When Portland City Council extended the city’s mandatory renter relocation law last week, a predictable phenomenon emerged. Under the law, landlords are liable to pay between $2,900 and $4,500 if a rent increase of 10 percent or more leads a tenant to move out (or if they issue no-cause evictions). So landlords are keeping rent […]
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 inNews
Activists Attempt to Block a Bus at Portland’s ICE Facility, Spurring Odd Arrests
One of five members of a human “chain” in front of the ICE facility in Southwest Portland. Doug Brown Dozens demonstrators showed up outside of a US Immigrations Customs and Enforcement facility in Southwest Portland today to block a bus they say was bringing undocumented immigrants to a Tacoma detention facility. The crowd, perhaps has […]
Posted inUncategorized
R2DToo Has Inked a Hopeful Agreement With Its New Neighbors
But the City Just Allowed Another Underlying Deal to Lapse
But the city just allowed another underlying deal to lapse.
Posted inNews
Hall Monitor: Echoes of Charlie
As Ted Wheeler Steeps Himself in the Homelessness Crisis, He’s Sounding More Like His Predecessor
As Ted Wheeler steeps himself in the homelessness crisis, he’s sounding more like his predecessor.
Posted inNews
Now Trump’s Messing with the Willamette River?
His Administration Has Reached a Secretive Deal with Polluters
His administration has reached a secretive deal with polluters.
Posted inHousing
The City Finally Has an Idea of How to Spend Its Housing Bond
Here’s What You Need to Know
Here’s what you need to know.
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: Cali’s On Fire, Trump’s Helping Climate Change, and KGW Thinks Portland is “Tent City, USA”
(Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Northern California is on fire, and it’s bad. Tens of thousands of people have been evacuated, at least 11 people are dead, and hotels and trailer parks are going up in flames, in “one of the most destructive fire emergencies in the state’s history.” (BTW: The Oregonian chartered a helicopter […]
Posted inNews
A Man Had a Gun Stowed in His Scooter at Today’s Patriot Prayer Rally. He Was Arrested. (UPDATE: He’s a Jeremy Christian Supporter)
Police found this stuff in the scooter of a man who attended a right-wing rally today in downtown Portland. Doug Brown ***Update*** Jay Bishop, the gun and knife-possessing man arrested today at the Patriot Prayer rally, was interviewed in June by freelance journalist Mike Bivins. He expressed his support for Jeremy Christian, an open white […]
Posted inNewsblast!
Good Morning, News: BuzzFeed Busts Breitbart, a Firebug Inmate, and Danielle Outlaw’s Moment of Glory
After an OPB interview of new Police Chief Danielle Outlaw teased out that she had appeared on Wheel of Fortune in college, we made it our mission yesterday to find footage. Here’s the first piece of what we turned up. I’ll put up more in a bit. Someone gave BuzzFeed a ton of emails that […]
Posted inNews
Portland’s Chipping in $50,000 to Help Local DACA Recipients
The City of Portland is spending $50,000 to help DACA recipients re-apply for protections and get legal advice. In a unanimous vote this afternoon, the Portland City Council approved a grant that will reimburse advocacy groups that have been helping “Dreamers” pay the $495 fee to re-apply for protections under the Deferred Action for Childhood […]
Posted inNews
Pee Bargains: The City Has Decided It Wants Authority to Drug Test Union Workers
Gracey Zhang CITY EMPLOYEES from six labor unions filled City Council chambers last week to warn that a strike might be on the horizon. Rattling off a list of concerns, members of the city’s largest union group, the District Council of Trade Unions (DCTU), formally declared an impasse in ongoing bargaining over a new three-year […]
Posted inNews
In 1996, Portland’s Police Chief Won $40K on Wheel of Fortune. Here’s Video.
In the autumn of 1996, Danielle Outlaw was a long way from where she is today: the first woman of color atop the Portland Police Bureau. In late November of that year, not so far from Thanksgiving, Outlaw (then Bowman, actually) was a junior at the University of San Francisco. And she was raking it […]