No one, as far as I know, has adequately explained why NASA engineers using slide rules regularly launched rockets into space safely in the 1960s and our boy-genius billionaires can't do the same thing 60 years later. www.cnbc.com/2026/06/01/b...

The Onion does Albina.

Full story: Colas Development chosen to enter exclusive negotiations with Portland State University on building a 150-room hotel and conference center. djcoregon.com/news/2026/06...

It's beautiful to see someone be so true to themselves.

Radiohead Oasis Neil Young & Crazy Horse Bob Dylan Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers The Last Dinner Party Queens of the Stone Age Khruangbin Pixies M.C. Hammer

Portland State University has entered into exclusive negotiations with Colas Development Group to build a 150-room hotel and conference center downtown, PSU announced today. It'll be a more than $70 million project and is expected to open in 2030. More to come on this.

Blackstone is selling the US Bank Center in Seattle for about $280 million, less than half what it paid for the building seven years ago.

President's questions. The president must submit monthly to questions from the highest-ranking opposition leader in the House (either the speaker or minority leader). Live, on television. Longish term limits for SCOTUS judges, like 16 years. National nonpartisan voting maps created by judges.

Demolition at 1269 SE Tenino St. in Sellwood. It looks like Vic Remmers is moving forward with a three-story, 19-unit apartment building there after years of inactivity. City inspectors issued Remmers a “demolish or repair” notice for the old office building there in 2024.

A WARN notice landed today for Safeway closing its Newport store, as others have previously reported. The layoff involves 69 union workers. The store will close July 25.

It’s been slower than I think anyone imagined, but the now the streets are going in at the Broadway Corridor and the first two buildings are moving through the design review process

The Portland Design Commission got its first look Thursday at Related Northwest's plans for a 13-story tower in the Broadway Corridor. Design by Mithun: djcoregon.com/news/2026/05...

Retail leasing activity around Pioneer Courthouse Square: The Ben Bridge expansion including Rolex showroom is nearly complete New Bank of America under construction Lavoratti Chocolates is now open I believe Kokoro is taking over a third space in the 10Y building

I'm increasingly finding spell checkers are flagging real words as misspelled. Today it's "trepidatious." Even Bsky is red underlining it! It's a real word. It's in Merriam-Webster. I feel like I'm going crazy.

No accountability for anything, ever. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/20/o...

Architectural rendering of the proposed Parcel 6 building in the Broadway Corridor. (Mithun) Design Commission will chat about it next Thursday.

A $300 million tsunami-resilient hospital expansion is under construction in Astoria. A look at how ZGF designed the hospital to be operable after a disaster: djcoregon.com/news/2026/05...

The East County Library, the $163 million centerpiece of Multnomah County's 2020 bond, opens Saturday. A look inside the mass-timber structure: djcoregon.com/news/2026/05...

President Trump has consistently sought to increase air pollution in the U.S., and he has achieved it.

A Portland developer has proposed a major mixed-use project at 52nd and Sandy Blvd., where Hollywood Fitness is. Is the city's fee moratorium starting to bring multifamily developers off the sidelines? djcoregon.com/news/2026/05...

Fire has never been more ceased. The most ceased, this cease fire.

JPMORGAN: “.. In 2025, US farm bankruptcies rose by ~50% y/y due in part to tariffs raising the cost of steel, equipment and herbicide inputs, tariff retaliation which reduced export markets, and immigration policy reducing the supply of undocumented farm labor.” 👀

This story is now unlocked from our paywall. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

A buddy of mine who has a PhD very nearly got taken by a missed jury duty scam. A heads up: If you miss jury duty, your county sheriff will not fine you and ask you to wire money somewhere.

Ah, well, in any case. Couldn't happen to a better group of guys.

A Northeast Portland apartment building developed by a local firm has sold to a California investor. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

A redesign of Heron Lakes Golf Club is underway. The popular 36-hole public golf facility will lose at least 10 acres because of a federal levee project, and city officials aren't saying how that will impact the two golf courses. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

It's amazing what the Residential Infill Project did for affordability of new construction in Portland. Here are the single-unit properties for sale in the city completed this year; these price points were rare prior to RIP.

Law firm Barg Singer Hoesly has taken out a 3,300-square-foot lease at a downtown Portland office tower. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

Willamette Week has a story on the push by some left-leaning Portland city councilors for a commercial vacancy tax. www.wweek.com/news/2026/04...

Cool night astronomically. Jupiter, the moon and Gemini are all stacked up.

Journalists are often bad at covering slow-motion crises like this, especially in something like agriculture that few of us have expertise in. Good on the author and Slate for highlighting it.

Interesting that the Wikipedia page for the late Portland developer Tom Moyer includes an asterisk that it "may have been created or edited in return for undisclosed payments." Especially given the long and contentious legal fight among his heirs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Moyer

Federal agencies have published the final EIS for the Interstate Bridge replacement project, moving it one step closer to construction. Critics say state highway agencies have delayed a tolling revenue forecast. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

The Interstate Bridge program release its final environmental impact statement today. Digging in, so more to come.

I always try to chase down Doug Ferguson’s gamer from the Masters: apnews.com/article/mast...

Gov. Tina Kotek releases an intent to veto notice on H.B. 4177, which changes public meetings law. Pretty rare for Kotek to veto a bill from the Legislature of the same party, but her message notes "concerns that parts of the bill may undermine transparency in the conducting of public business."

Inside Melvin Mark's fascinating purchase of 200 S.W. Market St. with Nevada auto dealer-Portland office mogul Jeff Swickard. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

I never really clocked before that there are three elementary schools in a 1-mile stretch of outer Southeast Division Street.

A recently built Salem-area apartment complex has sold for $39.3 million to a regional investor. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

Mass timber advocates are working to gain a foothold in one construction sector that is actually growing: Health care. djcoregon.com/news/2026/04...

Today’s lunch was a pastrami brisket sandwich at Botto’s, because one day I will be dead and unable to enjoy such things.

Nitrate pollution has poisoned wells used by residents in the Lower Umatilla Basin.

I love that the NYT refers to AAA, a major lobbying group, among other things, as a “motor club.” It sounds so old fashioned. Zounds! Let’s hop in Pa’s Hupmobile for a jolly lark to the beach.

If the two Commissions are not invited to present their reports to Council it would be quite a snub. Regardless of anyone’s views on design / historic review, the commissioners are volunteers who are asked to do it by the city and spend and enormous amount of time doing it.

This year's State of the City report from the Portland Design Commission is a little different: It defends the design review process itself, as it's increasingly seen as an obstacle to development. djcoregon.com/news/2026/03...

It’s nice to see The New York Times focusing on the beat that matters most: Design review.

New “Japanese Outdoor Equipment Retail Tenant” moving into a space at SW 3rd & Taylor, owned by the Standard Insurance www.portlandmaps.com/detail/permi...

Big league baseball tonight.