Mayor Keith Wilson announced a new group will meet to discuss revitalizing the central city, including downtown and the east side from OMSI to Lloyd Center and Albina District. Critics say the group favors wealthy interests, excluding smaller orgs focused on homelessness & affordable communities.

Oregon lawmakers are advancing House Bill 4134, aiming to boost funding for wildlife conservation and protect Oregon’s most vulnerable species by raising the lodging tax. The new revenue would support Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife programs.

Portland kicked people out of temporary shelters for “not engaging” in services. The problem, the ombudsmen’s office found, was that providers did not adequately document whether people were or weren’t engaging, and recommended pausing evictions. The city briefly paused, then shrugged its shoulders.

No journalist is required to take the framing of those in power at face value. And if they feel they have to, it is not a truly free press. Maybe the question is more whether people *should* have a right to legal eviction process, if they are forced into specific places under threat of imprisonment.

Portland kicked people out of temporary shelters for “not engaging” in services. The problem, the ombudsmen’s office found, was that providers did not adequately document whether people were or weren’t engaging, and recommended pausing evictions. The city briefly paused, then shrugged its shoulders.

It looks like the judge is going to let petitioners go forth and collect signatures for an initiative to divert 25 percent of PCEF to police hiring. Judge Eric L. Dahlin is currently making his ruling.

“It”☝️ “Was” 🤘 “Just” 👌 “Regularly” ✌️✌️ “Done” 🖐️ 🤝

After signaling a desire for a new policy that would allow city councilors to bring loaded firearms to City Hall, Portland City Councilor Loretta Smith says she “denounces violence” but wants additional safety protocols for her and her colleagues.

Environmental advocates and city councilors remain skeptical, saying the investigation may have excluded critical context.

After a group of protestors disrupted a City Council meeting on Wednesday, District 1 Councilor Loretta Smith told OPB she drafted a city ordinance to allow councilors to open carry (yeah, a gun) while they’re conducting city business. This and more in Good Morning, News ⬇️

Journalists and the state government ethics commission blasted this bill that would gut public meetings law. A bipartisan group of Oregon lawmakers voted to advance it anyway. www.oregonlive.com/politics/202...

Gaza death toll in early part of war far higher than reported, says Lancet study

BREAKING — WE WON! DC Superior Court Judge Darlene Soltys ordered the DC Metropolitan Police to produce ALL body cam footage of the March 2025 DOGE raid on the US Institute of Peace within 14 days. Thanks to my @rcfp.org lawyers for their tireless work. Details on thehandbasket.co later today!

Proponents of Portland Community College's Music and Sonic Arts (MSA) program tell the Mercury they're planning to rally before a board meeting at the Sylvania campus in Southwest Portland, on February 19.

Guess who’s back.

Guess who’s back.

To “remove writing from reporters’ workloads” is to remove reporters’ critical engagement with a topic. The writing is an inextricable part of the process. It’s hard. It takes time. That’s the point! There are no shortcuts for writing and reporting, and AI can hardly approximate it. Stop doing this.

To “remove writing from reporters’ workloads” is to remove reporters’ critical engagement with a topic. The writing is an inextricable part of the process. It’s hard. It takes time. That’s the point! There are no shortcuts for writing and reporting, and AI can hardly approximate it. Stop doing this.

Portland isn't changing course on carrying out its land use violation against the ICE building.

Tenants who live in the affordable housing complex Gray’s Landing, which sits across the street from the Portland ICE facility, are going before a federal judge Friday to talk about how federal agents’ use of tear gas has impacted them. This and more top headlines in the Good Morning, News roundup.

Funding cuts are threatening an innovative music program at Portland Community College, but students and faculty are not letting it go away silently.

If the top marginal tax rate was 90% it would be easy and morally defensible to throw tax dollars at Rose Garden renovations, put people in affordable homes, and raze the Banfield to make space for a high speed rail system while rewilding downtown but I don’t get to set the terms of the discourse. ☹️

After 19 months of bargaining, we have not reached an agreement with OPB that includes livable wages and sufficient yearly guaranteed increases for the people who create the content you love. Make your voice heard during OPB's membership Drive today, February 5 - February 14. Here's how ⬇️

Babe get your glasses, the Oregon Book Awards nominees dropped

Grateful to The Guardian for asking local reporters to contribute to stories like this. With all eyes on Minneapolis, cities across the US, including in Oregon, are still feeling the impacts of Trump’s cruel deportation machine. “We can’t simply make them all fearful to engage.”

