Author: Ben Lundin

Wrestling a Mongolian warrior, finding a home with Thai Buddhists and exploring Dracula’s castle in Romania are among the many experiences Portland State students say were unforgettable highlights of their study abroad trips.

If you’re from out of town, just in case you didn’t know, Portland Recycles!

Is Portland racist? Maybe, but it’s not on the surface.

In one of America’s whitest metropolitan cities, racial tensions that rarely appear in local media made headlines when a Portland State student said he was a victim of a racially provoked attack.

Portland’s public transportation system is considered among the best in the United States, offering a handful of methods for navigating the area with some of the safest and most convenient alternatives to driving a vehicle.

And for college students on a budget, it can mean savings that spell the difference between routine ramen noodle dinners or meals with more nutritional bulk.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced last week his intent to take pen in hand and make Oregon the seventh state to legalize the growing of hemp.

By signing into law Senate Bill 676, which allows farmers to grow hemp statewide and was passed by a veto-proof 27-2 margin, Kulongoski is among the few politicians taking small steps to reverse an agricultural mistake made 72 years ago.

When this year’s legislative session drew to a close, it appeared all but certain that Oregon’s higher education spending would be the biggest gash in a series of massive cuts to the state’s budget.

In a classic episode of Matt Groening’s cult cartoon series Futurama, an alcoholic robot named Bender finds himself on a planet of hobos and “robos” called Bumbase Alpha, which a homeless greeter refers to as “the biggest hobo jungle in the quadrant.”

“I’ve seen bigger,” Bender tells the greeter. “Oh, wait. I’m thinking of Eugene, Ore.”

Dear Portland State University Weight Room,

It’s over. I’m done with you and your 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. operating weekday summer hours, lack of air conditioning and prehistoric weight machines.

I hate starving babies. And whales. And the oppressed, indigenous children of some distant country who toil their days away stitching clothes with their tiny, hard-working fingers. Or so I’m sometimes led to believe by the hordes of solicitors who swarm the walkways between Portland State University’s many buildings in an effort to yield five minutes of my time

Got plans this Saturday? How about hunting down a man dressed in a Yogi Bear costume, getting photographed eating cupcakes in front of a food cart or doing cartwheels next to a Portland city flag?

Corporate greed and political neglect could lead to disaster on American soil, warned a panel of experts and witnesses of an industrial disaster in Bhopal, India. Portland State hosted representatives from the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal who teamed up to educate people about the Bhopal disaster of 1984.