Bill Resnick talks with economist David Weiman about the political forces encouraging the growth and maintaining of prisons and punitive policing in the USA. They consider not only media influence and legislators desire to keep jobs in their areas but also the fear-enhancing effects of social isolation and division and the correlation between inequality and incarceration. They discuss the impact of widely available guns and lobbying in support of gun rights. They consider the role of mental health professionals, the use of psychoactive drugs, and the likelihood that mental illness is a consequence of incarceration rather than a cause of crime.

New development along transit corridors in South East Portland hit a rare speed bump when the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals halted construction on an eighty-one-unit project.

The recent surge of construction along so-called transit route such as Belmont, Hawthorne, and Division have left many south east neighbors feeling left out of the discussion.

 The developer had continued work during the appeal and the building now stands half finished at South East Thirty-seventh and Division.

Buckman neighbor are trying to get a seat at the development table with the crearion on an Historic Distric.

Way out West on the western border of Crater Lake National Park timber and environmental groups are debating a logging proposal.  The Forest Service has a choice which – in theory – should incorporate the late, great Will of the People.  Okay.  The Opinion of the People.  Will the Service approve logging or conduct a more exhaustive environmental impact statement?  Tomorrow the public comment period will crash and burn, leaving us once again at the mercy of the Private Sector.