Grateful to The Guardian for asking local reporters to contribute to stories like this. With all eyes on Minneapolis, cities across the US, including in Oregon, are still feeling the impacts of Trump’s cruel deportation machine. “We can’t simply make them all fearful to engage.”

The Portland Housing Bureau (PHB) is sitting on $106 million in unspent funds, far more than was previously reported. City Administrator Raymond Lee outlined the funding in a memo Friday afternoon.

News of the pallet of cash comes two days after the City Council voted to open an investigation into $21 million previously found through an audit. The release of public records and oversight hearings are expected later this month and in early March.

The news you need this morning in Portland: A Lake Oswego theater cancels a Melania Trump documentary. The Washington Post lays off hundreds of staff. Congress heads out for the weekend with DHS funding still up in the air. A NEW music fest coming soon to PDX. More by the Mercury staff ⬇️

As federal agents escalate force in Portland, residents are demanding more accountability. Now advocates are turning to Multnomah County DA Nathan Vasquez, the elected official tasked with prosecuting those who break local laws.

Nathan Vasquez does not consider himself an ICE agent watchdog. But he did win the DA seat on a “tough on crime” platform. As federal officials flout the law and hurt Portlanders, attention is turning to the DA to hold them to account.

The prolific sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein met with and appears to have solicited help from Portland-based psychiatrist Dr. Paul Conti to treat a young woman in his inner circle.

A federal judge in Oregon has temporarily limited federal officers’ use of force on peaceful protesters outside the Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland. The ruling blocks federal officers from directing or using munitions such as pepper balls and tear gas.

“While the timing of this information is difficult, I do not believe these were hidden maliciously, but are instead a relic of the old government system of accounting," Council President Jamie Dunphy said.

The Portland Housing Bureau has found additional unspent dollars in its coffers, adding to the previous $21 million it found through an audit last year. The uncovered funds could impact two pieces of Council business this week.

Thousands of union members & supporters gathered in Portland’s South Waterfront on Jan 31 for an anti-ICE demonstration hosted by Oregon labor leaders. The family-friendly event turned chaotic after federal agents met the peaceful crowd with tear gas as they marched outside Portland’s ICE facility.

BREAKING: The two federal immigration agents who fired on Minneapolis protester Alex Pretti are identified in government records as Border Patrol agent Jesus Ochoa and Customs and Border Protection officer Raymundo Gutierrez.

It’s worth noting that this march was during the day and was entirely peaceful. It’s also worth noting that by and large, the protests that endure police violence under the cover of night are also entirely peaceful.

It’s worth noting that this march was during the day and was entirely peaceful. It’s also worth noting that by and large, the protests that endure police violence under the cover of night are also entirely peaceful.

The tear gas was deployed at the South Portland ICE Facility but the impact could be felt across the area.

Federal agents deployed tear gas and flash bangs at peaceful protesters during a “Labor Against ICE” march in Portland on Jan 31. Photos by Taylor Griggs

Don Lemon and Georgia Fort have been released. But the procedural history now emerging is unusual. Before the arrests, a federal magistrate judge found no probable cause to arrest them. The government appealed anyway. Here’s why that matters—and what it signals more broadly.

A Multnomah County jury has awarded more than $760,000 to our client Cider Riot owner Abram Goldman-Armstrong after finding defendants associated with the far-right group Patriot Prayer liable for a violent 2019 attack. Even though the justice system moves slowly, we will always stay the course.

Good Morning, Portland: It’s a big weekend for local actions against federal agents, beginning today. Don’t be surprised if your neighborhood coffee shop is closed this morning; many Portland businesses are taking part in a nationwide strike and protest going on Friday and Saturday.

Despite a host of compromises over what to prioritize, Portland City Council has yet to decide how to allocate $21 million in funding generated by the city’s Rental Services Office.

Portland City Councilors Angelita Morillo and Mitch Green are asking the mayor to expedite enforcement of a new detention center impact fee that targets landlords. The city code change makes it a violation to emit harmful chemical agents like tear gas, which pose environmental and health hazards.

“If Al-Zawahiri resigns, al-Qaeda can have a trillion dollars.”

“If Al-Zawahiri resigns, al-Qaeda can have a trillion dollars.”

Here's our analysis of the video evidence showing the killing of Alex Pretti by DHS in Minneapolis www.youtube.com/watch?v=542O...

Philosophically, I’m operating as if extrajudicial killings, home arrests of dissidents and journalists are inevitable and increasingly common as the future morphs into now—unless! Unless the people win. And if I’m dead already, I see no better way to use borrowed time than to boldly smash fascism.