Good morning, Portland! For the record, I love your asses, each and every one of them.
Sondland is asked if he disputes he told Trump that Zelensky “loves your ass.” His response? “Sounds like something I would say.”
— Preet Bharara (@PreetBharara) November 20, 2019
Okay, here are the headlines!
Four-Letter Words: Portland's own Gordon Sondland made his big debut during public impeachment hearings this morning, and boy, did he just make the fucking most of it. Sondland confirmed that there was a “clear quid pro quo” in the Ukraine scandal, and that “We followed the president’s orders" to make that quid pro quo happen. He also implicated both Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying they were both well aware of what was going on.
Sondland right now: pic.twitter.com/zmgqmXSgTp
— Connor Lounsbury (@ConnorLounsbury) November 20, 2019
Sondland says he and Trump communicate with a lot of "four letter words." Cool guy.
— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) November 20, 2019
"A Mix of Aspirational and Concrete Ideas": Portland mayoral candidate Sarah Iannarone has released her detailed public safety plan, which includes ideas like banning facial recognition technology from public spaces and having a "zero tolerance" policy for racist cops. Read more about the plan, and how it fits into current city politics, here.
The Circular Bridge: Oregon Governor Kate Brown and Washington Governor Jay Inslee are working together to revive the plan for a new Interstate 5 bridge from Portland to Vancouver. It isn't the first time this century that local leaders have taken a stab at the project—will things turn out differently this time around?
Nothing to See Here: Under Oregon law, members of the public are entitled to access public records—like public officials' emails and government memos, for example—through a request system. But a Multnomah County judge recently ruled that the city of Portland has been overcharging people when fulfilling their public records requests.
Police arrested a woman this morning who was suicidal, and held up a knife to her stomach while blocking a streetcar full of people. It was the first of two public incidents in Portland today involving people in crisis with weapons.https://t.co/uhZUYch3hB
— J. Ramakrishnan (@JRamakrishnanOR) November 20, 2019
Audited: A new audit of Multnomah County's Mental Health and Addiction Services Division has found that hundreds of people with serious and persistent mental illnesses aren't enrolled in social services programs that they qualify for.
Paging Scarlett Johansson: A Hollywood executive once suggested that Julia Roberts play Harriet Tubman.
Sentence of the Day: "The salamander fire dude was honestly really cool because he’s really cute and he’s a small salamander that causes large fire things."
