Willamette Week goes through government leaders' garbage

After the district attorney, police chief, and mayor vocally defended the Portland Police Department's practice of going through people's garbage (arguing that it becomes public property when placed out on the street for pickup), reporters for Willamette Week went through their garbage. Suddenly, the police chief and mayor changed their positions (though I suspect they were legally right in the first place, and fools for not using shredders). The mayor went so far as to threaten legal action, even though all they got was her recycling (her trash was up against her house on her property, and they chose not to risk trespass). Only the DA responded without being upset.

They got the police chief's credit card number, found that his wife is a member of Focus on the Family, a summary of his wife's investments, an email to the mayor about his application to be police chief of Los Angeles, a cigar stub, and "a handwritten note scribbled in pencil on a napkin, so personal it made us cringe."