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Good Morning, Portland! Pacific Northwest weather really shines as we approach hoa hoa time. This weekend starts off with an amuse bouche balmy Friday evening, cooling off from a high today of 83 degrees, segueing into a sunny, warm Saturday with a high of 80, before closing with the classic rainy and cool Sunday. Weather, we don't deserve you. Let's hit the news!

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• While I have no desire to live in a city luminous with the glow of vaunted back patting, it does seem like Portland set itself up for failure when it adopted the lofty goal of Vision Zero,  which was set by Sweden in 1995 for its own roads and adopted by Portland in 2015. Nevertheless, as the City Council recommitted to the goal on Wednesday, OPB pointed out that one of the city's main traffic tools—speed and red-light cameras—hasn't been working since July. The city has been switching to a new system, which won't be fully operational until November.

• Mike Bivins rose to local name recognition during the 2010s, as a freelance journalist covering downtown Portland protests and brawls between right wing groups, like Patriot Prayer, and leftist antifascists. However, in the spring of 2022, years after he'd ceased reporting, Bivins began a hateful spree of arson and vandalism, targeting a Muslim community center, two synagogues, and a Black-owned restaurant. In June, he was convicted on counts that included "second-degree bias crime, the legal term for a hate crime," the Oregonian's Zane Sparling reports. Bivins was sentenced this week to serve five years in prison and five years on probation, but will likely only see eight more months behind bars, due to time served and requests of those he targeted, which sought rehabilitation over punishment.

• For even more from Oregonian reporter Zane Sparling, tune in to this morning's City Cast Portland for a roundtable discussion where myself, Mr. Sparling, and host Claudia Meza recap topics like the City's land use violation notice to the South Portland ICE facility, Oregon's transportation budget woes, and the Satyricon Oral History piece in our recent Fall Arts Issue.

• Also in the Fall Arts Issue: The season is STACKED with releases from interesting directors, like Paul Thomas Anderson, Kelly Reichardt, Lynne Ramsey, and Chloé Zhao! We asked Dom Sinacola to write something short and sweet about what looks promising—and what you should avoid at all costs.

• Another thing that's stacked: The HOT FALL Wing Wing line-up.

Get ready, tummy! Starting September 29, you can cram your mouth with the most delicious wings in town, created by 80(!) of your fave restaurants and bars. It's the Mercury's WING WEEK!

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) September 18, 2025 at 4:56 PM

• It's Friday morning, and new concert tickets are about to drop, including those for Chelsea Handler at the Schnitz in June next year and John Mulaney with Fred Armisen at Moda Center in December! Check our whole list via EverOut's round-up of what's on sale!

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• The European Union will enact economic sanctions on Russia, to impact the country's continued invasion and attempted occupation of Ukraine.

The EU announced new sanctions on Friday meant to hit Russia’s economy and make it more difficult for the country to fund its war in Ukraine, with plans to curb its energy trade and punish financial service companies.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) September 19, 2025 at 7:29 AM

• Russian fighter jets and drones have been encroaching on the airspace of its neighboring nations.

Estonia summoned a Russian diplomat to protest after three Russian fighter aircraft entered its airspace without permission on Friday and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Foreign Ministry said.

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— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) September 19, 2025 at 7:55 AM

• This morning, the House passed a Republican measure to keep the government funded until November 21, CBS reports.

• As the House and the Senate attempt to reconcile their respective budgets for the annual defense policy bill, Republican lawmakers got stuck on... Pride flags last week. While debating an amendment that would outlaw Pride flags “in any workplace or common area at the Department of Defense," Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter criticized her colleagues. “There are 20 days until the government shuts down. Eight legislative days,” Dexter said, “and what are Republicans focused on? Flags. Pride flags.” Rep. Cory Mills of Florida interrupted Dexter, raising a point of order to claim that the small Pride flag Dexter displayed on the podium during her comments “violates our house rules by flying any other flag but the American flag.”

• The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices panel voted to rescind a longstanding recommendation to vaccinate children under age four against measles, mumps, rubella, and chickenpox—generally known as MMRV. The panel had been hastily assembled by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. earlier this week, the New York Times reports, and the meeting was described as chaotic and contentious, as "many of the members needed explanations of the usual protocol for these meetings, the design of scientific studies, and critical flaws in the data they suggested including." Worth noting that Oregon and several other states plan to follow their own vaccine recommendations.

• Today in failing up, we're nearing the one year anniversary of former political correspondent Olivia Nuzzi breaking with New York Magazine, following a revelation and investigation into her affair with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a person she was supposed to be reporting on. On Thursday, Vanity Fair announced Nuzzi would join its revamped staff as West Coast Editor. That certainly made a bunch of people sit up and think aboiut hate-reading Vanity Fair. That's literally half the ballgame, guys!

• Sending you into this weekend with a little throwback video of Seattle's Green Jacket Lady.

 

 

 

 

 

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