User:Dave Mazza

The account of this former contributor was not re-activated after the server upgrade of March 2022.

Dave Mazza is a Portland, Oregon-based writer. He most recently completed seven years as editor of The Portland Alliance, a 25-year-old independent newspaper offering investigative stories and analysis of local, regional and national issues. During his tenure as editor, Mazza wrote about the environment, organized labor, police misconduct, the military-industrial complex and local government corruption/abuse of power. His expose of a Portland Police Bureau Chief who made recorded speeches attacking gays and the criminal justice system attracted national attention and set in motion events that led to the eventual dismissal of the controversial chief. In addition, Mazza also wrote a regular column on politics, social justice, art, music and the media. Prior to his work at the Alliance, Mazza was a freelance writer for a number of local and regional publications as well as a variety of non-profit organizations, including the Sierra Club, Oregon Natural Resource Council and Western States Center. For the latter he wrote God, Land and Politics: The Wise Use Movement and Religious Right in Oregon Politics, a groundbreaking recent history of Oregon electoral politics centered on the conflict between the environmental movement, resource extraction industries and politically active religious groups. He developed a wide-range of articles for the Sierra Club and local publications on the environmental and economic impacts of the proposed North American Free Trade Agreement while that pact was being developed by the Bush and Clinton administrations. Mazza started as a private investigator, specializing in medical and other professional malpractice, product liability, wrongful death and personal injury, and sub rosa arson litigation. After 12 years as an investigator for law firms and running his own investigative service, Mazza decided to leave the field and take up writing. He was born in Burbank, California and after six years in the U.S. Navy, moved to Portland in 1978 where he attended Portland State University, majoring in history. In addition to his work as a print journalist/editor, Mazza is also co-host of Voices from the Edge, a morning public affairs program on KBOO 90.7 FM community radio. To view his recent writings for the Alliance, visit www.theportlandalliance.org .