Every month, my wife and I track how much time and money we spend growing food. This is the report for August 2009. (Here are the results for 2008.) After late July’s blistering heat, August has been relatively cool around Portland. Our fruits and vegetables have been producing excellent crops. Kris is constantly busy in the ...

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A crime of a different color Image from wikispaces.com Most of the payday loan related crimes I write about involve petty thieves pointing guns in people’s faces and taking off with a bunch of cash. Today, however, I came across a payday loan crime of a different type. I don’t know if this guy was giving out fax ...

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If you really want to save more than you earn, the conventional wisdom says you’re gonna need to start a budget. It’s only by seeing where your money goes and figuring out where you can cut back that you’ll be able to get your financial act together. But conventional budgeting is fraught with danger. Here ...

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And I mean political favors, of course Heather Podesta (Photo: flickr.com) I don’t want to spend a lot of time of this point, but let’s set the table anyway. I don’t have a problem with political lobbying, so long as all sides have an equal opportunity to play the game. It’s how the Washington machine works, and ...

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What happens at The Standard… Oh, the things you'll see (Photo: flickr.com) There’s something altogether unsavory about including the phrases “Meatpacking District” and “exhibitionism” in the same sentence, but that’s life in the big city. In other words, that’s how they do things in New York - the Big Apple, the land of movie stars, potholes and ...

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