermine this community driven process.

NW Natural, Zenith, and others are trying to stop aggressive climate justice action & some commissioners are weak kneed.