UBER AND LYFTreally don’t like people knowing much about how they operate. So of course they really don’t want the City of Portland to comply with the district attorney’s order to release records on how they operate to the Oregonian.
O reporter Elliot Njus filed a public records request in May for data the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) receives from Uber, Lyft, and local taxi companies. Njus was hoping to find out the number of cars each company uses, the number of rides they provide, and how many of their vehicles are wheelchair accessible.
In June, the city denied the request, saying those details are “trade secrets.” But Njus appealed to District Attorney Rod Underhill’s office, which determined the records should be released because there’s a legitimate public interest in them. Uber and Lyft promptly challenged the order in court.
Releasing Uber’s data would “substantially and irreparably harm” the company, its lawyers wrote (wrongly).
“[T]he public has good reason to be concerned about the operation of these companies in Portland,” the O’s lawyer responded (correctly).
A hearing is scheduled for November. DOUG BROWN
SHARKS CAN BE real assholes.
Portland surfer Joseph Tanner, 29, was bitten in the thigh by one such asshole shark Monday afternoon while catching some waves off of Ecola State Park’s Indian Beach—just a few miles north of Cannon Beach.
It was the first shark attack off the Oregon Coast since 2013, and the first shark attack off Indian Beach since 1988. Tanner told responders that the shark that bit him was “medium-big” and could have been a great white, KGW reported.
Fortunately, according to a witness KGW talked to, Tanner is a trauma nurse.
“He directed his own first aid, what needed to be done—he asked us a lot of questions, what we were seeing, if we saw spurting blood,” witness Jeff Rose told the news station. “He saw splashing. At that point Joe jumped on his board and yelled over to get the freak out of here.” DB