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Good afternoon, Portland! Hope you're enjoying the cooler weather. Here are the headlines.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
- Portland has paid, relative to other cities, very little for brutalizing racial justice protesters in 2020 — just $325,000 so far. Alex Zielinski breaks down why.
- Following a spring report about dysfunction on the Planning and Sustainability Commission between commissioners who prioritized sustainability and commissioners who prioritized land use, City Commissioner Carmen Rubio decided to split the commission into two separate panels. Not everyone is pleased with the decision.
An important update to this column: the proposal to add 3 ppl recommended by Commissioner Hardesty to the FIT COG team will no longer be going before city council, as it's not something that needs council approval. The 3 new members began onboarding Aug 3. https://t.co/sejR0rPZHJ
— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) August 10, 2022
- US Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler conceded defeat in her bid for re-election to Congress, making her yet another House Republican who will not be returning to the chamber in 2023 after voting to impeach Donald Trump. Herrera Beutler, who has represented Southwest Washington for more than a decade, finished third in last week's primary with the top two finishers advancing to the November general election.
Music Portland, an advocacy group for independent artists and music venues, has entered talks with City Hall offices about Live Nation’s planned development of a 3,000-seat indoor music venue in the Central Eastside. https://t.co/XmTcvAjgdm
— Willamette Week (@wweek) August 10, 2022
- The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday to uphold more than 1,000 commutations granted by Governor Kate Brown in 2020 and 2021, rejecting a challenge from two district attorneys and four families of crime victims. The vast majority of people who had their sentences commuted were either deemed especially vulnerable to COVID-19 or battled fires August and September of 2020.
- Now the really important news: the Mercury's Burger Week starts on Monday, and vegetarians and vegans will have 14 different options to choose from.
IN NATIONAL NEWS:
- Trump was having a rough week already, what with his Mar-a-Lago residence getting searched by the FBI, and that was before he had to take the Fifth Amendment in a deposition in New York today in a civil case related to his business practices.
- US Rep. Ilhan Omar narrowly survived a primary challenge to her right from former Minneapolis City Councilmember Don Samuels last night, winning by just more than two percentage points to all but ensure her return to Congress. She has spent much of today in a feud with pro-police Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who endorsed Samuels and attacked Omar following Samuels' concession.
😂 our incompetent Mayor gets upset when we talk about his failures, but as the Mayor he is solely in charge of our city, it’s police & public safety.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) August 10, 2022
No matter how much media covers for him, people know our city is suffering because of his poor leadership and childish behavior. https://t.co/VBoRmMAb93
- In other primary results of note last night, Wisconsin Republicans picked a millionaire election denier as their candidate for governor, while Vermont Democrats chose progressive Becca Balint over a centrist candidate for the nomination for their open US House seat.
#breaking There was a riot this week at a state prison outside Amarillo, after >30 prisoners refused to go in their cells and instead started fires and popped open cell doors.
— Keri Blakinger (@keribla) August 10, 2022
The agency has not given details, but I obtained leaked internal records describing the incident.
- Two police officers in Indiana were suspended from their posts after admitting in court that they arrested a man in an effort to stop him from running for town council because they thought he was anti-police. The county prosecutor said he was "disturbed beyond words" by the officers' actions.
- Finally... a preview of coming attractions.
i be like “i cant wait for fall fits” then fall comes & i dress like this pic.twitter.com/QYnxet6Ogo
— Luis Vercetti (@97Vercetti) August 10, 2022
