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Good morning, Portland! It’s Wednesday, January 28. It’s expected to get warmer and wetter over the next few days. Today, we can expect a high of 52 degrees and a low of 46, along with rain showers. It’ll probably stay wet through Friday. If you’ve been shivering over the last week or two, hold tight. The National Weather Service predicts it could get up to 58 degrees this Saturday.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Court documents released this week provide additional context in the case of two Portland Police officers who were shot and injured by an attempted robbery suspect. The Portland Police Bureau reported 41-year-old Eric Oelkers was arrested near 82nd Avenue on Sunday. Oelkers is the man who police say used a knife to try and rob a man in the Sullivan's Gulch neighborhood near NE 21st and Sandy Boulevard, before being apprehended by officers and then opening fire on them. A probable cause affidavit says the man who Oelkers tried to rob called 911 to report the incident, while following the suspect in his car. Officers Sebastian Dragomir and Randy Stowe responded to the area and caught up with Oelkers, who refused to comply with orders to put his hands on his head. Oelkers, according to police, reached for a gun and shot Dragomir, then Stowe. Stowe was shot in the upper right thigh and suffered a shattered femur. Dragomir was shot in the upper right arm and left side of his neck, and a piece of his ear was blown off during the shooting. Officers eventually caught the suspect and arrested him after an employee at a local shuttle station near the airport recognized him in body camera images circulated by police. According to the affidavit, the employee said Oelkers matched the description of a man who'd been coming to the lot and damaging vehicles and harassing employees. Using TriMet camera footage, they were able to track Oelkers down. He faces two counts of first-degree attempted murder charges and two counts of first-degree assault with a firearm.

• Feds in Portland are still pumping out a lot of tear gas into public streets and right-of-ways, but Eugene is also getting hit. On Tuesday, federal agents deployed tear gas at the federal building where protesters gathered to denounce the death of Alex Pretti in Minnesota. Journalists covering the scene were also caught in the gas cloud. 

• Portland City Councilors Mitch Green and Angelita Morillo are asking the mayor and city administrator to expedite enforcement of a new detention center impact fee. In a letter sent to the mayor on Tuesday, Green and Morillo said the new code is already in effect and urged the city to move quickly to start implementing and enforcing it. The detention center fee, passed by the Council late last year, is meant to recoup costs associated with environmental remediation and other harmful impacts of chemical emissions like tear gas from detention centers like the ICE facility in Portland. The city's administrative branch has yet to establish what the fee structure will be, but the councilors say the city has the means to start gathering evidence of violations now. 

Today @councilorgreen.bsky.social and I sent a letter to Mayor Wilson urging the Executive Branch to use their administrative powers to protect Portlanders from the Federal Government. City council can pass policy but that policy is only as effective as the Executive Branch is willing to execute it.

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— Councilor Angelita Morillo (@councilormorillo.bsky.social) January 27, 2026 at 2:42 PM

• In other City Hall news, an attempt to ban restaurants from serving foie gras in Portland died in committee Tuesday. City Councilor Mitch Green introduced the proposed ban on the delicacy to the Arts and Economy Committee, but the proposed ordinance didn’t garner enough votes to be sent to the full City Council. Foie gras is the fatty liver of a duck or goose that has typically been force-fed to achieve a bloated liver that is largely made of fat. The forced feeding commonly involves sticking a tube down a bird’s throat and pumping large amounts of liquid slop into it for a couple of weeks while the bird stays confined to a tiny area. Green’s proposed ordinance focused on force-fed poultry, but wouldn’t prohibit the sale of foie gras that’s derived from less traditional methods like enzymatic treatment. Both methods require an animal to be slaughtered. For decades, foie gras has been denigrated by animal rights activists and veterinarians who argue the delicacy is exceptionally cruel and unnecessary. But local restaurant owners convinced three of the five councilors on the Committee that such a ban was unhelpful and could harm their industry at a time when restaurants are already struggling in a sluggish economy. (In humans, a fatty liver is a bad thing and it's hard to imagine anyone clamoring to eat one, regardless of the source, but that's just me.) After Tuesday’s Committee vote, Councilor Green said he’ll try a different mechanism to get the ordinance before the Council.

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Last week, a few Democrats in Congress introduced articles of impeachment against Kristi Noem. This week, they are calling for her to be fired, threatening to force a vote on her impeachment if she isn’t removed from her position leading the Department of Homeland Security. Following the hasty, fatal shooting death of yet another person in Minneapolis over the weekend, it appears a few Republicans are joining the calls for her ouster.

Senators Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, both Republicans, said Noem should resign. Noem, the former governor of South Dakota who now cosplays as a tough-as-nails Homeland Security leader, has given her DHS goons carte blanche to kidnap, assault, unlawfully detain, and even kill anyone who dares look at them crooked or speak with an accent. Now, it might finally be biting her in the ass. While the chances of Noem getting impeached are slim, considering Republicans hold a majority in both the House and Senate, the growing criticism of Border Patrol and ICE from Republicans suggests maybe some of them are starting to see through the bullshit.

• Speaking of Border Patrol, they shot someone, again, only this time, they were returning fire. On Tuesday, Border Patrol agents shot and injured a 34-year-old man in Arizona who they say fired at them first during an attempted traffic stop. The Associated Press reports the man had a warrant related to a prior human smuggling and firearms conviction. The local sheriff has said he believes the agents acted lawfully.

• A Minnesota judge has ordered ICE Director Tim Lyons to appear in federal court this Friday, threatening Lyons with contempt of court if he doesn’t show. Politico reports the courts have been flooded with lawsuits from immigrants who’ve been illegally arrested and detained, and in one case, the judge who ordered Lyons to appear in court had issued an order for a detainee to be released on January 15, but that person was still being held more than 10 days later.

• And in a bit of non-immigration enforcement news, TikTok has settled a lawsuit filed by a 19-year-old in California alleging social media companies like TikTok lead to addiction, which can lead to depression and even self-harm or suicidal thoughts, as in the case of the plaintiff. The lawsuit names YouTube, Meta, Snap, and TikTok. A jury trial in the case (one of hundreds of its kind) is expected to be held sometime in the coming months, though two of the plaintiffs have already agreed to settle.

If getting more exercise was one of your new year's resolutions, and you've been feeling hopeless about the state of things, these folks might have the solution for you. 

@uprisepdx Care for your community. Care for your body. Keep showing up. Jane Fonda would be proud! #resistanceinMotion #uprisepdx #abolishIce #joyinaction #portlandprotest ♬ original sound - UpRisePDX

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