Stay up to date on Portland news and politics. Looking for fun? Here are the best Things to Do in Portland today.
Good morning, Portland! Take a moment to set your alarm, because tickets for Janet Jackson's August show in Portland go on sale this Thursday at noon! This is not a drill!
Here are the headlines.
The World's Most Mediocre Political Scandal: Former State Rep. Jennifer Williamson was the front runner in this year's Oregon Secretary of State Race—until yesterday, when she abruptly dropped out of the race, citing a forthcoming Willamette Week article as the reason. Hours later, WW published the article, which details questionable (but not illegal) choices Williamson made about how to spend her campaign funds. She spent the money on extensive travel, renting campaign office space from her husband's law firm and her niece's Salem apartment, and lunches during the Legislative session.
The Defense: It's the defense's turn to present its case in the Jeremy Christian trial. Per OPB, their strategy so far consists of painting victim Micah Fletcher as a biased antifa member, and arguing that Christian was intoxicated during the time of the murder and thought he was acting in self-defense.
Primary Concerns: The New Hampshire primary is today—and fortunately for us all, this primary is a straight-up election, not an app-addled caucus. Bernie Sanders is considered the frontrunner in New Hampshire, but it's still anyone's game at this point.
Bad News:
EXCLUSIVE: The CIA secretly owned the world's leading supplier of encryption systems to other countries.
Crypto AG sold rigged machines to more than 100 nations, including Iran, India, Egypt, Italy...
"It was the intelligence coup of the century."https://t.co/tStuLX9xgs
— Greg Miller (@gregpmiller) February 11, 2020
Good News: A bill in the South Dakota state legislature would have criminalized doctors who provide medical treatment for trans kids—which mostly consists of hormone blockers at the onset of puberty and hormone prescriptions as kids get older, not surgery. But the bill, which is backed by ultra-conservative religious groups and copied in several other states this year, has died in a state senate committee.
Mapping Privilige: A new city elections webpage provides fascinating data showing where local political donations come from. Unsurprisingly, donations are both larger and more frequent in wealthier neighborhoods close to the city center. Perhaps it's time to make Portland's city government more geographically representational?
School's Out Forever: Concordia University, a small, private Christian college in Northeast Portland, announced yesterday that it will close shop after this semester. Concordia had tried to expand its brand using online enrollments, but to no avail. Its closure reflects a growing trend of small private colleges failing to distinguish themselves and struggling financially.
Sentence of the Day (It's Almost Valentine's Day Edition!): "The story of 1-800-Flowers.com began 10 years before it even became a phone number, let alone a website."