Category: Portland, Oregon Local News

Updated: 9:28 pm February 20

This story has been updated with additional reporting since it was first published.

 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.

Smith initially indicated she was crafting an ordinance that would allow councilors to openly carry firearms at City Hall. Friday evening, her office released a somewhat murky explanation of her intent, but stopped short of saying she’d abandoned the plan.

OPB first reported on the councilor’s comments and ordinance, and has confirmed Smith’s decision to rescind the proposal.

“To be clear, I denounce violence. I want to emphasize that violence is not the first and only solution to solving matters,” Smith stated in a news release Friday. “And improving our security protocols is the best first action rather than an open carry ordinance.”

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Good Morning, Portland: There’s too much news to read this morning. It’s cold out. Grab a coffee, put your feet up, and check this out. (Tell your boss I said it’s cool for you to start late.)

IN LOCAL NEWS: 

• 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. Ahem, what!? Protestors had disrupted the meeting to demand the Council revoke a permit for the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility. (That whole thing gets a little complicated because it is land use law, but, there isn’t exactly a specific permit that just allows ICE to gestapo out of that building; even if there was, the Council wouldn’t be the place for that action; there is a way a trial of sorts could end up at the Council, but that would be a later part of the process; and the city is currently doing an investigation as part of that process; and the Council does in fact work on policy that is in their control, like trying to allocate millions of dollars in rent assistance for immigrants, refugees, and homeless Portlanders). All that aside, the idea that bringing a biscuit to City Hall would be helpful is quite dangerous, even as a hypothetical. Read more at OPB here.
• The Police union is also mad, and does not appear particularly good at deescalation either.

• The Waterfront Blues Festival is back in 2026! The festival will take place July 2 through July 4, and features an expansive roster of talent from local legends to international heaters. This year’s highlights include Hailu Mergia, Tank and the Bangas, Ural Thomas and the Pain, Orquestra Pacifico Tropical led by Papi Fimbres and more. Check out the lineup and more info here.
• Two Portland Community College (PCC) labor unions are prepared to strike, and last night, they told it to the board. It sounds like people are upset from all different angles, including students who are hoping to save a beloved music program that serves a very diverse student population. We’ll keep our eyes out for a strike.

ICYMI there were some fireworks at the PCC Board Meeting last night. The testimony from students and workers was so powerful. We presented a strike pledge signed by 783 of our members. A faculty member announced a recall petition for Board Chair Tiffani Penson.

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— PCCFFAP (@pccffap.bsky.social) February 20, 2026 at 6:54 AM

• The city of Portland says the Houston-based fossil fuel company Zenith Energy did not violate city code when it constructed and used new piping without authorization beginning in 2026. In a report released Thursday, the city said its investigation concluded that Zenith was in compliance with its franchise agreement—a contract allowing the fossil fuel company to access the city’s rights-of-way—when it added new pipes and transported fossil fuels over the course of three years without authorization. The Department of Environmental Quality fined Zenith for the infraction in 2024, and a City Council resolution required the mayor to investigate potential city violations. Environmental advocates and some city councilors are still skeptical. They say the scope of investigation, coordinated with the law firm Cable Huston, may have failed to include important context and perceived conflicts of interest may have tainted the investigation. City staff responsible for Zenith’s permitting were also responsible for deciding what documents the law firm received. “…(O)ur task was not to conduct our own investigation or to independently confirm the accuracy of any materials provided to the city,” the law firm’s report noted. Read more on the report here. 
• Lots of good culture and music news this week:
  • Portland Art Museum’s new David Hockney exhibition is a whopper, filling two levels of the museum with 200 of the artist’s works—from queer-coded etchings to large-format iPad drawings and a video installation. The show highlights Hockney’s lifelong fascination with perspective, new technology, and the viewer’s role in seeing. (On that note, read our review to learn what Hockney means by “perspective should be reversed.”)
  • January through March are lean times for everyone, and the week’s Art Snack has way too many restaurant closings. But we’ve also got some silver linings in the promise of naked bike rides, and cool building purchases. Seriously. Mother Foucault’s announced that it is buying the building where it currently stands through a new literary nonprofit L’École Buissonnière. That’s great news for anyone who loves literature, live music, and cool stairway designs.
  • Portland composer Derek Hunter Wilson’s new LP on the Beacon Sound label, Sculptures, builds its six compositions from gentle grief and coastal memories. We reviewed the misty ambient-classical album ahead of its February 20 release. Read it here!
• Dang. Would anything help prevent the spread of the disease?
  

