Willamette

Inspired by a popular YouTube video in which a man "steals" his own bicycle in broad daylight to see if anyone will stop him, Willamette Week sent 22-year-old intern Josh Silverman onto the streets of Portland, Ore., to investigate residents' reaction when a man uses bolt cutters to hack through a bike chain. According to Ian Demsky's Aug. 23 cover story, Silverman stole his own bike in public at seven different locations, and the only person who interfered actually helped him operate the bolt cutters. Willamette Week also posted the video below of the "thefts," complete with music and intertitles, on YouTube.

Public officials and the media have exaggerated the incidence of methamphetamine abuse in the United States, according to a 41-page report issued last week by the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D.C. think tank. "The Next Big Thing: Methamphetamine in the United States" (available as a PDF here) references Willamette Week's "Meth Madness," in which reporter Angela Valdez argued that Portland's daily paper had "sacrificed accuracy" in order to campaign against meth. "The Oregonian series repeatedly referred to a 'meth epidemic' in Oregon without providing any statistical support, mischaracterized the significance of the growth in methamphetamine treatment admissions, and suggested a link between Oregon property crime rates and methamphetamine use that has been generally refuted by empirical research," the report says.