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Good Morning, Portland! And good evening to The Pitt, prestige TV's latest emergency room drama, which concluded its first season last night. The 15-episode arc introduced an ensemble cast of 15, over the course of a 15-hour trauma center shift where everything that could go wrong went wrong. Was it a metaphor for our world? Probably not intentionally! Medical show jargon voice: Pan scan is negative; that means we can admit to THE NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• "Performative cruelty," were the words Lauran Parise used to describe the extension of a plea deal sentence in court this week, the Oregonian reports. What may be unusual is he was objecting to increased punishment for a man who hit Parise and his wife, Jennnifer Parise, in 2023. The crash led to her death. Through the driver, Nathan Franklin, was driving under the influence, Lauren Parise says that the fault for the crash lies with the Gresham Police, who had misidentified Franklin as a suspect and were pursuing him at high speeds.  Franklin had accepted a deal to plead guilty in exchange for a seven and a half year sentence, until Nathan Vasquez became Mult Co DA in January and decided to rip up the agreement and extend Franklin's sentence to 10 years. While the move seems in line with Vasquez's promise to be tougher on crime than the former DA Mike Schmidt, the extension is not what the victims in the case wanted. “She would not want to be a political pawn, especially not when the officer involved in causing this tragedy is not held accountable for his actions,” Lauran Parise said in court. “It isn’t what she would have wanted.” [UPDATE, April 14: The Mercury updated this section because Lauren Parise objected to the idea that Franklin caused his wife's death. Read more about his civil lawsuit in the Oregonian's reporting.]

• Speaking of asking police to slow their roll, the Portland Police Association's request to join the Northwest Oregon Labor Council (NOLC) caused fierce objections from existing members, but NOLC's executive board has voted to include the police union under its "big tent." Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs has the juice.

• Gang of Four is one of those unforgettable music groups that was doing post-punk when everyone else was still doing first wave punk rock. Mercury music editor Nolan Parker notes that "Gang of Four pushed punk music into something more danceable, while remaining unshakingly political." The band's bassist Dave Allen had been living in Portland since the '90s, but has died at age 69.

• Record Store Day is on April 12 this year, and there are some straight up fantastic records being released on vinyl for the first time or re-pressed. Music editor Nolan Parker wants to put a few picks on your radar!

Record Store Day is this Saturday, April 12, and there's dozens of new releases and represses. What're the best ones you ask? Smash the link below to find out what our top 10 picks this year are 🎚️

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) April 10, 2025 at 12:08 PM

• What do you call a guy who can't stop talking about about bootstrapping and can't win a congressional election, but who fails upward into a nomination to run the National Counterterrorism Center? You call that the hypocrisy-laden life of Joe Kent. Gaining a little more notoriety in recent weeks for participating in a Signal chat about US attack plans that did not appear to use secure communication protocols and furthermore may have violated a variety of laws, Kent nevertheless sat before a Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday and defended his actions. Asked if he had used his personal phone or a government phone, or if his phone had been scanned to detect malware, Kent sang that sweet old song of ongoing litigation as a reason why he couldn't answer. His failing upwards is giving me contact vertigo—so let's get into NATIONAL NEWS.

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Scroller beware, there's some sad footage of a helicopter crash out there this morning being shared by news sites. A sightseeing tour in New York broke apart in midair, Associated Press reports, crashing into the Hudson and killing the pilot and a visiting family of five. 

• Also in WTF aeronautics, the wingtip of an outbound American Airlines airplane smacked the wingtip of a stationary American Airlines plane on Thursday, giving everyone involved quite a frighten. It all went down on a taxiway at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, which is the same airport where January's Potomac River collision occurred.

• In some tricky legal subtext, the Supreme Court has "endorsed part of a trial judge’s order" requiring the US government to “facilitate and effectuate the return” of wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The New York Times reports that means the court didn't actually order his return from the notorious prison in El Salvador—where he was sent after a sudden ICE sting last month.

• Speaking of illegal search and seizure, this short documentary news collab by Calmatters and Bellingcat and Evident is a great, concise piece on border patrol raids with both solid reporting and great writing. AND —your friend and mine—former Portlander journalist Sergio Olmos is in it:

• The Atlantic recently re-published a piece from their December 1945 issue, describing the last three days of Mussolini. NO REASON—WE'RE JUST TALKING! LOL STAY IN THERE, WE'RE JUST HAVING GIRL TALK.

• Time to prep for the weekend—whether that means things are about to be slower or busier for you. Here is the energy. "It's Not Right but It's Okay" is such a slept on Whitney Houston song, so I am hoping this audio trend takes off!