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Good Morning, Portland! The days are getting shorter… imagine if you looked at your window right now and saw a face peering through! Ah! That would be so scary. Today’s weather is going to be the same as it was yesterday, but the sun will set two minutes earlier! 🪦 Ah! Now for some other seasonally depressed news!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Ongoing investigations into the 16-year-old who shot six people, killing four, last week at a Bend elementary suggest that Griffin J. John II may have developed an “obsession with Nazism,” after interacting with violent extremism groups on Discord. The Oregonian‘s Maxine Bernstein reports that the FBI in Portland issued a public warning earlier this year about a “nihilistic violent extremist” group called 764, that it says has been targeting vulnerable internet users.
• Becky Drury, a teacher who was injured by the shooter at Silver Rail Elementary, but who survived, reached out Wednesday to correct erroneous reporting, which suggested she threw herself on top of a student to protect them. There just wasn’t enough time, Drury said in a statement, “Before I could do anything more, he shot me at close range and I fell to the ground.” The ammunition nearly severed Drury’s left hand and also wounded her right arm. “Accurate, respectful reporting is a truly important service that will help heal the wounds inflicted by that awful day,” she said. YMMV, but it’s potentially worth updating your understanding of the shooting to include another teacher who police have said threw her phone at the shooter, then tackled him and wrestled with him for control of the weapon before the attacker was shot by a father who followed him into the building.
• You’re right. Sometimes I do seek out the most boring, yet still mildly interesting news I can find. Today I want you to know that Gov. Tina Kotek has officially proclaimed October 19-23, 2026 to be Community Bank Week in Oregon. This is how I get my twisted thrills.
• Laika’s Wildwood hits theaters this weekend, and the buzz about its beauty is deserved! It’s also true that many anthropomorphized animals die in it. Due to scheduling shenanigans, I had to review this one instead of Dom—so I say a bunch of weird stuff about the Dowager Governess looking like local author Lidia Yuknavitch. Read about some other things you can’t unsee once I point them out in our review!
• Oregon Rotary Club members plan to install “Peace Poles” along sections of the Oregon Coast Trail, inviting visitors to reflect on actions of peace as they traverse it. You could arguably go to the Oregon Coast Trail right now and ponder love for your fellow man, but the peace trail isn’t set to officially launch until May 2027. Current plans map a 100-mile walking and driving route from Coos Bay south to Brookings.
•This weekend at Cinema 21, Portland’s QDoc festival presents an excellent, varied curation of new documentary films about LGBTQ+ community icons, histories, and drama! There are some real gems; don’t miss our picks!
• Mercury music editor Starly Lou Riggs’ picks of the week include everything from classic alt rock all stars to newfangled shoegaze and glitchy noise pop. Be sure to catch Black Belt Eagle Scout rocking Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Arts Center in Hillsboro, She’s Green gazing up High Limit Room, Weatherday shredding Polaris Hall, and more!
• On Monday, October 26, the Spielman Bagels location on SE Division will assume a new name in honor of the shop’s original co-owner Rick Spielman. “[On] what would be my dad Rick’s 81st birthday we will become Ricky’s,” current owner Raf Spielman shared on social media. The father-son duo opened the first Spielman Bagels in 2011 and expanded to several other locations with additional investment. The shop on Division was the first, and the family continued to manage that location despite selling its majority share in the mid-2010s. “Everything will be the ‘same,'” writes Raf Spielman of the change, “as in different from all the other Spielman locations in the way it’s been for a little while now.” He noted that if you want a Spielman T-shirt, this is your last call. The other Spielman Bagels locations will continue as usual, but the Division location always made the merch.
• Trimet is TRYING, you guys. Please just learn about upcoming shuttle buses along the yellow line route, between the Rose Quarter and Expo Center from October 25-31. Not everyone can be Washington State Dept. of Transportation!
NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Hours after the Kremlin agreed to restart US-brokered talks aimed at ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Russian military pounded Kyiv with ballistic missiles and drones throughout the night and into Thursday morning. According to Ukrainian authorities, the bombings killed one person and wounded 22 others. But sure, peace talks.
• You may recall a story from last week about the DOJ demanding California election officials prove the US citizenship of thousands of voters that it had “flagged” as potential noncitizens. Well, of the 20,000 people the Trump administration claimed were “likely noncitizens”—a number that had narrowed significantly since an earlier claim of 100,000—officials said this week that they had charged 28. All were green card holders or legal immigrants with residency status, and 11 had already been arrested.
• Different department! Same stuff! A federal judge has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to stop hunting for noncitizen voters until after election day, writing that the department’s efforts rely on faulty data that includes US citizens legally allowed to vote. According to the New York Times, internal documents introduced in the case indicated that agents were directed to focus on California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington, and Wisconsin.
• This happened earlier in October, but I forgot to write about it. The Nobel Foundation awarded its prize in literature to Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson. If you loved Shaking the Tree’s staging of Bakkhai in 2019, that was Carson’s translation. Here are some Anne Carson memes for those who know.
