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Good morning, Portland! They say the rain is back until the middle of next week, but then again, each Friday’s weather report has been spectacularly wrong in recent months. So, good luck and bring a jacket. Or shorts. Either way, grab a brand new Mercury Holiday Issue and take it along wherever you go. (It won’t double as an umbrella—you’ll need a different alt newspaper for that.)
IN LOCAL NEWS:
An advisory body to Portland’s mayor and chief of police is inviting the public to to talk directly to the officials next week—a rare opportunity to provide feedback on local policing. The Portland Committee on Community Engaged Policing (PCCEP) will hold a town hall next Tuesday, November 17, at Portland Community College’s Cascade campus. PCCEP was created out of a settlement agreement with the US Department of Justice in 2012. Since then, the body has been meeting to allow space for feedback on the city’s policing model. Read more on this from Courtney Vaughn.
Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) is moving, and yesterday the organization announced its new location. The new PICA will be a hop, skip, and a jump away, to an industrial building on N Tillamook. Suzette Smith has more on this, and the Mercury‘s connection to the building, which longtime readers may remember as a highly entertaining event.
Hundreds of city workers are still on strike today, as state mediators join the city and City of Portland Professional Workers union (CPPW) for a check in on negotiations. Discussions have been ongoing for 10 months. CPPW authorized a strike a few weeks ago, which began this past Monday. It’s the longest city worker strike since the Oregon Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act was enacted in 1973. The two parties are trying to come to an agreement on wage increases and cost of living adjustments. The city says the workers’ requests are too costly for the city, but the union says Mayor Keith Wilson is stalling, calling the tactics “union busting.” Read more in the Mercury for some background. Representatives from a baker’s dozen state and local labor organizations are joining the strikeline today as CPPW is expected to give updates on mediation.
Need some ideas for something to do this weekend? The Mercury’s Lindsay Costello has you covered with the best events calendar in town. Check out Do This, Do That for this week’s top events, like The Big Trans Comedy Show at the Alberta Rose Theatre, the Columbia Gorge Model Railroad Historical Society show in N Portland, and The Mountain That Loved a Bird at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall. More here!
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who has served in Congress for more than two decades, announced Thursday that he is challenging current Senate minority leader and previously presumed incoming majority leader Chuck Schumer for the role. Van Hollen said his candidacy is “not about any one individual, but it is about answering the call of the American people,” after Democrats accomplished sweeping victories in the recent midterm elections. Van Hollen came out strong in early 2025 against President Donald Trump’s violent immigration tactics, and visited Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, the Maryland resident who was deported and spent time in the CECOT maximum-security prison. This is the first time Chuck Schumer has been challenged for his leadership role—a welcome battle for progressives who have become fed up with Schumer’s capitulation to corporate interests and fascists.
Six people were shot inside and outside a gym in Washington D.C.’s Logan Circle neighborhood early Thursday. One man was killed, five others were injured, and the 55-year-old shooter later took his own life after barricading himself in his apartment above the gym. The person who was killed was a manager of the building where the shooter lived, and the incident appeared related to longstanding issues with the homeowners association. The others appear to be random people in the area at the time. This is America. Read more here.
Microsoft 365 has been experiencing a worldwide outage for nearly a full rotation of Earth. Users have been unable to access email, schools can’t access educational materials, and the AI assistant Copilot isn’t working (Earth thanks the outage for this one, but the water guzzling tech has been implemented everywhere, including in medical settings, so it is consequential). It’s unclear what caused the outage, but Microsoft says there’s no evidence of foul play—”at this time.” Some areas around the world are starting to see service restored. More live updates in the Guardian here.
Happy weekend to everyone but this guy:
