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GOOD MORNING PORTLAND! The rain is back, the plants are loving it, and it’s here to stay for the next few days. Happy Labor Day weekend! If you’re off work an extra day, thank a union organizer. If you’re working this Monday and get extra pay, thank a union organizer! Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
A federal judge struck down a request for a mandatory recount of signatures in the failed “Safer Portland” ballot initiative. The initiative sought to use 25 percent of new dollars collected by the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) to hire more police officers. In an opinion issued Thursday, US District Court Judge Michael Simon said elections officials followed the law “in good faith” when examining signatures gathered for the initiative. The lawsuit wrapped up the city, county, and state elections offices after the Safer Portland petitioners declined to accept the results. “The plaintiffs had the opportunity to test their allegations in federal court, where claims must be supported by evidence,” the Portland auditor’s office said in a statement Thursday. “The Court denied their request to reinvent Oregon law.” Much more here from your trusty Mercury reporters.
Last year, Portlander Jacob Hoopes went to the ICE facility to protest President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. While he was there, Hoopes, a Quaker, threw a rock that hit a federal agent in the head, causing minor injuries. He was later arrested by federal agents at his home after they triangulated to identify him using surveillance tools and an image published in the Oregonian, and became one of the first protestors to be prosecuted in the city. His parents have been supportive, moving across the country to be close to Hoopes while he spends up to 900 days in prison. Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs has a heart-wrenching profile of Hoopes, his parents, and how he thinks about his faith and the mistake in the context of state violence. If you can’t it read now, bookmark this one and take a moment to read it over the weekend.
Portland City Council will enter into talks with the local Black justice and anti-displacement nonprofit Albina Vision Trust to develop the parcels of land surrounding the Moda Center. In a unanimous vote, city councilors allowed the city to enter into negotiations to develop city-owned land in the area. The decisions comes at the same time the city is in negotiations with the Portland Trail Blazers around what it will contribute to Moda Center renovations. Read more at OPB here.
Don’t forget to thank a wildland firefighter, or a prisoner. (It could be the same person.)
Need some ideas for what to do this rainy weekend? Look no further than the Mercury’s Do This, Do That calendar. Tonight: Kickstand Comedy in the Park at Laurelhurst, Drift ambient and experimental performances at (you gotta get tickets to find out). Saturday: The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art at Portland Art Museum, the great Zamrock band W.I.T.C.H. at Revolution Hall, and the influential then-third-wave Riot grrrl feminist and now-forth-wave punk feminist band Bikini Kill at the Crystal Ballroom on Sunday. Peruse the Mercury’s recommendations here.
Mercury Music Picks is back again, this time with free jazz—well, sorta. This weekend, catch the cool, literary Chicago rapper Noname celebrating the 10-year anniversary of her album Telefone at Wonder Ballroom Friday; the expressive folk of free jazz artist Zoh Ambah with Bijoux Cone at Showbar Friday; and the Powder, Nico Tobón late night dance party at Process PDX on Saturday. More from Mercury music editor Starly Lou Riggs here.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
Two-byline alert in the Washington Post! And this one’s kinda local kinda national. Former labor secretary and former Happy Valley mayor Lori Chavez-DeRemer appears to have been a bit tipsy on power during her time in the Trump administration. A federal watchdog report released Thursday said De-Remer, a Republican, oversaw a “toxic, intimidating and humiliating” work environment, including having an inappropriate relationship—though potentially not sexual or romantic—with her bodyguard, using your tax dollars for personal travel, and regularly drinking on the job. She also pushed her driver to participate in throwing money at a performer at a strip club, under threat from her bodyguard. De-Remer resigned in April amid abuse of power allegations. Is this good governance? There’s a lot more to this story in the Washington Post here.
With so many recent natural disasters—read: disasters caused by burning fossil fuels—it can be easy to lose track or become numb to the suffering around the world. The flash floods in Nepal and Tibet last week claimed nearly 1,300 lives to date, with some 5,000 still missing. On Thursday, rescue workers pulled two construction workers out alive, after they spent 9 days 550 feet into a tunnel they were building in Nepal. Sanjay Shah, a foreman, said he was in the tunnel’s control room when the area flooded, with 40 to 45 other people. “Since I was in the control room, my responsibility was to save everyone’s lives,” he said after his rescue. “After such an accident, I couldn’t just un away by myself. I had to save everyone.” There are beautiful people everywhere. Read more on this in the Guardian.
US President and perpetual man with his fist to the sky over some issue he created Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to intervene and allow him to block mail-in voting before the midterms. But he can’t do that; states run elections, you say. Of course, in a former world this is true. But everything now seems up for grabs if this man is asking for it, and SCOTUS has hardly used its coequal powers to rein the president in. Printing and mailing ballots is already underway in most states, including in Oregon. The US Postal Service (USPS) has been mum about the issues, but a USPS whistleblower earlier this week warned that millions of ballots could fail to be sent at all if the postal system’s requirements remain intact. “If a single [ballot’s] bar code registers an error, the whole batch gets thrown out, even if it contains tens of thousands of legitimate ballots,” according to this PBS story on the whistleblower report. In Oregon, Secretary of State Tobias Read is asking the state for emergency funding to purchase 20 new drop boxes so people don’t have to mail their ballots. The Oregon Capital Chronicle, via OPB, has details on that story here.
Headed into the long weekend like:
