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Good morning, Portland! Oh, my. I hope you like singing in the rain because it is dangerously wet out there. Stay safe, stay dry if you can.
📰 Let’s get right into the news.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
- Flood warnings came to fruition early this morning, with more than 2 inches of rain falling at the Portland International Airport, 2.63 inches in West Linn, and 3.5 inches near Estacada. That’s on top of 1 to 4 inches of rain that had already in the region earlier this week, according to The Oregonian/Oregon Live. The National Weather Service warned of the flooding on Thursday, particularly near Johnson Creek and the Clackamas River. Some Clackamas County residents had to leave their homes near the Clackamas and Molalla Rivers last night, and the American Red Cross opened an emergency shelter at Gregory Forum (19600 Molalla Ave.) for people who need it. The O has you covered here.
- The Blazers are going to win the championship. #TBAGTWTC
- Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield simply will not stop suing the Trump administration! Earlier this week, Oregon joined a lawsuit along with 15 other states and the District of Columbia, arguing the Trump administration is unlawfully withholding more than $2 billion in electric car charging programs. The money was allocated to states through President Biden’s infrastructure bill, and was meant to help them expand their electric vehicle charging infrastructure. But the Trump administration’s Department of Transportation is withholding the funds, which states planned to fund programs including an initiative to expand electric car charging infrastructure up and down the West Coast. Rayfield said in a statement that “when these projects are delayed, it doesn’t just affect charging stations” … “It affects jobs, supply chains, and the cost of doing business in our state,” Rayfield continued. “Congress already approved this funding, and Oregon should not be penalized because this administration decided to put the brakes on investments that support our economy and working communities.” Man, when these state attorney generals ran for office, I bet they didn’t know how much we’d be putting them to WORK. Luckily, many—including Rayfield—have shown they’re up to the task. Let’s get those chargers back, baby! Taylor Griggs
- The Honorable Wm. Steven Humphrey is back with a year-end pop quiz, featuring questions on the best, worst, and most preternatural events of 2025. A $150,000 police robot dog to help sniff out why cops are constantly complaining about being underfunded? Sure! A big new project at the Lloyd Center Mall? It’s in there! Democrats honoring the indubitable white nationalist/liberal crossover hero Charlie Kirk? THAT WAS THIS YEAR!? Hop in and take the quiz! (If you don’t, our editor gets to keep your presents.)
It’s time for the POP QUIZ PDX—this week featuring the top questions of 2025! How much do YOU remember about Portland’s robot dogs, Blazer scandals, and that time Kristi “ICE Barbie” Noem came (uninvited) to town? PLUS! Your vote for the most heroic hero of 2025! (See how well you score!)
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) December 18, 2025 at 1:31 PM
- ❄️ On Thursday, the Portland Bureau of Transportation opened up its annual contest to name 5 more of the city’s 56 total snowplows. You have until January 5 to submit ideas for new Portland snowplow names here. (Sorry folks, Beverly Clear-y, Salt & Thaw, Brrrnside, Plowy McPlowface, and The Big Snowplowski are already taken.) PBOT staff will select their top 20 names, then open it up to multi-winner, ranked-choice voting from January 12 to 21. The top 5 snowplow names will be announced the week of February 2. For all the fun snowplow games, there are also some resources here via the city’s press release, like how to stay best prepared for the cold winter weather. (Hot tip: This is good practice for the next Portland City Council election, which will happen next November for Districts 3 and 4—not Districts 1, 2 or the mayor. It will be Multnomah County’s first ranked-choice election too.) ❄️
IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
- Of its own volition, obviously, the board of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts voted unanimously on Thursday to rename the institution the “Trump Kennedy Center.” United States President, critically acclaimed performance artist, and lauded auteur Donald J. Trump happens to be the board chair of the organization after a slate of board members he picked earlier this year unanimously elected him to the position. Still, that’s what it will be called for the foreseeable future (or else 🔪 ). But questions remain about the legality of renaming the center at all. One Kennedy relative said on Trump ex Elon Musk’s social media platform X that the performing arts center is named the Kennedy Center under federal law. He said it could “no sooner be renamed than can someone rename the Lincoln Memorial, no matter what anyone says.” The new name sounds a bit like Trump married into the prominent Kennedy family and kept his last name as his first. One would be wise to think twice before aspiring to join such a powerful but cursed family in infamy.
- Protect trans kids.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is expected to announce a package of measures that would together ban gender-affirming care for minors. A press conference is set for 11 a.m. Thursday. n.pr/44xQKdD
— NPR (@npr.org) December 18, 2025 at 4:28 AM
- TikTok was always a bad app, but it may be about to get even worse. The company has finally signed a deal that will give majority control of its American product to investors based in the US, including Oracle, the software company owned by Larry Ellison. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because the Ellison family has been everywhere lately, running around like Pac-Man if Pac-Man had a hunger for American media companies. That wasn’t a very good comparison, but I’m keeping it in. All you need to know is that the Ellisons are Trump allies who also run CBS News now. Anyway, TikTok’s algorithm will still be owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, but American auditors will have oversight of the hyper-specific, über-addicting algorithm. The reason this sale was initiated in the first place is because American politicians—on both sides of the aisle, for the record—were afraid TikTok’s Chinese ownership made American users susceptible to Chinese propaganda or something. Even if that were true, the American government is fully capable of doling out propaganda, too, and it’s quite alarming to imagine what US owners will make of the app now that it’s in their hands. Could the new owners attempt to silence growing discontent with President Trump and his administration? That doesn’t seem outside of the realm of possibility. All I’m saying is, you might wanna touch grass. Don’t believe everything you see on your phone, regardless of which country’s rich people are in charge of what you’re seeing. TG
- President Trump signed an executive order Thursday relaxing the definition of cannabis, moving the drug from a Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act to Schedule III, which is classified as having a “potential for abuse less than the drugs or other substances in Schedules I and II, a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a potential for moderate or low physical dependence or high psychological dependence in the event of drug abuse,” according to his order. There’s bipartisan support for this one. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkeley issued a statement Thursday evening saying there is more to do and now is the time for bipartisan action. “I will continue to push for fully descheduled cannabis—which is essential to addressing the harms perpetuated by the War on Drugs and the criminalization of cannabis on communities of color—and work with both Republicans and Democrats to advance common-sense cannabis reforms for banking services and medical treatment,” Merkeley said. Here’s a CNN story on it. ABC News has a video here on it. And another video is here:
- Democrats on the House oversight committee on Thursday released a trove of photos from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate, ahead of the Friday deadline they set requiring the US Department of Justice to release the Epstein files. Simply put, there’s not much to see here, so just go on with your weekend, and happy holidays! It turns out Epstein and his ilk were just big fans of Russian literature, particularly Vladimir Nabakov’s novel Lolita. Well, maybe not so much the book as the things the main character said in the book about his young victim, who was roughly the same age as many of Epstein’s victims. The images released Thursday contain no dates and no context, but multiple images show phrases from Nabakov’s novel written on a woman’s body. They also show photos of Microsoft’s Bill Gates, the lefty philosopher Noam Chomsky, director Woody Allen, Trump’s political advisor Steve Bannon, and New York Times opinion columnist David Brooks. I’d bet a $100 Powell’s gift card that a bunch of aging D.C. politicos are shaking in their Santa boots right about now. Crime, meet punishment.
- It would be interesting to hear what people might say to the Wall Street Journal about the premise of this non-story, which a) dismisses people with invisible disabilities, b) is likely not an issue at all, and c) gives a megaphone to the most miserable people you—with any luck—never have to sit next to on an airplane. (Or if you happen to like this non-story, I hate to tell you, but you are the miserable person the Mercury’s distinguished readers hope to never endure on an airplane.)
Travelers bemoan a rise of able-bodied passengers who game the system to skip the lines. on.wsj.com/3N6apva
— The Wall Street Journal (@wsj.com) December 18, 2025 at 2:30 AM
- Me at the holiday party:
