If you appreciate the Mercury‘s interesting and useful news & culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. You can also subscribe and have our papers delivered!
Good morning, Portland! It may be officially fall, as the leaves have started to drop from the trees and temperatures are again reaching the high 70s. Not your typical fall weather, but by all means you can sense a change in the air. It’s back in the 60s starting Saturday.
Let’s get to the news today, most of which is devastating, infuriating, and may cause lumps to materialize in all the corporeal places where you grieve.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
Three children—ages 5, 8, and 11—and a teacher are confirmed dead after a 16-year-old child with a gun opened fire inside an elementary school in Bend, Oregon yesterday afternoon. Two other people were critically injured and hospitalized. The gunman is also confirmed dead. According to OPB, an armed community member followed the gunman as he entered Silver Rail Elementary shortly before 1 pm on Thursday, then fatally shot the shooter. The brutal incident leaves Bend, a community of roughly 100,000, reeling, confused, and grieving after another irrational incident that any respectable society would work to ensure never happens again. But this is America. This is the type of incident that conservative-liberal crossover hero Charlie Kirk—who died by gunfire just over one year ago—described as “worth it” just one week after three children and three adults were killed in a Nashville shooting in 2023.
“I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights,” Kirk said. “That is a prudent deal. It is rational.”
On the other hand, this Mercury writer’s family member—who has worked at the elementary school and the hospital where the injured were taken—said keep an eye on the helpers in the community, and extend some grace: “Don’t forget the helpers. Not because they’re ‘heroes’ but because they’re humans.”
And in more gun violence news, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) yesterday responded to reports of an assault in downtown Portland outside the Hotel Lucia on Southwest Broadway Street. PPB officers shot the suspect when they arrived, and he later died at a hospital. The suspect was reportedly threatening passersby, and used a box cutter to assault two people. Two adult males were injured and transported to the hospital by ambulance to be treated for their injuries, according to a PPB press release. The incident caused a chaotic scene on a busy downtown street. This is the second police shooting in Portland in three weeks. This is America.
Portland city government is back in the New York Times. A story published Thursday highlights the fight over City Councilor Mitch Green’s “spicy” tweets criticizing Portland police in 2020, which Green has shocked voters and his colleagues by not equivocating as many politicians do when faced with inconvenient media narratives. Green is up for reelection in District 4, and the story shows an interesting split between the city’s elected officials’ ideologies.
Do This, Do That is out now with some good recommendations for your weekend. This week: pumpkin paddling, miniatures, and a haunted pond.
And Mercury Music Picks has your back for some cool music events this weekend. If you get the chance, take a load off and soak in some tunes.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
The United States Department of Justice on Thursday sued the city of Portland over its new laws banning law enforcement from wearing masks—an expected move to keep the federal government’s secret police force, well, secret. The litigation was expected when the City Council passed the mask ban in late May, and the city attorney and Mayor Keith Wilson cautioned against passing it. Councilor Sameer Kanal, who introduced the ordinance and repeatedly tweaked its language to accommodate risk averse officials (and Portland’s police union) in the time of rising fascism, said in a statement to the Oregonian that police should be identifiable.
“While we cannot comment on the litigation,” Kanal said, “we strongly believe that law enforcement officers who are easily identifiable promote transparency in their duties and strengthen trust between agencies and the communities they serve.”
Courts have overturned local mask bans in other states and cities, including California, Virginia, New York, and Philadelphia. Oregon passed a similar ban earlier this year, but is not yet included in the US DOJ’s lawsuit. Read the full story in the Oregonian.
The federal government has issued more than a dozen subpoenas in what it calls an investigation into Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar, according to an anonymous source who spoke to the Guardian. The investigation comes just weeks before the November 3 election, in which Omar is seeking reelection. Omar, a Somalian immigrant and naturalized US citizen, has been an outspoken critic of President Donald Trump and his administration, which some have suggested just might be the impetus for the investigation. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin has suggested his office is investigating potential crimes related to immigration paperwork, the Guardian reported. Federal agents raided her home earlier this week, something House Democrats have called a “rogue abuse of power.” At press time, Americans concerned with the rise of fascism and the disappearance of immigrants and refugees were still awaiting Democrats’ strongly worded letter to the president.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, the rapper, convicted conspirator, and sex trafficker, is being moved from the prison where he’s reportedly been living the high life to a new, low-security prison in Pennsylvania. By “living the high life,” we mean he was repeatedly written up by prison staff for phone violations and getting into fights. But also, NBC reported that he has been living like a VIP, using a cell phone with nude photos, drinking alcohol, getting massages, and fancy meals. More celeb prison drama at the trusty outlet, TMZ.
Ok, have a good weekend. Take a deep breath.
