Welcome back to the ongoing nightmare, Portland!
Many of the city’s high school and middle school students are as upset as everyone else about the election of Donald Trump. They ditched classes yesterday to march through city streets, in a protest that saw little police presence, and comparably little disruption (though the students did consider taking to the highway).
Other protest news: The police announced yesterday that they think the person who shot a protester on the Morrison Bridge early Saturday morning is a 14-year-old boy. He and an 18-year-old (who was driving) will face charges associated with attempted murder. Meanwhile, misdemeanor charges against many of the more than 100 protesters arrested in the last week are on hold, while police put together comprehensive reports for prosecutors. Demonstrators will face citations, however, meaning up to $1,000 in fines.
The O looks a little deeper into the shifting police response to the protests, which has gone from helping protesters to take over city freeways to swift crackdown.
KGW asked elections officials to look at how many of those who were arrested in the protests voted. Of 112 arrested, it says, “at least sixty-nine demonstrators either didn’t turn in a ballot or weren’t registered to vote in the state.” Twitter eggs are no doubt losing their minds.
In other voting news, the state’s new automatic voter registration is undoubtedly helping get more people to the polls. Per OPB: “About 42 percent of people who were automatically registered to vote this year did so in this month’s election. … Turnout among automatically registered voters was far lower than the overall turnout rate of 79 percent. But among those who chose a party, turnout was comparable to those who registered the conventional way.”
Not that it’s helping us much. Looks like Rudy Giuliani is on a path to be secretary of state under Trump.
Meanwhile, the NYT offers up a helpful reminder of the things Trump has said he will get rid of as president. They include the Department of Education, the Environmental Protection Agency, the financial industry-regulating Dodd-Frank law, and Obamacare.
Speaking of that last one, the Trib takes a look at what the elimination of the Affordable Care Act could mean for Oregonians.
Feeling despair at it all? Here are some groups you can donate your money or time to, to help fend off Trumpdom in all its insidious forms.
And to end on a positive note: Portland’s got a new homeless shelter for women and couples down near Sellwood.
Stormy today. Good.
