Author: Melinda Bardon

From working to make tuition equitable for undocumented-status students to helping lower the cost of education, the Oregon Student Alliance has developed a list of legislative priority issues to lobby in this year’s Oregon Legislature session.

The problem with the mono-cuisine food cart the Whole Bowl is that their bowls are nothing of the sort. The vegetarian food cart may offer a healthy alternative to burritos and samosas, but their portion sizes may leave you turning to the taco wagons for a fill-up anyway.

After months of public hearings, debates, an outpouring of letters and a previous failed vote in December, the OLCC passed a landmark change on Friday that could allow minors greater access to venues previously off limits to them. Starting in June some businesses that serve alcohol, such as music venues, that are interested in allowing access to minors at all hours can now submit control plans that must specify exactly how they will keep alcohol out of the hands of minors.

The OLCC voted unanimously this morning to amend their rules regarding minors in establishments that serve alcohol. The amendments affect the statutes governing minor postings-rules put in place to determine when and where minors can be in the presence of alcohol in an establishment. The previous rules place businesses in the realm of either “restaurant” or “drinking establishment,” leaving no middle area for venues such as concert halls.

KPSU kicked off its annual pledge-drive concert series last Saturday evening with a high-energy all-ages punk show at Backspace. Set in a retro video arcade and featuring bands such as the Seattle-based group The Girls, as well as the unbilled local 15-year-old rockers Don’t Hurt Miles! KPSU coordinators say the show raised around $500 for the station.

Katrina Griffiths, a 20-year-old PCC student, was laid off unexpectedly when the company she worked for cut back jobs. As a result, she was forced to drop a required math class in order to make her schedule more appealing to businesses. The biology major says she now fills that time looking for work. “That’s part of my little daily ritual now, is once I’m done [for the day] with school, I just go on Craigslist and look.” Griffiths is not alone in her search. Every day, several thousand Oregonians, many of them students, compete for jobs.

In the final weeks of winter term, several thousand Portland State students and faculty received e-mails claiming to be from User Support Services and other IT departments within the university.

It is mid-evening on a rainy Thursday night, and in the basement of the Smith building, Wonder Woman has just taken the stage. She smiles coyly at the audience in the darkened dining room of the Food for Thought Cafe, and silently begins to shave her armpits. Welcome to open mic night. Her shaving act was part of the Thursday open mic night hosted by the Popular Music Board, Food for Thought and Pathos Literary Magazine. The now-weekly event has been running regularly since the beginning of March and takes place every Thursday at 7 p.m.

In front of a shimmering wall of starlight, former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn spoke to 850 guests gathered in a candlelit ballroom at the Oregon Convention Center. The crowd gathered at the ninth annual Simon Benson Awards dinner to acknowledge lifetimes of community work by local philanthropists Sam Wheeler and Gwen Burns and her family. Glenn was the keynote speaker for the awards.

Students looking to live in University housing next year can expect their rent rates to sharply rise, with the rent of some units increasing by an average of about 8 percent and as much as 15 percent from this year’s costs.

Portland’s gaudiest tiki bar. Let your inner Cyndi Lauper out amid grass skirts and cocktail umbrellas.