  State health officials declared a measles outbreak Thursday following five confirmed cases in Oregon. buff.ly/Z74DCp2

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  — Oregon Capital Chronicle (@oregoncapitalchronicle.com) February 19, 2026 at 5:02 PM

• New DAME D.O.L.L.A just dropped, this time in the form of a sunglasses partnership with Oakley. There’s probably nothing in the world I love more than a celebrity and brand marketing partnership. It gives me an overwhelming sensation that if I buy what they’re selling, people will receive my social performances more positively, and ideally, they will subconsciously associate me and my essence with that celebrity and whatever winning qualities they possess. Starting at just $244, you too can be a beloved star of the Portland Trailblazers who goes on to win the three-point contest for the third time while recovering from a season-ending achilles injury. (They do look nice in all seriousness. And we love you, Dame.) Read here.
  

IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

• This does not have to be inevitable, but time is waning!

Concerned about ICE’s $45 billion plan to convert warehouses into immigration detention centers? This is what they’ll look like inside. From ICE’s plan for the Social Circle, GA facility. Each little dot: a person. www.socialcirclega.gov/home/showpub…

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— Eunice Cho (@eunicehcho.bsky.social) February 19, 2026 at 4:13 PM

• The Supreme Court this morning handed President Donald J. (for Jackass) Trump a big loss this morning over his big global tariff approach. Details are still coming in, but the 6-3 decision will have an impact on how much power Trump has to run his international protection racket in the future. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Brett Kavanaugh dissented—they know who butters their bread. Read more here.

• The largest rent strike in a century? The Minnesota unions behind the massive Jan. 23 day of action are now backing a potential rent strike to demand an eviction moratorium. At least 10K could withhold rent starting March 1. Here’s what to know (1/6) inthesetimes.com/article/ice-…

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  — Rebecca Burns (@rebeccaburns.bsky.social) February 20, 2026 at 7:25 AM

• Sometimes a local story becomes national, whether you like it or not. In this case, former Happy Valley, Oregon Mayor, 5th Congressional district Representative and current Trump labor secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer’s husband Shawn DeRemer was barred from the Department of Labor (DOL) headquarters yesterday after two employees alleged he acted improperly toward them. The complaint, filed in late January, said Shawn DeRemer reported “sexual contact against her will,” at the DOL offices in December. Now that certainly sounds like a labor violation. Someone check with the labor secretary. It is bold to file a complaint against anyone near Trump in 2026, and it is inspiring to see someone committed to sharing the truth despite the threats. The New York Times first reported it, but you can read more here without paying them.
• Speaking of threats: Trump says the world will find out whether the US makes a nuclear deal with Iran or if he decides to invade yet another sovereign nation. The US is already sending military forces to the region. It doesn’t take a degree in world history to remember that the US had already entered into an agreement with Iran and the four other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council over Iran’s nuclear program, but Trump exited the US from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2018 because it was viewed as a major success of former-President Barack Obama’s administration. Trump apparently wants his new “Board of Peace” (which is not a big real estate grift led in part by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, I swear) to broker a deal. It is worth pointing out here that the Board of Peace’s Gaza Executive Board includes zero Palestinians, and it is unlikely the region will see true peace until Palestine is free. It appears the US and its ruling class allies could be headed toward yet another war for peace. Surely it will work this time. Read more.
• Don’t forget that justice can, in fact, be served. Also, remember that what really may have done Prince Andrew in is that he allegedly sent confidential government documents to Jeffrey Epstein—not the… everything else.

