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Good Morning, Portland! My notes from yesterday, about today's news, simply read: "moilun rogue’s windmill blades fell off," so that's the sort of day I (and apparently Moulin Rouge) was having yesterday. How about you? I CAN'T HEAR YOU! IT'S TIME FOR THE NEWS!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Today's top story is grizzlies (sometimes called brown bears) in the PNW. National Park Service and US Fish & Wildlife Service announced yesterday—they've been talking about this for years—that they're going to actively move forward with a plan to move grizzly bears from "other ecosystems in the Rocky Mountains or interior British Columbia" to the North Cascades. Yeah, that's Washington, but what if some of them came over here? This is the only way I see us getting into Fat Bear Week, people.
• In keeping with the nationwide protests on college campuses, a group of activists set up a camp in the South Park Blocks at PSU last night. Curious what law overruled these folks' First Amendment rights. Park closure hours? For real?
ÂA group attempting to occupy a portion of the South Park Blocks has refused to leave despite several warnings from @PDXParksandRec Rangers that the park closed at 9p. Officers are clearing the park now. Portland supports free speech activity when done lawfully!
— Portland Police (@PortlandPolice) April 26, 2024
• What if Portlanders could take 2 percent of the city's budget and spend it on the city in the way they choose? Well, Taylor Griggs talked to some participatory budgeting advocates about an initiative they're trying to get on the city's November ballot.
• [clinking of cowboy boots] There's a new camping ordinance in town (which still requires a final council vote) that'll replace city code adopted last June... which never went into effect because a lawsuit and subsequent court injunction prevented it. Want to know what's in the almost real ordinance? Courtney Vaughn made a bullet list.
• We all got that AMBER alert Tuesday night; the sad story behind it is beginning to shake out. OPB's Conrad Wilson reports "police in Oregon identified a former Washington state police and school resource officer who allegedly kidnapped his 1-year-old son and killed a woman and teenage girl, including the child’s mother, in West Richland, Washington."
The head of Oregon's state police is on administrative leave after shooting at an Amber alert suspect. https://t.co/aEJw7kYTLP
— Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas) April 25, 2024
• "The Juniper Tree" is a lesser known Brothers Grimm fairy tale, but it still follows traditional folklore logic: If a precious child, a magic tree, and a stepmother skating the edge of a nervous breakdown all occupy the same house trouble cannibalism and filicide will follow. Shaking the Tree Theatre adapted an adaption of the story, and if you see one play this spring, this should be it.
• At first I was like, damn, would love having a White Castle here. And then I was like, would I? Would I? (I would never go to it, even on the holy White Castle holiday of Valentines Day.)
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• Your Friday morning ticket drop will be arriving shortly, and our EverOut calendar team drew up a list of notables for your approval. This is a good week for tickets! There's a lot coming down the pipe: Explosions In The Sky at Rev Hall, Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Megadeath. For people who cannot get enough of comedian Brad Williams, he added a second show. And if you want to go see Imagine Dragons, and pretend you're a Power Ranger, I say go for it—I can't take you seriously, but we're still friends. Now here's what we're about: Charli XCX and Troye Sivan double bill at the Moda. All the big concerts have been on sale for two days by the time general tickets drop, but this tour sounds like something to buy the cheap seats to, so you can just dance in the back and be a freak with your friends.
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Best Podcast Episode of the Week: It's this Ezra Klein Show episode, "This Conversation Made Me a Sharper Editor" which is a much snappier title than "Mid-Short Convo with Adam Moss About His New Book" but Moss' The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing sounds fascinating too. Clearly this episode is aimed at my niche interests, but within the first ten minutes there's a pretty solid argument for anyone—and especially artists—to get a little better at editing.
• Who's ready for a reality-check? No one? Well, I am! Twitter is a bad place, but this 🧵 from Washington Post reporter Kyle Swenson is taking truth.
No one wants to be homeless. Full stop. It's terrible. Never really sleeping. Always on guard against attack and rape and harassment. The huge loneliness of having nowhere to go all day. The shame of asking for change and seeing most people walk by without looking at you (8/x).
— Kyle Swenson (@kyletalking) April 21, 2024
• Associated Press reports that "New York’s highest court on Thursday threw out Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction" yesterday, after the court decided that some of the testimony was unfair. He's staying in prison though because of his 2022 rape conviction. What does this mean? Well, Jezebel is back and she's got the breakdown.
• Is this never-produced Seinfeld episode the real deal? I have only seen like six episodes of Seinfeld in my life so I have no idea. Oh, actually this is dropping suspiciously close to Jerry Seinfeld's first film, so it's probably viral marketing.
This is huge. Someone on reddit bought a photocopy of the unproduced Seinfeld episode The Bet and uploaded the whole thing. pic.twitter.com/rdEQzlKSAo
— Mulvaholland Drive (@Seinpeaks) April 25, 2024
• Today in the school's former athletic director is using AI to get revenge, allegedly:
Absolutely wild story. A Baltimore County principal was seemingly caught on recorded audio making blatantly racist and anti-Semitic comments.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) April 25, 2024
After investigation... the audio was fake. AI-generated, in a plot by the school's former athletic director. https://t.co/s2fX9njF7y
• This weekend, talk to YOUR loved ones about skeletons.
@youknowlydia Such important wisdome! #capcut #parentsoftiktok #parenting #lol #weird #memestiktok #shitposting #funny #skeleton #skeletons #trending #treasurehunting #AI #fyp ♬ original sound - Liddy