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Good Morning, Portland! Today’s weather is looking basic—high of 78, partly cloudy—if you turned the heat on, turn it the fuck off! On the bright side, we get to sleep with the window open a little bit longer. Now let’s tune into some news.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Gov. Tina Kotek says she wants to separate the Oregon State Hospital from the Oregon Health Authority and make the psychiatric institution its own state agency. If reelected, Kotek says she would push to make the hospital a standalone state agency, giving her and future governors hiring and firing power over at least its top executive. That’s certainly… an idea. The Oregonian‘s Lillian Mongeau Hughes gets into the background and how feasible such a plan could be.
• On Wednesday, physicians at an Oregon Health Authority (OHA) media briefing hailed October as the unofficial “kickoff of respiratory virus season.” Once again, I am painfully ahead of the curve because I had both COVID and my boosters in September 💅. Doctor Dean Sidelinger noted that Oregon has seen an increase in positive flu tests in recent weeks. Projecting that this year’s Halloween would be poppin’ because it’s on Saturday, Sidelinger pointed out that there’s plenty of time to get vaccinated before you get in a steamy room with a bunch of witches.
• Today in an unarmed 21-year-old disastrously wounded by police while driving home from the gym, the family of a man shot by two Milwaukie officers in 2024 is now suing Clackamas County. The family says that after Hunter Newton had been shot in the head and shoulder by the Milwaukie officers, Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies arrived on the scene. The combined forces then yelled at the slumped over man to put his hands up for 40 minutes before one approached the vehicle. The officers pulled his unresponsive body from the car and handcuffed him before paramedics transported him to the hospital. Newton survived but is now disabled and is expected to require lifelong care. The family has already agreed to an $18 million settlement with the city of Milwaukie. The Oregonian‘s Isabel Funk takes us through the family’s allegations.
• A new Black Byline by Donovan Scribes looks at the curious case of rapper Macklemore and Portland City Councilor Mitch Green. Scribes points out how both of these incidents are great case studies into the narrow limits put on dissent of all forms—even when they’re voiced by a pair of white guys.
• This week’s Mercury Music Picks kick off fall with a spicy array of sounds: From Lyric Born’s high-spirited hip-hop at the Den to a classical cello performance at Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall to Latin-inspired beats of Geordie Greep and Jane Remover’s experimental electric glitch at Revolution Hall. Chances are that we wrote about some concert you’ll like! We’d offer a money back guarantee, but you know, it’s free.
• It’s unlikely Jeremiah Hayden and Taylor Griggs will toot their own horns that they’re both moderating panels of District 3 city council candidates next Thursday for a discussion focused on local environmental topics. As a person who often writes headlines while tired, I really respect the hell out of whoever named this “Action Night! District 3 City Council Candidate Forum.” Who are we talking to? District 3 city council candidates. What about? Action! (P.S. This will happen during nighttime.) And now allow me to continue my bullshit into national news.
• Speaking of toot:
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Welp, you can’t make light of a jetliner with 174 people aboard careening into “a descent so extreme that most of the rudder was ripped off the tail” after the craft’s co-pilot stabbed the plane’s captain. According to Associated Press, passengers onboard were able to storm the cockpit and subdue the attacker, so on-duty crew could right and land the plane. The FlyDubai jetliner had been traveling from Dubai to Tel Aviv, but was forced to make an emergency landing in Saudi Arabia. Initial reports say that everyone survived; the plane’s captain is hospitalized, but in stable condition. As to how the cockpit was breached, witnesses say that the captain fought his attacker and opened the door to his own rescuers. Motive for the attack is not yet known.
• As a result of the major US budget reconciliation that was signed into law in 2025 (given the unfortunate name One Big Beautiful Bill) the country’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) has faced an ongoing series of significant budget tightening milestones. Beginning October 1, states will need to cover 75 percent of the program’s administrative costs, which they used to split 50/50 with the federal government. This change shouldn’t directly hit those currently receiving benefits; NPR reports that many states have worked to rebalance their budgets in anticipation of shouldering the extra federal burden. In Oregon and other states, cuts to who can receive benefits and the duration those benefits last have already been in effect for months. Another major hurdle comes in October 2027, when federal programs will force states to pay for a portion of the food aid they distribute if that aid is overpaid.
• As the Trump administration continues to cut back on the country’s food assistance, President Trump has been boasting that the cost of eggs has come down during his presidency. We all remember this, but NPR points out that a major factor making egg prices rise in 2025 was the year’s avian flu, which wiped out huge flocks of egg-laying chickens that year—and in 2022 and 2024. Egg prices decreased again as the egg industry’s flocks recovered.
• A woman in Tennessee survived two doses of a lethal drug injection, on Wednesday morning, in a failed state execution. Christa Gail Pike would have been the first woman executed in the state in more than 200 years and the 30th person executed this year in the US. The 50-year-old Pike was sentenced to die for a murder she committed in 1995 when she was 18. Approximately 30 minutes after Pike had been injected with the second dose and an hour after the execution began, lawyers for Pike filed an emergency motion to immediately halt and stay the execution, arguing the procedure violated Pike’s right to be executed free of cruel and unusual punishment. She was taken by ambulance from the prison, her attorneys said.
• Sending you into Thursday with this stubborn shiba energy.