Not gonna lie, wasn’t my favorite grocery store. A little too expensive, a little out of the way. I didn’t shop there enough to say I wasn’t part of the problem. But that insane sausage collection has graced my grill at cookouts for nearly twenty years. And as a proud grillmaster, when someone brought oddball sausages from Sheridan’s, you knew you were going to have to pay attention, because the wild boar with blueberries cooks hotter and faster than the alligator, which cooks low and slow. Slice them up into small bites and they’re gone in twenty minutes. Sheridan’s sausages made every cookout better. So let’s pour one out for Sheridan’s. I’m gonna miss that place.

The city of Portland says Zenith Energy did not violate city code when it constructed and used new piping without authorization at its facility along the Willamette River between 2021 and 2024.

Zenith operates an oil transloading and storage facility at the city’s Critical Energy Infrastructure Hub in Northwest Portland. A report released February 19 says the city investigation found the Houston-based fossil fuel company was in compliance with its franchise agreement with the city, despite the unreported construction. The city’s investigation was guided by administrative staff who provided documents to the law firm Cable Huston, which then reviewed the city’s draft findings before it published the report.

The City Council passed a resolution in March 2025 requiring Mayor Keith Wilson to open an investigation into potential violations of Zenith’s franchise agreement. That agreement allows companies to access the city’s rights-of-way, including for construction of pipes for fossil fuels, communications equipment, or other utilities.

Notably absent from the background information in the city’s document was mention of Zenith’s prior infractions, including breaking its promises every year since 2018 after saying it would not increase emissions, failing to pay its franchise fees on time in 2018, defying state orders to practice for an oil spill in 2019, engaging in “flagrant violations” of a state air permit in 2021, and violating city lobbying code in 2022, as determined by the City Auditor.

Prior to the resolution’s passage, environmental advocates were concerned that city bureau directors had omitted vital information during a work session about Zenith in January 2025. The resolution urged the City Auditor to investigate competing statements made by staff during the work session, but the Auditor’s Office declined to open the investigation.

Soon after the franchise investigation commenced, Green and Morillo raised concerns with Wilson, noting that the subject matter experts involved in deciding which documents Cable Huston would receive were the same city staff that facilitated Zenith’s permitting process and who potentially omitted the information from Council presentations. They said it could be perceived as a conflict of interest.

It is unclear what documents Cable Huston had access to, and what information remained outside the scope of its investigation. The resolution included reporting on public records from Desmog and the non-profit investigative newspaper Street Roots as exhibits, both of which outlined hundreds of pages of public records that could be used in a broader independent investigation. None of those documents are included as exhibits in documents presented by the city attorney or Cable Huston in their reports.

So first, I would notice bluejays hop around my yard after the grass got mowed. So I started creating a little bath and other features for them to frequent their visits. This expanded to more features inviting finches, sparrows, junkos, flickers, woodpeckers, starlings, and then a hawk. The hawk was neat at first then the realization that the little bird is prey to the hawk. So I had to figure out more deterrents for the hawk and safe spaces for the little birds. Which has for the most part been successful. And then the squirrel started coming around for the BJs peanuts. Some may think the squirrel is cute but the squirrel is a greedy, taunting and terrorizing creature. Sure survival of fittest but the squirrel is not my friend. It’ll dig holes in perfect plantars, it’ll wreck anything it wants to get what it wants, it’ll eat flowering shrubs, it’ll eat birdseed. It if got sick and flattened by tires, I guess I’d still be sad because violence is not the answer, but…circle of life. Then because of the birds, I’ve seen 3 outdoor neighborhood cats coming around. One of the cats and I have become buddies because of the food I give him. I could write a whole other excerpt just on him, and I may sometime. But one time, there was a very intense cat fight between my buddy and another cat I’d never seen before. My buddy was the aggressor and it made me sad. The fight was intense and very scary. I felt very sad for the cat being pounded on. It was very frightening. For the most part, I enjoy what I’ve created aside from the squirrel, hawk, and the cat fight.

“David sees the world backward,” says Doug Roberts, a Los Angeles art dealer and longtime friend of David Hockney. Roberts was appearing on a panel about the artist, as part of Portland Art Museum’s (PAM) new exhibition tracing 60 years of Hockney’s work. He meant it as praise. Hockney, whose sunny California scenes somehow simmer with loneliness, has built a career on challenging how we see. He embraces new artistic technologies, elevates everyday objects, and believes that perspective isn’t fixed in a work of art—actually, it begins with you, the viewer.

You’ll see all of the subjects that feel quintessentially Hockney, but this exhibition demonstrates that his greatest throughline isn’t pools, or portraits, or even California light. It’s his ability to adapt. The 88-year-old artist—and yes, he’s still working—approaches every new tool with fresh curiosity. Xeroxed prints, Polaroid snapshots, and iPad drawings share the stage with lithographs and etchings. 

The exhibition begins upstairs where a visual timeline traces Hockney’s youth in a Yorkshire mill town, his graduation from the Royal College of Art, and his move to Los Angeles in the ’60s, up through last year’s major retrospective at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris. Early etchings and aquatints line the walls alongside his theater designs and eerie, Grimm fairy tale-inspired illustrations.

A standout from this period is Hockney’s “Illustrations for Fourteen Poems from C.P Cavafy” (1966-67), inspired by the work of the lesser-known Greek poet, whose verses speak frankly of queer love. Hockney released the series—which depicts tender, full-frontal male nudity—in the wake of Britain’s ’67 decriminalization of homosexuality. The etchings forecasted a recurring theme for Hockney: loneliness tangled with intimacy and desire.

On the show’s lower level we explore Hockney’s dualities—presence and solitude, tradition and machine. We sense the grief of his losses; in the ’80s and ’90s, the artist lost several friends to AIDS and other friends to cancer. His everyday subjects—empty chairs, an ashtray, a Panama hat—carry a softened mourning. Installed alongside his 1998 dachshund etchings, which fill an entire wall, the viewer sees an artist seeking domestic tenderness.

Elsewhere, the exhibition remains defined by his experimentation. David Hockney includes many of the artist’s more recent iPad drawings, including those created in Yosemite in 2010. The compositions explode with scribbled skies, violet cliffs, and yellow halos of foliage. Hockney’s electric green landscapes look freshly rained upon.

In the PAM sculpture court, several iPads are installed for viewers to create their own compositions. It could come off as product placement, but it’s quite earnest. The iPad’s glowing screen has allowed Hockney to draw at any hour; his prints are constrained only by the width of a large format printer.

Some of the exhibit feels a little mischievous, like a refusal of contemporary minimalism. On the lower level, a collection of lo-fi photocopied prints hang in ornate frames. Similarly, Hockney’s nine-screen video installation “Woldgate Woods, Winter” (2010) stitches together a moving collage of a Yorkshire landscape, made from cameras mounted to Hockney’s Jeep. Seams are visible, and each frame is slightly off-kilter. 

“My Mother, Los Angeles, Dec. ’82” (1982) represents one of Hockney’s most enduring experiments. During this period, he began assembling what he calls “photo joiners,” arranging dozens of snapshots in an active composition that replicates how the eye might experience a portrait sitter. The practice evolved into what Hockney calls “photographic drawings,” complex digital compositions built of hundreds or thousands of images—several of which are also on view in this show, including “Perspective Should Be Reversed” (2014).

The idea of reversed perspective remains Hockney’s central thesis. Put simply, you are the vanishing point. Rather than gazing toward a distant horizon, Hockney’s goal is that your eye moves through the image, the way it moves through space.

To this end, he has embraced technology as a tool, but it’s hard to travel through an exhibit of Hockney’s continued adaptations and not wonder what the artist thinks of AI-generated work. Will he embrace it as well?

L.A. Louver gallery director Kimberly Davis, speaking on the panel, feels he’d be against it. “I can’t imagine David would be happy with AI,” she said. “His eye, hand, and heart are still in his art.”

It’s true. Hockney’s sense of composition and color feels totally singular, impossible to replicate. “Technology has always contributed to art,” he has notably said. “The brush is a piece of technology, isn’t it? But tools don’t make pictures. People have to make them.”Art endures because humans endure, and for Hockney, technology represents a guiding ethos of open-mindedness held in tandem with precision. If he sees the world backward, maybe it’s just that he’s looking more carefully. In this exhibition, the viewer is asked to do the same.

David Hockney: Works from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation is on display at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 SW Park, through Sun July 26, included with general admission, hours and more info at portlandartmuseum.org.