“I’M SECEDING FROM THE NATION.” In a hilarious 911 call, a fellow from Texas named Doug Leguin who’s “pissed off at America” decided to announce his new republic of one—and warn everyone that he was about to seize a mostly unoccupied mansion outside Dallas. He said he was mad at the police, too, for “shooting […]
Denis C. Theriault
Denis C. Theriault is the Portland Mercury's News Editor. He writes stories about City Hall and the Portland Police Bureau, focusing on issues like homelessness, police oversight, insider politics, and civil liberties. Before arriving in Portland, Denis wrote and edited for the San Jose Mercury News, covering the California Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as well as the city of San Jose—a real-live million-person town.
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GAME ON. (EXCEPT IT’S NOT A GAME.) President Barack Obama last night gave the go-ahead to drop bombs on the Islamic State, the Sunni militants looking to establish a caliphate over large parts of Syria and Iraq. The Pentagon has since confirmed those airstrikes have begun. The Islamic State, better known as ISIS, has come […]
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Citizen Panel Urges More Discipline for Officer Who Pepper-Sprayed Homeless Campers
Adam Wickham Police had mistakenly applied a new enforcement policy for nuisance crimes like littering to sidewalk violations. Police commanders reviewing the chaotic aftermath of a homeless camp sweep beneath the Morrison Bridge last October all seemed to agree on one thing: Officer Todd Engstrom had made a mistake. By grabbing a camper’s dog and […]
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Cops Close to Finishing New Rules on Juvenile Arrests
The Portland Police Bureau has confirmed it’s on the verge of closing an extraordinarily troubling policy gap—finishing up rules, for the first time in its history, that directly govern when and how officers are allowed to take juveniles into custody. That news comes straight from Captain Dave Famous, who reports directly to Police Chief Mike […]
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Russians and their infamous appetites, right? Moscow’s answering the most recent round of Western sanctions over Ukraine with some new rules of its own. For at least the next year, it’s banned fruit, vegetables, meat, fish, milk and dairy imports from the US, the European Union, Australia, Canada and Norway. I have no idea what […]
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Cozying Up
Hales’ Budget Reversal an “Olive Branch” for the PBA
Hales calls his budget switch an “olive branch” for the Portland Business Alliance.
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Fritz Slams Funding for Old Town Redevelopment Plan: “It’s a Shell Game”
It’s been well-known for months that a neighborhood-sponsored plan to redevelop Old Town and Chinatown—relying on infrastructure waivers to hopefully spur construction of 500 “workforce” housing units—would divide the Portland City Council along some immutable fault lines. When the Oregonian first reported on the plan back in March, two commissioners—Nick Fish and Amanda Fritz—stood ready […]
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Why Restore (Some) Money for the Downtown Marketing Initiative? The City’s Looking at a New Surplus Likely Worth At Least $10 Million
Mayor Charlie Hales has said timing and need governed his hand in looking to restore partial funding for the Portland Business Alliance’s Downtown Marketing Initiative—some five weeks after he and the rest of the Portland City Council passed a budget that gave the program nothing. In a 4-1 vote today giving the PBA just $170,000 […]
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Police Union President Touts Concession on Investigation Interviews
A pointed complaint by the president of the Portland Police Association—accusing the city’s Independent Police Review office of violating labor agreements and city code when casually contacting cops about investigations—has apparently had its intended effect. Daryl Turner, in an email yesterday to his nearly 1,000 members, said he sat down with the director of IPR, […]
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That was… brief. What was supposed to be a 72-hour “humanitarian” cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, between Israel and Hamas, lasted only two. Palestinian militants have been accused of killing two Israeli soldiers and kidnapping another (Hamas, of course, denies it all)—prompting condemnations from Secretary of State John Kerry and the very strong chance of […]
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Impeachment Lite! Some House Republicans are having a hard time saying the “I” word when it comes to President Obama. So they’ve decided to do the next best thing! In a total party-line vote, they’ve agreed to sue him in federal court—arguing that he overstepped his constitutional bounds by using executive orders to modify pieces […]