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Good morning, Portland! We’re in for a windy, rainy day with a high of 55 degrees. Perfect excuse to hang inside and eat a pizza. Get yer fill of slices in now through Sunday!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Warning: You may never be able to enjoy orange juice again after reading this. A Portland woman is suing Trader Joe’s after finding the tip of a rubber glove containing what she suspects was a finger in a carton of orange juice purchased at the store on NE Halsey Street last year. According to a lawsuit, the woman bought a 52-ounce container of organic orange juice with pulp last June. A few days later, she took a swig of the juice when she felt like there was a large chunk of orange pulp in her mouth. “When she pulled it out, however, it was the finger tip end of a rubber glove, which she thought might have also contained the end of a human finger in the glove tip or in the pulp of the Orange Juice, which she may have inadvertently swallowed or ingested as well,” the complaint states. The woman claims she “felt nauseated and had a burning sensation in her mouth” and went to an urgent care facility. She’s seeking $10,000 from the company, plus reimbursement for her attorney fees.
• The owner of a now defunct wild animal park in Southern Oregon who illegally kept exotic animals on the property pleaded guilty to 43 charges of animal neglect in court on Monday. Brian Tenney, who operated West Coast Game Park Safari in Bandon, is expected to take a plea deal that will see him serve seven and a half years. The Oregonian reports the 53-year-old also pleaded guilty to “one count each of racketeering, methamphetamine delivery, unlawful possession of a machine gun, short-barreled firearm or silencer and recklessly endangering another person.”
State investigators seized over 300 animals from the property last May, while others, like a camel, had to be euthanized. Prior to that, inspectors found a lion, leopard, and lioness being kept on the site were visibly underweight, with ribs showing, investigators said. They also found animals being kept in unsanitary and unsafe enclosures, with feeding bins containing rotten food, animal bones on the site, and a lion being kept in a completely dark enclosure. Inspection reports also noted a dead tiger was found on the property, and other animals like capybaras were sick or diseased.
• Speaking of captive animals, Metro, the regional county government, faces scrutiny as it begins to spend the millions of dollars it asked voters for in its 2024 bond measure to pay for upgrades at the Oregon Zoo. A new Metro audit identified three primary root causes of performance measure issues. “The first was the absence of effective controls to manage project scopes, cost forecasts, schedules, and contingency allocations,” the audit states. “The second was the scale of what the Zoo set out to accomplish. The third was an incomplete bond team.” For example, the auditor claims an entryway revamp project had to be scaled back so substantially due to increased costs, it’s now barely happening, OPB reports. “Lack of documentation was a key weakness and could prevent the Zoo from ensuring projects will be managed consistently,” auditors noted. “Some budgeting and cost tracking processes were not finalized, and risk management tools appeared to be limited for the bond as a whole.” The audit also found an oversight committee had not begun meeting until this past February. The Zoo’s leadership says they generally agree with the findings, but the audit mischaracterized a few aspects of the bond’s implementation. “We strongly disagree with the Auditor’s statements and characterizations to the media,” Marissa Madrigal, chief operating officer of the Oregon Zoo, said in a statement. “As our management response details, we are well staffed and well prepared to deliver on the promises of the 2024 zoo bond measure — and, in fact, we are already doing so.” The $380 million bond measure was passed by voters with a promise of upgrading animal habitats for specific areas and renovating educational exhibits, as well as energy efficiency upgrades.
• Now that we’ve depressed the fuck out of you, treat yourself to some hot gossip with this week’s edition of the Mercury’s Trash Report. Elinor Jones dishes out the celebrity and entertainment news you didn’t know you cared about, or maybe you did, but were too prude to click every tabloid link on the internet.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• An Oregon woman who worked for the company Thomson Reuters says she was fired after raising concerns about the company’s contracts with ICE. NPR reports Billie Little worked for the data broker company, Thomson Reuters which provides law enforcement and other government agencies with databases containing personal information that’s often used in criminal investigations. The company also maintains an international news branch (Reuters). As the former employee discovered, ICE maintained a hefty contract with the company and had access to its products to use for surveilling immigrants and protesters. When Little and other employees drafted a letter to company management about their concerns, she later found herself out of a job with the Canadian company. Because Little is based in Oregon, she has whistleblower protections. She’s now suing the company, alleging it illegally retaliated against her. The news of ICE using massive databases of personal information, including addresses linked to license plates, comes as the agency is reportedly looking to adopt smart glasses that will allow agents to surveil and potentially identify immigrants and/or protesters just by glancing at them with glasses installed with special, tiny cameras.
• But how will they pay for those fancy glasses with an empty bank account?? The Department of Homeland Security says it will run out of money by May if Congress doesn’t approve a funding package to reopen that portion of the government. The agency was stalled in paying its Transportation Security Administration (TSA) workers for several weeks, but was able to tap money from a different fund after an executive order from Trump. Now, DHS says that money is drying up. While some federal Homeland Security agents still get paid when their agency is frozen out of funds, others, like TSA agents that run security at airports, go without pay. Democrats in Congress have refused to approve funding for DHS unless Republicans can agree to added transparency and accountability measures for federal immigration agents.
• In what’s being called a major win for Democrats in Virginia, voters approved a redistricting plan Tuesday that could give Dems a 10-1 advantage over Republicans. Trump and the GOP have been pushing to maintain a Republican majority in the House, leading to states like Texas “undertaking mid-decade redistricting at rates not seen since the 1800s.”
• Despite President Donald Trump extending a ceasefire in Iran, chaos still ensues in nearby waterways. Iran has reportedly fired on three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, seizing two of them. The offensive move comes amid an American blockade of Iranian ports. Two of the vessels are being escorted to Iran, according to Iranian media reports. The Strait is a prime waterway for transporting the world’s oil supply by ship. The Associated Press reports more than 30 ships have been attacked in the Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel launched a war with Iran in February.
This duck is all of us mid-week:
