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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND!👋
And happy "goodbye to atmospheric river" day to those who celebrate. Along with stiff breezes and a scorching high (for December) of 59 degrees, those damnable buckets of rain will slow to a stop today with only a few showers tomorrow, and then a dry weekend. And now? Let's drench ourselves with a bucket of NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• A Portland police officer has been arrested on charges of domestic violence in Clackamas County. Jimmy Pryce—a 27-year veteran with the PPB who was off duty at the time of the arrest—has been charged with strangulation, fourth-degree assault, menacing, and harassment of a woman he lives with... and allegedly he did these things in front of his kids. Pryce has been put on leave while the Bureau conducts its own internal investigation. It's unclear if Pryce has been disciplined by the Bureau in the past, though he has been on leave on-and-off during the past five years, and it's unclear why. Our Courtney Vaughn has more.
A Portland Police Bureau officer is under investigation after he was arrested last month on domestic violence charges.
✍️ Courtney Vaughn
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) December 9, 2025 at 5:52 PM
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• That previously mentioned atmospheric river caused all sorts of havoc around the state, particularly on the coast where floods temporarily closed northbound 101, while landslides impeded travel along other coastal highways. Meanwhile, back here in Portland, the incessant rain filled our Big Pipe sewer system past capacity, which caused some waste to spill over into the Willamette (so obviously don't swim or fish there right now... not that you were going to), and even the traditional Christmas boat parade was temporarily canceled due to flood debris in the water. (But don't fret, the nightly parade will continue as soon as it's safe to do so.)
• It looks like right-wing "journalist" (bolded for deeply sarcastic reasons) Nick Sortor is prepping a $10 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, after being arrested for his part in an October scuffle at Portland's ICE facility. Sortor—who previously had a few run-ins with the law—was temporarily held on suspicion of second-degree disorderly conduct, though the charges were dropped a few days later by the county DAs office upon further review. (Sortor was apparently pushed into a drainage planter after mouthing off to protesters while doing... you know... "journalism.") The litigation warning accuses the city of Portland and PPB of maintaining "a long-standing pattern and practice of hostility toward conservative political viewpoints." UMMMMM... apparently Sortor's legal team haven't read THIS STORY. Do your homework, guys!
• If you happened to have missed this year's edition of the Portland Krampuslauf—a super fun and creepy parade dedicated to the half-goat, half-demon Krampus of Alpine folklore—check out the Mercury's terrific photo essay from Elayna Yussen! You'll see all sorts of bizarre holiday-inspired versions of Krampy—known for accompanying Santa on his travels and beating bad children with a stick 😳—and an absolutely adorable pic of a witch leading a cute kid around in chains. (No children were harmed or beaten with sticks.)
Krampuslauf in Portland!
Demonic goats, witches, and winter spirits gathered in Sewallcrest Park before treating SE Hawthorne to a playfully fearsome sight.
📸 Elayna Yussen
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) December 9, 2025 at 2:48 PM
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• If you need to switch your mood to holly-jolly from grumpy-dumpy, music editor Nolan Parker has several solutions for you in this week's holiday-heavy Mercury Music Picks, including a hardcore Christmas, a John Prine Christmas, and... a pop punk puppet show? A pop punk puppet show! 🤩🎄
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• And Trump keeps swirling closer and closer to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal vortex, after a federal judge ruled that the Justice Department can indeed release the secret grand jury transcripts from the sex criminal’s 2019 sex trafficking case. This marks the third such ruling in the last few days, in which judges in Florida and Manhattan also approved the release of information from past Epstein trials. The Justice Department has until December 19 to release the files. 🍿 (That sound you hear is hundreds of doors slamming as an untold number of creepy politicians and millionaires flee the country.)
Exclusive: DHS signed a contract worth nearly $140 million to purchase six Boeing 737 planes for deportations.
ICE has long relied on charter planes to carry out deportation flights, but the agency has broader plans, two officials said.
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) December 10, 2025 at 7:48 AM
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• In yet another "L" for Trump, a San Francisco federal judge has put an end to the president's illegal deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer agreed with the state's assertion that Trump had wrongly overstepped his authority by flooding LA with Guard members ordered to assist ICE with their evil immigration plans, and against the governor's wishes. (How will Trump try to distract everyone from the Epstein files next? Free hamburgers?)
• Speaking of the doddering, 79-year-old Trump, the president set off on his "Make America Affordable Again" tour yesterday, stopping off in Pennsylvania to remind voters that... checks notes... "affordability" is a hoax, the economy is actually doing great (despite all evidence to the contrary), foreign countries like Somalia are "shit holes," and that Americans are using too many pencils. 👀 (I'm learning that sometimes I don't have to make a snarky comment about our delusional president... all the evidence is right there.)
Stressing affordability and opposing Trump’s mass deportation initiative, Eileen Higgins won big, becoming first the Democratic mayor of Miami since 1997 and continuing a 2025 trend that bodes well for the midterms.
— Intelligencer (@intelligencer.com) December 10, 2025 at 7:55 AM
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Thank you @gothamist.com
— Jill Twiss (@jilltwiss.bsky.social) December 10, 2025 at 8:06 AM
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• Not that it will probably do much good, but Rep. Haley Stevens of Michigan has reportedly filed articles of impeachment against Health and Human Services Secretary (and dead baby bear kidnapper) Robert F. Kennedy Jr., correctly labeling him “the biggest self-created threat to our health and safety.” Besides endangering children with his orders to revise vaccine schedules for kids and promoting the lie of Tylenol's link to autism, Stevens is accusing Kennedy of causing rising healthcare costs as well as dismantling critical medical research. While the impeachment articles have a snowball's chance in hell of passing in the Republican-controlled Congress, it's always better to do something rather than nothing.
• RIP to Sophie Kinsella—author of The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic and other Shopaholic novels—who died far too early of brain cancer at the age of 55.
• And finally... here's what happens whenever I walk into the staff break room.
@nnnhhh531 😂 الكلب الصغير "تشاكي" يُحقق كابوس 5 قطط! (لما البالون يقلب البيت) #جنون_الكلاب_والقطط #تشاكي_المرعب #مقالب_الحيوانات #ضحك_لحد_البكاء #كابوس_البالون ♬ الصوت الأصلي - FunnyPaws
