Curated News Notes:

1,  According to the DAT North American Freight Index, Portland has been caught in a spring surge in freight volume. Between February and March 2015, total truck freight moving in and out of Portland grew 34 percent over last year's volume. While increased freight usually means a healthy economy for major exporters such as Portland, the recent virtual closure of the city's port container terminal has brought a new set of challenges to local businesses.
The Port of Portland has been trapped in troubled waters due to a lengthy dispute between the International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, a coalition of West Coast port operating companies.
 
2,  Ex-boyfriend accused of attacking new boyfriend's Chihuahua in Applebee's parking lot
  A Portland man is accused of repeatedly punching a Chihuahua that belonged to the new boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend during a trip to Applebee's.
 
3,  Black Mesa, The Dine Nation and Mining Mammoths...Due to this fall’s livestock impoundments and in light of the $88 million budget from the Department of Interior to “finish” the relocation,  there are many requests from families on Black Mesa for human rights observers and sheep herders. If you can come and support families in resistance to relocation from the US government and Peabody Coal Contact us  at blackmesais@gmail.com.
“We are trying to hang on to the livestock and ways to culturally survive, as well as hold jobs and schooling and take care of our elders. Having a supporters come help for a bit can really help make a difference in holding it all together” –Marie Gladue, Big Mountain resident 2015
 
 
4,  Jason Stanford,  (202) 637-5037, jason@coalitiontostopfasttrack.org
 
Ten Key Questions for President Obama About Fast Track and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
 
President Obama is scheduled to talk with select local and state media outlets to discuss fast track authority for the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade pact. Below are ten key questions:
How do you respond to economists you have cited who say TPP will create no net jobs?
 
5,  N.S.A. Secretly Widens Cross-Border Internet Spying to Find Hackers
Without public notice or debate, the Obama administration has expanded the National Security Agency’s warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international Internet traffic to search for evidence of malicious computer hacking, according to classified N.S.A. documents.
In mid-2012, Justice Department lawyers wrote two secret memos permitting the spy agency to begin hunting on Internet cables, without a warrant and on American soil, for data linked to computer intrusions originating abroad — including traffic that flows to suspicious Internet addresses or contains malware, the documents show.
 
6,  For protestors and activists unhappy with a particular company or industry, driving up the cost of doing business is a tried and true way to apply pressure. Think about the grape boycott in the late ’60s for farmworkers rights. Or more recently, protests over worker wages at fast food restaurants.
But now some corporations are fighting back by putting financial pressure on activists.
Duncan Tarr is a 20-year-old junior at Michigan State University. He is also an activist.
One of the things he cares deeply about is a pipeline, called line 6B. It moves tar sands oil from Canada through Michigan and has an imperfect safety record.
Last summer, while the pipeline was being replaced, Tarr was part of a group determined to get some attention.
Firefighters came and cut the locks. Both the protest and the detaching took about 90 minutes. Tarr and one other young man were arrested and charged with trespass — they expected that.
What they didn’t expect was that the company, Precision Pipeline, would use Michigan’s crime victim restitution laws to assess charges to make up for the value of equipment and workers idled during their protest.   Tarr now owes more than $39,000. That’s twice as much in restitution as he owes in student loans.
 
 
7,  Once again the Left is walking a razor's edge on the issue of crime.  Two men meet on a tighrope...Derek Cohen of Right on Crime says the issue of criminal justice reform is too big to ignore. Mr. Cohen is available to discuss how issues such as juvenile justice, and over-criminalization have resonated in the states and with the people.
“Before President Barack Obama and a bipartisan group of senators met in February at the White House to take serious steps on the matter, governors were dealing with the rising costs of state prisons filled to capacity, often because of drug crimes. Former Republican governors and likely presidential candidates Jeb Bush and Rick Perry both signed onto the statement of principles for Right on Crime, a conservative group in Texas advocating for focusing more on drug rehabilitation than on mandatory minimum sentencing. Among the group’s principles are holding the criminal justice system accountable for results, getting a better deal for taxpayers and not growing the size of government.
 
 
8,  The North Carolina Senate and House both voted Wednesday to override Gov. Pat McCrory’s veto of a bill that backers say would give North Carolina employers recourse against people who deliberately get hired to try to take company secrets or dig up dirt.   The North Carolina House voted 79-36 and the Senate voted soon after that.    The bill is officially the Property Protection Act.
The bill, which has been dubbed the “ag gag bill” by some, would let an employer sue and get monetary damages from someone who gains access to non-public areas of a company without authority and commits theft or sets up a camera or audio recorder.
 
McCrory, a Republican, said the bill’s intent is laudable but its content falls short of ensuring protections for “honest employees who uncover criminal activity.”