Dain Fagerholm HAPPY HALLOWEEN, BLOGTOWN! The White House and Donald Trump had a lot to say Monday about how the charges against former campaign chairman Paul Manafort have nothing to do with Donald Trump. Not quite as much to say about the guilty plea from a former campaign official who was trying to work with […]
Dirk VanderHart
I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters elsewhere.
I've been in Portland three years, love it and want to help make it better. Let's keep it amicable!
Posted inVideo Games
Travel Oregon Made an “Oregon Trail” Knockoff And It’s Exactly What You’re Thinking Right Now
Remember a couple years back, when the game Oregon Trail popped up online and we all played it once to reminisce and then were contented and stopped? Travel Oregon didn’t stop. The state’s “semi-independent” tourism booster has released a riff on the old 8-bit classic, ‘cept instead of a banker with the runs you’re now […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Rat Film: A Documentary About Redlining, Rats, and Baltimore
Rat Film wants to talk about Baltimore—how its history of racist real estate policies contributed to urban blight and reduced opportunities that persist today. To do so, director Theo Anthony takes the looong way around, with an experimental documentary that tosses in video-game philosophizing, theoretical suffocated infants, drag racing, and inner city blowgun use onto […]
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: Spain’s About to Blow, ICE Thinks It’s “Restrained,” and Blake Griffin Sux
JOHN MOORE / GETTY IMAGES It’s emblematic of where we are at this moment that the videotaped harassment of a US citizen by ICE agents—one that drew nationwide condemnation—can be described by ICE as “great restraint and professionalism.” Speaking of ICE, OPB has a meaty story about the Oregon jails that take the agency’s money […]
Posted inHousing
Portland’s New Supportive Housing Push Could Cost $300 Million—Just for Starters
Bud Clark Commons, in Northwest Portland, is a high-profile supportive housing project. The mood in city hall was upbeat last week, when Portland City Council set into motion a plan that could see 2,000 units of deeply affordable housing sprout up in the city during the next decade. As we reported at the time, the […]
Posted inNews
In an Abrupt Move, the City’s HR Director Is Resigning
City of Portland The city’s top labor negotiator is resigning. In an abrupt move, Anna Kanwit, a long-time city employee who for the last five years has served as director of the Bureau of Human Resources (BHR), sent word this morning that she’s leaving her position next month. “I am resigning my position as the […]
Posted inHousing
North Portland’s Piedmont Neighborhood Is Warring Over a Nonexistent Homeless Camp
Kenton Women’s Village was approved by the Kenton Neighborhood Association earlier this year. Photo Courtesy of Catholic Charities A number of residents in North Portland’s Piedmont Neighborhood are looking to slap a new label on any property owner who helps a homeless camp or shelter to spring up without a formal okay from nearby residents: […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Rat Film: Rats Are Gross (Even When They Teach You About Racism)
A Documentary About Redlining, Rats, and Baltimore
A documentary about redlining, rats, and Baltimore.
Posted inNews
Laundry Service and Restrooms Might Be Coming to Portland’s Homeless
As Ted Wheeler’s Frets About Spending, He’s Mulling Nearly $450,000 in New Cleanup Costs
As Ted Wheeler frets about spending, he’s mulling nearly $450,000 in new cleanup costs.
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: Danielle Outlaw Wants a Helper
Turns Out the Police Chief’s Been Planning a Big Change for Bureau Leadership.
Turns out the police chief’s been planning a big change for bureau leadership.
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: New Homelessness Numbers, Groping Accusations in Salem, and a Shady Deal for Puerto Rico
KEVIN RUSS / GETTY IMAGES The county finally released a full report on the 2017 “point-in-time” count used to give policy makers an idea of what homelessness looks like here. We went over a few of the findings. State Senator Sarah Gelser clarified yesterday: Yes she is accusing another senator, Jeff Kruse, of touching her […]
Posted inHousing
New Data Breaks Down Portland’s Homeless Population in Minute Detail
Roughly a quarter of Portland’s unsheltered homeless residents were homeless when they moved to Multnomah County, and most of them came here because of family and friends or job opportunities. Another 18.6 percent moved here for access to services and resources. That’s one new takeaway available in the county’s full 2017 “point in time” count […]