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Good morning, Portland! Looks like a li’l chance of rain today and tomorrow for all the fall lovers in the chat. Sun back on Sunday (how fitting), and into next week. Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
The Portland Police Bureau (PPB) yesterday released video and a narrated summary (an exercise in the use of passive voice) of the events that left one human being and a police K9 dead from police gunfire on September 24, after a bullet was expelled from the chamber of a gun owned by police when the trigger was allegedly pulled, ending the chase of the person, who was a suspect in a Gresham homicide (active voice) that he allegedly committed earlier that morning. The dog, Kylo, was commanded to tackle the person, who is seen on video pulling out a gun, and police fired in the direction of both. The man, later identified as 39-year-old Eddie Brandon Todd Campbell, died at the scene, and Kylo was later euthanized at a veterinary hospital. The two officers, Jerry Ables (who fired his gun four times) and Kameron Fender (who fired five times), are on administrative leave, according to the press release.
As the election nears, the polls are starting to hone in on what voters are feeling. Two new polls—one commissioned by the Oregonian/OregonLive and another from Governor Tina Kotek’s campaign, show momentum in Democrats favor, according to reporting in OPB. It’s just a snapshot, but it’s on an upward trajectory compared to previous weeks.
If Jane Austen once referred to Pride and Prejudice as “her own darling child,” playwright Kate Hamill is the aunt who taught that child how to be funny. A new, wonderful staging by Portland Center Stage can barely contain the work’s hilarity. The Mercury’s romance authority Candice Taylor says she’s going to see it twice!
Here’s a little pocket of fun. There are a handful of great events this week, outlined below. And for all the hot shot readers out there, let’s start the weekend off with a special ranked choice version Pop Quiz PDX in anticipation of the upcoming election. Rank your favorite stuff here, and we’ll reveal the results of the quiz next week!
This weekend promises a whole lot of great local events, from the local cellist and songwriter Alexis Mahler’s release show at Desert Island studios tonight, to the Great Portland Grape Stomp at Portland Wine Club and a Haunted Corn Maze at Bella Organic Farm on Saturday, to the Spirit of Halloweentown: The Ghostly Voyage at Caruthers Landing Dock on Sunday. Check out more at the Mercury‘s Lindsay Costello’s Do This, Do That, here.
Mercury Music Picks is back with another grip of good shows to see. The Mercury‘s Starly Lou Riggs has the details here, from screamo to darkwave to the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, there’s a ton of music to take in this weekend. Enjoy!
IN NATIONAL NEWS:
Former Fox News host and perennial winner of the “Most Belligerent Guy at the Bar” contest, Pete Hegseth, on Thursday said the US is going to livestream the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former US Army psychiatrist who shot and killed 13 people at a Texas military base in 2009. This morning, the UN said doing so amounts to torture. “The livestreaming of an execution is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture,” the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said, according to the Guardian. Hegseth and the Trump administration are clearly contributing to a total degradation of civil society, in God’s name. Let’s check in with what God has to say. 🎤 Oh, he’s (sorry, He’s) big mad.
Maybe that’s why the Trump administration on Friday imposed new sanctions on the International Criminal Court (ICC)? Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who Congress unanimously confirmed for the position in 2025, announced the sanctions Friday. That’s the same day the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to South African prosecutor Navi Pillay, a former judge at the ICC and other international courts. Rubio called the ICC a “rogue court,” and said the US will cut off transactions and “cripple its ability to operate against us.” The court was established to prosecute war crimes and other atrocities, so it makes sense the country that wants to livestream an execution by gunfire would want it gone. More at the Associated Press.
Today in “Ok Grandpa, Let’s Get You to Bed”:
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officer shot and injured a 28-year-old man in New York City Thursday while his five-year-old child was in the backseat. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it was a “targeted enforcement operation” and they were seeking a “criminal illegal alien from the Dominican Republic,” adding blah blah blah, a bit of hot air, and a bucket full of drivel before offering a mouthful of poppycock. The ICE officer, DHS said in passive voice, “discharged his weapon and the criminal illegal alien was injured.” The man is currently in stable condition at a local hospital and Mayor Zohran Mamdani is mad as hell, condemning ICE as “rotten to its core.”
Eric Deters, a disbarred attorney and pizza chain restaurant owner from Kentucky who mounted failed Congressional runs, says Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece (who definitely didn’t get her job because she’s Trump Jr.’s ex) tried to bribe him to pay off her massive credit card debt in exchange for access to Trump administration officials. Deters recently made headlines for having to cancel his Freedom Fest event that was to be headlined by Kid Rock and Dog the Bounty Hunter, because it sold just six VIP tickets. Earlier this week, the Wall Street Journal reported Guilfoyle sent messages to Deters asking him to discreetly wire $100,000 to her American Express account, which she needed paid off before her confirmation hearings. Deters never came through with the money and Guilfoyle landed the job anyway, but, according to the WSJ, “Deters said Guilfoyle told him if he came up with the Amex money, ‘I will be your Trump ride or die, forever and ever.’ But, he said, ‘she never came through on anything.’”
Take care this weekend. Don’t do this:
