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Good Morning, Portland: Happy May Day! It’s a beautiful day out and it’s looking good this weekend too. We hope you get some time away from the office, out with friends, to celebrate the fruits of our labor and that of generations before us. Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
- Big news! Our election endorsements are out now! It’s time to cast your vote in Oregon’s May 19 primary election. If you need help sorting through the candidates and measures, The Mercury Election Strike Force™️ is back in action with smarty-pants analysis and thoughtful opinions to help you fill out your ballot! Don’t forget to vote early, and vote often! Find the full list of endorsements here to read some of our thought process, or if you’re in a hurry, this cheat sheet has you covered for everything but the pencil. Sorry, we mean pen!
- Have you, dear reader, been receiving push polls on your phone this election season? Do they scare you into believing a candidate for office is coming for your home, or maybe even your head? Maybe you’ve been thinking, “who would send a poll like this, and why?” Well, the Oregon Capital Chronicle did some digging, and found that a PAC aligned with the Portland Metro Chamber (confirmed by the Metro Chamber’s top lobbyist Jon Isaacs) paid $43,000 to a Chicago-based firm to ask questions like this to slander moderate incumbents’ progressive challengers: “John Wazielewski’s campaign is supported by Democratic Socialists, who are fighting for ‘the end of rent’ and ‘redistribution from landowners.’ They want to end the private ownership of housing and take property from landowners to give it to people who don’t own land. That radical approach isn’t right for Oregon.” (Note: Not to even mention the other stuff, but publicly available info shows “Waz” is not endorsed by DSA. He is, however, endorsed by the Mercury Election Strike Force.) Read the full story in the Oregon Capital Chronicle here.
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- Mayor Wilson recently spoke to OPB, and one thing stands out. Asked how he might get out of a tough cycle of budget challenges, including inflation, declining or stagnant revenue, and expiring one-time funding, Wilson said, and I quote, “It really starts with going and attacking the first thing, which is the humanitarian crisis on our streets; it’s caring for those on the street,” (Okay, great. Then what?) “that are taking so many resources from all of us, and it also leads to businesses failing and families leaving…” I’ll let you be the judge. Is the issue that poor people are taking too many resources, or that billionaires don’t pay taxes anywhere but receive hand-delivered pallets of taxpayer dollars under threat of “it won’t trickle down if you don’t gimme gimme?”
- Yesterday, the Portland City Council finally heard its first reading of the “Right to Know Who’s Policing You” ordinance, which seeks to ban the use of face coverings by law enforcement officers. Proponents, including people for whom this stuff is more than an intellectual exercise, argue this is good in the face of (pun intended) unidentified federal agents kidnapping people off the streets. They say it could help with accountability in the long term, could lower fear for communities targeted by immigration officers, and makes it more difficult for people to impersonate federal agents to get away with other types of crimes. Opponents include the Portland Police union and groups affiliated with the “Revoke the Permit” campaign, for somewhat different reasons but, nevertheless, the same result—more anonymity for cops. A second reading and a vote is expected soon.
- 503 Day started as a joke on a podcast, but City Cast Portland took it as far as it could go—they even threw a block party blowout in Ankeny Alley. This year, the Ankeny Alley Business Association takes up the torch, so we can all sing Karaoke From Hell in the street again. This ‘totally real holiday’ is real-er than ever before. It’s all happening Sunday, May 3, 5/03, get it? from 1-6 p.m. It’s FREE and all-ages, and the details are here.
- For more recommendations on what to do in Portland this week, check out Do This, Do That! Our own Lindsay Costello will be your trusted guide for the weekend’s events, including the One Moto Show, a May Day march for workers’ rights, the weekend’s Cinco de Mayo fiesta, and an AAPI wine fest.
IN NATIONAL NEWS:
- It is May Day! People around the world are participating in an economic blackout for International Workers’ Day, while others are, well, going to work. This is a longstanding protest day for the labor movement, and involvement varies from symbolic marches, an increase in the random use of “hello comrades,” to starting a fire at a corporate business to use as a reading light for the fine print in Marx’s Das Kapital. (We do not recommend doing the fire part). Read more here, and from all of us at this unionized workplace, good day, comrades!
- Also, a happy Hillary Clinton Went to an Apartment Day” to all who celebrate.
- Congress voted on Thurdsay to end the longest government shutdown in history. The shutdown was due to the Trump administration and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wanting to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. Democrats held the line, and Republicans held out in hopes of funding those highly unpopular agencies in full. In the end, Congress did not fund those agencies, but did fund DHS otherwise. You’ll remember there was no such thing as DHS until 2003, when George Bush used fear from the 9/11 attacks to drastically broaden the scope of American surveillance.
- Good riddance to Alex Jones’ Infowars! But, no so fast. A Texas court this morning paused the deal between Infowars and The Onion as part of the $1 billion defamation lawsuit against Jones, and the liquidation of his assets. Can rich people be held accountable anymore, or nah?
- Department of War Crimes Secretary Pete Hegseth has been testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week, purportedly due to a $1.45 trillion budget request. Hegseth reportedly dogged on Democrats, saying they are “the biggest adversary” he faces. Members of the committee also questioned Hegseth over civilian deaths in Iran, his takes on women in combat, and Christian nationalism. The New York Times breaks it all down here.
- Have a great weekend!