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Good morning, Portland! It’s looking to stay hot today and cool a bit over the weekend, before popping back up to the high 80s early next week. Check out our Climate Issue, in print and online now. Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Despite her previous legislative efforts to nix Oregon’s vote-by-mail system, governor hopeful Christine Drazan’s campaign staffers say they intend to operate a volunteer courier service to pick up and drop off completed ballots for voters this election season, in an effort to help voters get their ballots in on time this November. Audio and video recordings obtained by the Mercury depict Drazan’s campaign staff laying out plans to collect and drop off completed ballots in bulk, on behalf of voters who may not make it otherwise. The courier service idea is legal under state law—known as an unofficial ballot drop site, or “ballot harvesting”—but you have to get the font size right and clearly label it. But in 2025, Drazan introduced a bill that sought to ask voters to decide whether Oregon should switch to in-person voting on election night, with a requirement to show ID before casting a ballot. Now, in an effort to pick up as many votes as possible, her campaign is relying on a tool traditionally used by progressive candidates and often rejected by Republicans like Drazan, who have called for more stringent election rules. The Mercury‘s Courtney Vaughn has the details here.
• Oregon, what do you think?
• The city’s Independent Police Review (IPR) board earlier this year recommended holding former Portland Police Bureau (PPB) Chief Chuck Lovell and Assistant Chief Jami Resch responsible for failing to review use of force reports during the 2020 racial justice protests. But Mayor Keith Wilson and Deputy City Administrator Tracy Warren let them off the hook, saying the issue was systemic, not a leadership issue. An IPR report released earlier this week is one part of an ongoing review of PPB’s 2020 racial justice protest management—during which at least 6,000 uses of force were documented—and more reports will be released over time. The report and city officials said the two top cops in charge of protests management did not fail to provide sufficient training or management of the protests. In other words, the Portland Police Bureau’s riot squad was sufficiently trained and managed when its members beat tens of thousands of Portlanders protesting racist policing in 2020, according to the city of Portland. Read more in the Oregonian here.
• Speaking of policing: A Portland ballot initiative that reportedly turned in 63,000 signatures yet failed to qualify for the November ballot due to having many, many, invalid signatures filed a lawsuit yesterday in federal court against the city of Portland. The Safer Portland campaign, or Enhanced Community Safety Initiative, or Community Safety Coalition was seeking to pull 25 percent of new funding from the Portland Clean Energy Fund—a tax on large corporations to fund climate resiliency projects—to hire more cops. The lawsuit claims city, county, and state officials disenfranchised voters when they engaged in a process outlined in state law for ballot initiatives. The results of that legal process found so many invalid signatures that the initiative failed to reach the threshold to qualify. In the complaint, the plaintiffs reference an impromptu letter Secretary of State Tobias Read sent to Portland City Auditor Simone Rede in late July, which appears to have helped legitimize the petitioners’ efforts to cast doubt on the process. Read is now listed as a defendant in the federal lawsuit, amid President Donald Trump’s ongoing efforts to cast doubt on elections everywhere. Read more here.
• The city of Portland is giving out grants to people in need of a roof over their heads, to help with the city’s vacancy rates, economic recovery, and public safety. The idea to use cash for those in need in order to help people pay for basic necessities they couldn’t otherwise afford is not new, but the city has clearly been listening to advocates who say it can lead to better outcomes for entrepreneurs. A new city program through Prosper Portland will give up to $100,000 to business tenants for buildout costs to open a business and polish the storefront. A Street Roots story earlier this year showed that similar positive impacts can be achieved by giving $1,000 per month to homeless youth to get and stay housed. Here’s Mayor Wilson talking about the new business program.
• Lots going on this weekend, and if you need a little help separating the wheat from the chaff, the Mercury‘s Do This, Do That calendar is here to help. From an artisan bike gear show at Zidell Yards (today), to Sheepapalooza bike ride at Poet’s Beach or Drugstore Cowboy at Tomorrow Theater (Saturday), to the Sunnyside Cat Walk at Southeast 33rd and Yamhill, there’s a lot to love this weekend—weird anti-Portland cynics be damned! Check out the recommendations from our Lindsay Costello and Merc staff here.
• Matt Johnson is no stranger to manchildren. Just seven months ago, the writer-director released an opus about maturity-challenged adults, Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie. Now, Johnson returns to theaters with Tony—an Anthony Bourdain biopic that doesn’t really try to be an Anthony Bourdain biopic, which is why it might be the best Anthony Bourdain biopic we can imagine. Get ready to nerd out on shellfish in this delicious review by Dominic Sinacola.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the US is going to “squash” Iran’s economy and get rid of its regime through economic sanctions. Bessent is reportedly looking to announce further details of the plan next week, which he is asking allies to join, saying “you are either with us or against us.” Historically, binaries like that work out exactly how the US government plans it, leading to a swift and total victory, like in Iraq and Afghanistan. The US and Israeli war on Iran, which started in February, has not gone according to plan thus far. Iran closed the Straight of Hormuz, which created some economic turmoil of its own right here in these United States—like high gas prices and precarious world markets. Read more here in the BBC.
• Today in Definitely Don’t Do This: People are damaging the one thing that keeps their community safe, Flock surveillance cameras. People are doing terrible things to the traffic surveillance technology, like backing their trucks into them, or even going to far as to cut the cables with bolt cutters. NBC News reported that in 50 areas across the country, people have done awful stuff to damage the cameras, including but not limited to spray painting or smashing the lenses, or even cutting the cameras down. Opponents of the technology, like the ACLU, say automatic license plate readers, their AI algorithms, and databases track and share people’s movements without a warrant, which could be a violation of Americans’ civil liberties. Still, nobody do anything crazy now, like finding new and interesting ways to keep the technology from spying on their communities.
• Progressives are on a winning streak in elections across the country. The latest win comes in the California race for US House of Representatives, in which progressive candidate Aisha Wahab beat her opponent Thursday, despite Super PACs associated with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) spending $6.4 million to support her opponent. The race is a special election to replace former Senator Eric Swalwell, who resigned earlier this year amid sexual misconduct allegations. Read more on the win here in the Guardian.
• Have a great weekend, and don’t forget to feed the raccoons.
