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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! We’ve finally thawed. The snow-turned ice on the sidewalks dissipated to slush and now, we’re back to the muddy, soggy world we all know and love. Today’s high will reach 51 degrees. It feels like a tiny miracle, until you stumble into the grocery store and realize the shelves are bare. Be patient. The bread will return. 

While we wait for it, let’s sink our teeth into the headlines.

In Local News:

  • The race for Portland’s next City Council is well underway, with four candidates running for mayor, and more than 40 people running for one of four seats in the city’s new voting districts. If you’re curious who will be on the November ballot, check out our bios of each candidate, broken down by district. 
  • Portland police say a woman who jumped in the driver’s seat of a running car with two kids in it was found and arrested in Washington, after the kids jumped out of the car at a stoplight and the woman continued to drive off. The kids, ages 9 and 11, weren’t injured. Once they exited, they flagged down someone who called 911. A Multnomah County Sheriff’s deputy spotted the stolen car in North Portland and pursued it across state lines, where local agencies helped trap the car and arrest the driver.
  • Two fires this month are being investigated as arson, and anarchists are claiming responsibility for both. On January 12, firefighters and police arrived at the home of City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez, where a car parked in the street that belonged to one of Gonzalez’s family members was set on fire. Earlier that week, on January 7, firefighters responded to a north Portland lot, where three pieces of city-owned heavy machinery were set on fire. The lot is an empty site the city is trying to convert to a temporary alternative mass shelter site. Posts on an anonymous blog site that claims to be run by anarchists indicate the fires were intentionally set to interfere with the city’s attempt to run a mass shelter site at the lot, and in the case of Gonzalez’s family’s car being torched, the arson was allegedly in response to crappy policies the city commissioner enacted roughly a year ago after taking office. Police are now circulating surveillance images of a suspect.
  • Last week’s freeze wreaked havoc on many buildings around the city, including some Portland schools that may not be able to open back up to students for weeks, if not months, following burst pipes. But for some buildings, like the Vista House in the Columbia River Gorge, being encased in ice is a whole mesmerizing vibe and I can’t look away. 

In National/World News:

  • The Oscar nominees are out, and as mostly predicted, the summer box office hits (hello again, Barbenheimer!) each made the list of nominees for “best picture” along with Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things and other titles that I will hopefully stream someday from the comfort of my couch. Three things stick out to me with this list: 1. That a movie about Barbie was nominated for an Oscar; 2. That Ryan Gosling was also nominated for an Oscar, for best supporting actor in that same film (Maybe he is Kenough!); and 3. That Margot Robbie, who stars as Barbie, was snubbed. But for real, if you’re scratching your head at how a cheeky, glossed-up (feminist?) flick made this list, remember that for many middle-aged women, having a film acknowledge that the Barbie franchise had an outsized influence on American standards of beauty, and women’s aspirations, while also tackling the discomfort of growing up in a world shaped by Barbie standards and toxic masculinity, was somewhat refreshing, even if in a campy way.

  • New Hampshire voters are set to decide the presidential candidates for their state in the November election, and today is considered a bit of a litmus test for GOP nominee Nikki Haley. As you’ve likely heard by now, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis already dropped out of the presidential race. Oddly, President Joe Biden’s name won’t be on the Democratic ballot, because of what NPR describes as a dispute between national and state Democrats.

  • Finally, in what I never expected to be an indicator of class and wealth, The Atlantic has a piece about the prevalence of uncovered windows and the phenomenon of gazing into the homes of the rich. The observation: wealthy homeowners in many cities are doing away with curtains and blinds, which makes for awkward evening dog walks for some of us. Might be time to ramp up those security systems.

 

 

Courtney Vaughn is the news editor at the Portland Mercury. She appreciates your news tips and musings. Reach out at cvaughn@portlandmercury.com or find her on Bluesky @courtneyvaughn.