Opinion

It has been said that journalists write the first draft of history. Newspaper reporters operate under a tremendous amount of pressure in the hope of delivering a representative document of the moment. Deadlines, ethical dilemma, evasive sources and spin-doctors are just a handful of the obstacles that frequently stand between a newspaper reporter and the truth. We know we don’t always get the story right, but at the Vanguard we try very hard to serve the PSU community, and we’d like to think that we succeed more often than we fail. Last Friday, the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association gave us even more reason to think that this is the case.

Last month, Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed a repeal of that state’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, which allowed victims of workplace pay discrimination to seek damages in state courts. The equal pay law protected against pay discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion and sexual orientation; however, it was enacted mainly in response to the fact that the gender wage gap in Wisconsin was worse than the national average.

Portland has become a hub for bicycle commuting. It only makes sense that its schools work toward making bike commutes safe and affordable, right?

Throughout my college experience, a constant that I could always count on was that, come rain or shine, there were always people in the South Park Blocks yelling about something. Now in my last term, I’m realizing that I haven’t heard any rants about God, the environment or what-have-you for months. After the monsoon spring we’ve been having, the weather (not to mention the tumultuous political climate) has finally become ideal for these crusading opinion-touters, but lately they’re few and far between.

A single look at the ASPSU election shows that it’s got all the hallmarks of a real-world political campaign. We have scandals, mudslinging, distractions, lobbying and unrealistic promises. And, following a trend we’ve seen nationally, voter turnout is depressingly low.

Monday, April 23 was “Meatless Monday” at Victor’s in Ondine. The event, part of campus-wide Earth Week activities, was meant to highlight how simply cutting meat out of your diet for one day a week greatly reduces the production impact on our environment.

Controversy is becoming a familiar thing for the Portland Police Bureau. A string of high-profile cases involving assault, solicitation, gross insensitivity and mental illness have turned the public eye on the bureau in ways that no one wants to see their law enforcement organization.

I’m mad about Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, and you should be too. When even a state-run Russian news station thinks a cyber security bill is “worse than SOPA,” it’s safe to say it has some big problems.