Thursday Bram's Newsletter — June 2022 Edition
While the calendar may say 'summer', Portland's weather has been cold and wet. There's even been snow in the nearby mountains. It's hard to guess what weather we'll get next. I've got my fingers crossed for a few days of sunshine, though.
Oregon primary election wind down
While getting the votes counted for this year's primary took a lot longer than expected, it's finally done. I've posted a first pass on election outcomes on PDX.Vote and I'll be sharing some further analysis on the primary results towards the end of June. In the meanwhile, though, Aaron Roussell at PSU wrote an in-depth analysis of the Portland Police Bureau's budget. I'm really pleased to publish this article, especially since Aaron thoroughly debunked all claims that PPB was defunded in 2020.
Echoes of the women's suffrage movement
I wrote a short thread that went a bit viral a couple of weeks ago. The thread was a result of reading Public Faces, Secret Lives: A Queer History of the Women's Suffrage Movement. The book is well worth a read if you need a refresher on the women's suffrage movement — but it also gets into topics that were never covered in my history classes, like queerness and intersectionality.
The thread is here: https://twitter.com/thursdayb/status/1529879361062547462
Setting notary prices
As a notary public, I'm legally required to post my prices in my place of business. Given that I work online, I've posted my prices on my website. I'm not really looking for clients — I became a notary to make some of my volunteer work easier — but I'm all about fully complying with the letter of the law.
Other posts and updates
I'm still helping with this GoFundMe for Simona Bearcub. We put together an update on Simona's needs as she continues community defense work and joins a burn crew for the 2022 fire season. If you can afford to do so, please support Simona financially.
I'm currently working on a piece about why I enjoy voting in the Hugos and how resources are developed around the Hugo ballot. While I haven't gotten to the point of comparing Hugo voting to other kinds of voting, we all know I'll probably yell about that topic somewhere in the piece.
Other folk's work
Books With Pictures, my favorite comic book shop, is holding a minicon on July 2. I'm really looking forward to it — I haven't been to any cons (or anything) really, since COVID started. Most events just don't feel safe. But BwPCon! will be outside and the shop has been really on top of things like requiring masks and other steps to keep people safe. Keep an eye out for more details as we get closer