School students and protesters gather during a climate strike rally on September 20, 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh Credit: Allison Joyce / Getty Images

Stay up to date on Portland news and politics. Looking for fun? Here are the best Things to Do in Portland today.

School students and protesters gather during a climate strike rally on September 20, 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh
School students and protesters gather during a climate strike rally on September 20, 2019 in Dhaka, Bangladesh Allison Joyce / Getty Images

Our Humanitarian Leaders: Border Patrol agents are now doing the job of trained asylum officers by conducting interviews with immigrant families seeking asylum in the US. These armed officers are now allowed to decide whether or not a family is allowed to flee violence in their home country.

Rape Culture in the USA: An estimated 3.3 million women’s first sexual experience was rape, according to a new study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Per the Washington Post: “The study found that the affected women were more likely to experience an unwanted first pregnancy, abortion, endometriosis and other reproductive health issues compared with women who reported having a voluntary first sexual experience.”

In Other Terrifying Data: A new study published by Science found that, in the past 50 years, North America has lost more than 25 percent of its entire bird population. That’s around 3 billion birds.

Here’s Why #RudyGuilianiMeltdown is Trending:



Another One Bites the Dust: Bill de Blasio has stepped out of the 2020 presidential race. “I feel like I’ve contributed all I can to this primary campaign, and it’s clearly not my time,” he told MSNBC.

Trudeau Don’t Know: According to the BBC, “Canada’s Justin Trudeau cannot say how often he wore blackface.”“I am wary of being definitive about this because of the recent pictures that came out, I had not remembered,” he told reporters.

Climate Strike! Today, millions of people across the globe will take to the streets to demand action against climate change. Here’s what that looks like so far:

Want In? Portland’s climate strike, organized by our city’s badass youth, will begin at 10:30 outside of City Hall. Mayor Ted Wheeler, however, won’t be participating in the day’s events due to schedule conflicts. After youth leaders called him out for this on Twitter, the mayor’s communications director accused the kids for making “cheap shots.” Seems appropriate.

Cider Riot up for Grabs: Cider Riot, the cidery suing Patriot Prayer for inciting a riot on its property, is for sale. Before you brew up conspiracy theories, it seems the sale has nothing to do with the company’s legal case against the local alt-right squad and everything to do with the City of Portland’s onerous permitting process.

Emergency Response: A survey collected by Street Roots and the City of Portland found that most homeless Portlanders believe officers play an important role in the city—but it shouldn’t include responding to 911 calls about someone sleeping in public, reacting from a drug overdose, or simply suffering from a mental illness.

By the way… ARE YOU HUNGRY? Then may I interest you in the Portland Mercury‘s Chili Jamboree and Nacho Week? YOU LOOK LIKE YOU NEED A LAUGH. Get your tickets now for the Undisputable Geniuses of Comedy, coming at you THIS SATURDAY, Sept 21! OH! AND YES, YOU DO LOOK SEXY! Tickets for HUMP! 2019 are right here.

Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention...