On May 20, 2010, the Portland Mercury reported the arrest of Bob Caldwell, a top editor of the Oregonian, for DUII. He was convicted the following month and similar stories were also published in Willamette Week. The story never appeared in the Oregonian.

Shortly after, I drafted an email to the Oregonian’s letters section on oregonlive.com citing recent (in mid-2010) stories by the paper of public personages detailing their DUIIs. I asked why then hadn’t the Oregonian published Caldwell’s? The letter appeared briefly on the oregonlive.com, then disappeared.

Oct. 9, 2011, Oregonian Managing Editor Peter Bhatia's column called for publication of PERS retirees’ names and pension amounts. That day, I posted a comment on oregonlive.com, “In Sunday's Oregonian, Bhatia said, ‘Those of us who work at newspapers have a passion for open records.’ If that's so, why hadn't the Oregonian ever published the arrest and conviction of Bob Caldwell, one of its top editors in May/June 2010 for DUII?’”

The comment posted successfully to oregonlive.com but about an hour later it was gone so early Mon., Oct. 10, I posted a similar comment. A short time later it too vanished but I checked my profile and found it there. After a few hours, the comment was also expunged from my profile.

So, here are my questions:

How many other Oregonian employees or other public personas are exempt from having reports of their DUIIs published? Does it apply to Joseph Rose, commuting columnist? Steve Duin, columnist? N. Christian Anderson III, publisher? The building janitor? My Oregonian deliveryperson? What other crimes are not reported?

How can I get an exemption?

I do not know Robert Caldwell and have nothing against him personally. And by now, the Oregonian’s complaint will be that the Caldwell story is not news; after all, it’s nearly 18 months old. But the paper didn’t hesitate to publish belatedly photos of a Max system crash in early November 2011 even though the wreck had occurred nearly a month earlier.

If the Oregonian cannot stand criticism but instead quashes anyone who would dare to question its ethics, how can we ever trust the Oregonian again to report the truth—the whole truth?

Full disclosure:

I worked for a small daily newspaper in Iowa for nearly 15 years and the editor/publisher was nationally known for being opinionated. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize when he was editor of a small Kansas daily and a Nieman fellow, he was finally forced out his job because of alcoholism. But our paper published the Pentagon Papers—at great expense for a paper of under 20,000 circulation—and the editor was never afraid to face down an irate subscriber or advertiser. When he left his job, a columnist in the Des Moines Register wrote that, although many hated our editor’s position on issues, they ran to get the paper each night to see what he had to say.

Additionally, I’m an Oregon PERS retiree. I’m not ashamed to say that after ~18 years of service, my PERS account had a lump sum balance of just under $150,000. I rolled half of that amount into a tax-deferred account and receive the other half as a monthly annuity of ~$760 after taxes.

The Neil Young song - Ohio. Four dead in Ohio. Tin soldiers and Nixon coming. Damn. I had the opportunity to sit next to a man who was Vice President of Student Services at Kent State in 1970 and was on campus acting as the chief that day. What a fascinating conversation . Tragic. Must nit be forgotten. Thanks for keeping it alive

Fred Meyer's sells water balloons. Find a real honest to god homeless person, then pay them 10 dollars to fill a water balloon with their own urine, and then throw it at a spanger. Give them 20 if they wipe some fecal matter on the outside first.

Hells yeah!

This is a masterpiece cat video! And, let me tell you why ('cuz I'm a professional cat video viewer)...
First of all, this cat is like balls to the wall cool and brave to be chillin' under the faucet like he's some damn waterfall enthusiast.
Second, as he's licking the waterfall refuse off of his little cat lips, he looks like a jazz singer does when she's "scatting." The jazz in the background provides the purrrr-fect context. You know what scatting is right? Like, when a person tries to make instrument type noises.
So freakin' cute that at this very moment I'm looking at my lil' doggy, Miss Bella, and wondering what the sam hell she has to offer to the world.
I guess she's a good cuddle buddy, but that definitely don't beat this lil' scattin' kitty mess we got here.
Damn, son... your cat freakin' rocks. (Ifn' that is your cat). Jealous!! I could cat sit for you... lil' bi-atch (I mumble... into my Captain Crunch Cereal).

I don't know anything about the organization or Mr. Larson you're referring to, but your use of "it's" is incorrect. "It's" is used as a contraction for "it is". "Its" (as in "belonging to 'it'") is the form you want to use in this instance. Does that help? Good luck with your protest thingy.

What reasons have crossed your mind as to why he would do that?

I really doubt that it was random and his "spit anywhere I want!" retort doesn't include somebody's face and I'm certain he knew that.

I'm sorry that that happened to you. I haven't heard of him, but I think he's wrong if he says he can spit anywhere he wants. I would think it's a form of assault, just as if I said I can throw rocks anywhere I want or fire a pistol anywhere I want.

The thing that always blows my mind is when prompted for an explanation, many of these stragglers will happily, even self-righteously, admit that they just don't want to be a 'part of the system'. Well my money came from the system as did my job, whatever your going to buy with the money people are giving to you, clothes you are wearing, and even the sidewalk your sitting on. If you dont want to be part of the system then move into the fucking woods and quit asking people for stuff. And wash your hair.

You're making a lot of assumptions here. Just recently, in Chicago, I was reduced to spanging in order to get by and I was by no means jobless by choice.

My predicament was the end result of a run of bad luck and, yeah I'll admit, some poor planning and bad decisions on my part. I won't go into details but what kicked the whole thing off was getting robbed for a shit load of money.

I was actively trying to find work and spent most my time pounding the pavement dropping off resumes. But in the mean time I had bills, medications, and food to pay for. So yeah I was reduced to asking strangers for money and let me tell you I found no pleasure in it.

Sure their are kids out there who just don't want to work, or are just hustling for dope money, but there are also plenty that are just in weird shitty situations. No ones forcing you to give them money or even pay them any mind.

It's not comprehensive of course, but I follow @mayorsamadams on Twitter. It's fascinating.

Beyond that, guess it depends on if you're conservative or liberal.

portlandmercury.com/news would be my pick for us bleedin' hearts.