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Abe Asher

Abe Asher covers city news, politics, and soccer for the Portland Mercury. His reporting has appeared in The Nation, VICE News, Sahan Journal, and other outlets.
Posted inSports

The Long Road Back: A 2025 Portland Timbers Preview

After a humiliating end-of-season defeat, can the Timbers return to their winning ways?
Avatar photo Abe Asher

The last time the Portland Timbers took the field for a competitive match, they suffered what was easily among the most humiliating defeats in club history: a 5-0 drubbing, at home, in a playoff game, against a Vancouver Whitecaps team that was about to fire its coach.  On Sunday afternoon, February 23, the Timbers will […]

Posted inNews

Providence Relents After Ordering Nursing Instructors to Cross Picket Lines

An attorney intervened after Providence asked its nursing educators to work as replacement labor during a health care worker strike.
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On the Monday before the start of the ongoing Providence strike, Natalie Barron, a nursing instructor at Portland Community College and per diem nurse at the Providence Portland Medical Center, received an alarming message: She would have to report to work at Providence on the first day of the strike or be barred from teaching […]

Posted inNews

Providence, Union Set to Re-Enter Negotiations Amid Historic Health Care Worker Strike

Roughly 4,000 Oregon health care workers are on strike. This time, the picket lines include physicians.
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The largest health care worker strike in Oregon history is continuing this week, with thousands of Providence nurses and a number of doctors taking to picket lines across the state.  Health care workers began their strike on Friday, January 10. They have two central points of contention with Providence: staffing levels and compensation. Providence, a […]

Posted inNews

An East Portland School Grapples With Racism and Ineffective State Response

Athletes at David Douglas High report racial slurs hurled at them by opponents during games. Families and coaches say Oregon has no meaningful solutions for accountability.
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Two years ago, Rich Linwood was watching his son play an eighth grade football game at Sandy High School. When the game ended, he realized something was wrong.  “Players were coming off the field crying, and we were like, ‘Okay, we’ll get ‘em next time,’” Linwood said. “And they were like, ‘You don’t understand. The […]

Posted inHoliday Guide 2024 🎅

A Major (League) Undertaking

The Portland Diamond Project wants to bring pro baseball to Portland—but will it get the love and money needed to survive?
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[Editor’s note: Read all our holly jolly HOLIDAY GUIDE articles here. Looking for a print copy? Good! You can find it in more than 500 spots across Portland with this handy map!] The Portland Diamond Project has been working to bring a Major League Baseball team to the Rose City for the better part of […]

Posted inNews

Tenants Take Cues From Labor Unions in Effort to Remedy Property Management Issues

Portland lacks a formal process for renters to form a tenant union, but residents at one apartment complex say they’ve found leverage by banding together.
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Tenants at The Russell, a 68-unit apartment building in Northeast Portland, had a problem: the elevator in their building was out, and Trion Living, the company that owns the building, wasn’t in a hurry to do anything about it.  “We just wouldn’t hear from them,” Nick Narsing, a software engineer who has lived in the […]

Posted inElection Guide 2024

Small Donors, Big Changes

With a Government Transition, More Candidates Tapped Into Public Campaign Funding Than Ever—Here’s How It Works.
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Portland has been helping fund campaigns for its city offices for years, and its impact this year has been especially significant: In an election with more than 100 candidates, the Small Donor Elections program has doled out more than a million dollars and served as a lifeline for candidates without the financial means to get […]

Posted inNews

Sign of the Times: Eponymous Portland Coffee House Turns to Fundraising to Stay Afloat

Jim & Patty’s has been a fixture in Portland for 21 years, but the owner says it may not survive the new cost of doing business.
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Patty Roberts grew up as the daughter of a preacher in the Church of Christ. That meant she and her family moved around a lot growing up—Texas, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and, finally, all the way across the country to Eugene. It was early summer in 1966, and Patty was 14 years old, about to enter […]

Posted inNews

Activists Express Skepticism After Revisions to Police Oversight Board

In 2020, Portland voters called for a bold, independent police accountability system devoid of law enforcement influence. Now, police will help pick the new board members.
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This story is one in a two-part series on Portland’s new Community Board for Police Oversight. At the end of August, approaching four years since it was overwhelmingly approved in a ballot measure by Portland voters, U.S. District Judge Michael Simon approved a plan for the city’s new Community Board for Police Accountability.  Judge Simon’s […]

Posted inCulture

A Look at Portland’s Arts Funding Upheavals, One Year In

Portland no longer runs its arts grants program exclusively through the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC); here’s what’s changed.
Avatar photo Abe Asher

For nearly three decades, the city of Portland ran its grant program for artists and arts organizations exclusively through a well known non-profit, the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). Last summer, however, the city decided to change course.  Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office—which oversaw arts programs at the time—announced that the city would not renew […]

Posted inFall Arts 2024

A Look at Portland’s Arts Funding Upheavals, One Year In

Portland no longer runs its arts grants program exclusively through the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC); here’s what’s changed.
Avatar photo Abe Asher

For nearly three decades, the city of Portland ran its grant program for artists and arts organizations exclusively through a well known non-profit, the Regional Arts and Culture Council (RACC). Last summer, however, the city decided to change course.  Commissioner Dan Ryan’s office—which oversaw arts programs at the time—announced that the city would not renew […]

Posted inNews

Lack of Oversight in Police Training Seminars Raises Alarms

Two law enforcement training conferences in Oregon will feature Dave Grossman, a self-proclaimed expert in “killology” who teaches preparation for combat.
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Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is among the most high-profile police trainers in the United States. He’s also one of the most controversial. Grossman is currently scheduled to deliver presentations to law enforcement officers at an FBI National Academy Associates (FBINAA) retraining conference in Redmond in September, then at the annual Oregon Peace Officers Association (OPOA) […]

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