Portland police officers monitoring a protest in 2020. Credit: NATHAN HOWARD / GETTY IMAGES

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Portland police officers monitor a protest in 2020.
Portland police officers monitor a protest in 2020. NATHAN HOWARD / GETTY IMAGES

Good morning, Portland! We’re tumbling into a cold, wet wintery week—the kind of Oregon weather your family warned you about. Care to grab a warm beverage and get caught up to speed on the weekend’s news with me? Here we go:

– A long-awaited analysis of the internal dynamics of the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) has revealed a culture hampered by distrust, accountability issues, and poor leadership. Will Portland officials use this information the overhaul the department? Or will they applaud its findings and do nothing? Stay tuned.

– Good news for Portland parents: Harriet Tubman Middle School students will not be relocated to the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School building to deal with planned I-5 construction work, as many had feared. Yet, the program leaders still don’t know where to shuffle the Tubman students during construction season.

– A Oregonian survey of 300 unhoused Portlanders found that 95 of people displaced by one of the city’s campsite sweeps say they were not offered any alternative shelter or housing by the city before being displaced—a requirement under a federal appeals court ruling. The city has dismissed these findings, suggesting that they don’t trust unhoused people to be honest. Will a federal court agree?

– A Clark County deputy fatally shot an off-duty Vancouver officer late Saturday night in a confusing series of events. According to law enforcement, a car chase of an alleged armed robber ended on a dead-end road near Battle Ground, WA which lead to the home of Vancouver cop Donald Sahota. Sahota unsuccessfully attempted to detain the suspect outside of his home, but the alleged suspect was able to flee the scene before deputies showed up. A deputy shot Sahota seconds after arriving on the property. A lot of questions remain, like: What? Why? Who? Huh?

– A guy from Hillsboro who faces charges for assaulting an officer during the January 6 attack on the US Capitol is… running for governor? Insurrectionists! They’re just like us*! *Nick Kristof

– The northeast corner of the US was pummeled with snow this past weekend, with some places getting more than two feet. Massachusetts officials suggested people stay indoors and watch football. Here’s a report from the ground:

– Horrifying headline of the day: “Storm Drains Keep Swallowing People During Floods”

– Gregory and Travis McMichael, the father and son convicted of killing Ahmaud Arbery, are entering a plea agreement with federal prosecutors in order to spend their life behind bars in a “safer, less crowded” prison. It would have been nice if the suburban street where Arbery was murdered was also safer and less crowded with aggressive racists, but here we are.

– In response to Neil Young and other artists pulling their music off of Spotify to protest the platform hosting Joe Rogan’s podcast, the streaming service said it will add content warnings before podcasts like Rogan’s that spread COVID-19 misinformation. I doubt this will do much to change Young and others’ minds—let alone the opinions of die-hard Rogan fans.

– Related:

Alex Zielinski is a former News Editor for the Portland Mercury. She's here to tell stories about economic inequities, cops, civil rights, and weird city politics that you should probably be paying attention...