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Good Morning, Portland! You’re probably still recovering from the party of the year last night at Turn! Turn! Turn! for the Mercury‘s music issue launch party. That’s to say, we get it, you didn’t have a chance to catch up on yesterday’s news, and you slept in this morning so you’re feeling a bit out of touch. Well, we have you covered here—let’s get to it!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• The Portland Community College (PCC) board voted Thursday to authorize a separation agreement with its president, Adrien Bennings. The move follows a rough patch at the college, with a historic strike by both PCC unions, a host of financial challenges impacting the curriculum, and ethics complaints filed with the Oregon Government Ethics Commission over potential conflicts of interest with Bennings’ business branding used by the college. Bennings will receive a $261,000 payout, plus a $25,000 retention bonus, and a glowing review of her job performance to use in future job searches. Read the full story here.
• It’s a big week for top brass losing their jobs:
• Workers at downtown Portland’s Muji—the Japanese clothing and home goods brand—have decided to unionize, joining the Wobblies in the collective fight for better working conditions. The Portland store is the only Muji on the West Coast. Local fans better hope the company doesn’t announce a sudden crime wave and leave town just to bust up the union, like those other guys. Read more about Muji and the Industrial Workers of the World at NW Labor Press.
• Budget season is back in full force, meaning amendments to the budget proposed by Mayor Keith Wilson last month are becoming public. One idea that is gathering steam is to “chop from the top,” as one councilor put it, meaning the city could pull back on some of its highly paid bureaucrats to instead fund the union jobs that are on the chopping block in Wilson’s proposal. It’s going to get wild out here, and things are starting to come clearer. The city faces a $170 million budget shortfall, and elected officials must decide how to keep the city running, post-DOGE on the federal level. Read a nice roundup of the latest proposals at OPB.
• They say don’t read the comments. People say a lot of things but that doesn’t mean you have to listen.
• Just in time for the United States’ 250th birthday, Oregon Contemporary Artists’ Biennial exhibition considers the personal and financial toll of what it costs to be an American. Featuring the Bust of York—unceremoniously removed from Mt. Tabor Park in 2021—a textile tapestry Glory Glory, and a neon sculpture from Don’t Shoot Portland called Center of Injustice, the show features artistic renderings derived from prompts about promise, place, and power. Read more from Mercury contributor Andrew Jankowski here.
• Hey brainy pants! It’s time to see how much you know about Portland with this week’s edition of POP QUIZ PDX! In this week’s super sassy trivia quiz: How to smuggle contraband (or not), out-of-control gas prices (thanks Trump), killer bees (worst kind of bees), and local angry volcanoes (jeez, calm down already)! See how well YOU score at the link right… here.
• Need something to do this weekend? Here’s some good recommendations here in the Mercury‘s Do This, Do That, and for something noisy, peruse the Mercury Music Picks. (Also, our Music Issue is out in print and online now!)
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• President Donald Trump visited China for two days this week to meet with China’s Xi Jinping. Trump brought along the former head of DOGE and big apartheid fan Elon Musk, Apple’s Tim Cook, and his son Eric (“It’s just nice that he remembers me at all,” Eric said, probably.) The Guardian reports there were no real breakthroughs on the US and Israel’s war on Iran, nothing substantive on Taiwan, or the race toward AI doom that both countries are engaged in. Not sure anyone would count that as a success, but Trump left today with his head held high. Read more in on the trip here.
• The Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that Americans can still receive the the most commonly used abortion pill, mifepristone, by mail. A New Orleans appeals court had previously ruled that patients must pick the medication up in person, but the high court issued a stay Thursday while the case continues. In a Wednesday press release, Oregon Governor Tina Kotek’s campaign reminded voters that she had secured a long-term supply of abortion medication in 2024, after Trump’s election. “She also expanded protections for medical providers and patient privacy to ensure that Oregon continues to have the strongest reproductive health care protections in the nation,” the press release said.
• This is just devastating. 💔 Her name is Juniper Blessing.
• CIA Director John Ratcliffe headed to Cuba on Thursday, to deliver a warning to the country’s government that it must stop allowing Russia and China to operate intelligence posts, the New York Times reported. Cuba is in the midst of long blackouts after it ran out of oil earlier this week. Its minister of energy and mines, Vicente de la O Levy, said “We have absolutely no fuel oil, absolutely no diesel,” according to the Times. “In Havana, the blackouts today exceed 20 or 22 hours.” That’s largely thanks to another insane move by Trump last year when he invaded Venezuela, and now the oil doesn’t transport to Cuba and people can’t cook, et cetera, et cetera. Likely no one had Trump destroying the fossil fuel industry on their bingo card, but it sure is starting to feel like a new era for dependence on the world’s most destructive fetish commodity. Maybe an alternative is in order?
• Goddammit:
• Enjoy the rain this weekend. Take good care.