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Good Morning, Portland: Y’know, sometimes it doesn’t rain in Portland. BUT THAT IS NOT THE CASE RIGHT NOW OR FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE. Get your booties on, Portland. Let’s hit the news.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Thousands are without power this morning as the Portland metro area and much of the Pacific Northwest remain under a wind advisory and a flood watch warning—the wind advisory lasts until tonight and flood watch remains is in effect until December 20. Stay on a swivel for power line precociousness and remember to let your storm drain know you care.
• THE TOP LOCAL STORY FROM YESTERDAY is that Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson—AKA the person you love to blame for literally everything, EVERYTHING—will not run for her seat again next year. The Oregonian‘s Austin De Dios broke the news yesterday, writing that she said “it was time to focus on her family and her final year at the helm of the county.” County Commissioner Shannon Singleton told the Oregonian that she is considering running to replace Vega Pederson.
• YESTERDAY’S OTHER TOP STORY comes thanks to Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs who educates us on facts that 1) A Dairy Queen once located at SE Division and 56th, that was demolished in 2019, wishes to rebuild. 2) The city no longer allows businesses to build drive-thrus. 3) The city allows drive-thrus to be rebuilt providing they are rebuilt within three years. 4) The Dairy Queen franchisee WRITES LONG.
• In 2023, a man speeding to the hospital, driving despite bearing wounds from a shooting at his brother’s memorial, caused the death of a child. The Oregonian‘s Noelle Crombie isn’t pulling punches in her feature exploration of this story, which is headlined “He tried to save himself. He killed an 11-year-old instead.”
• In an email to city councilors, on Wednesday, City Council staffers announced their decision to form a union. The Council Alliance of Workers says it will represent some 41 City Council aides and operations staff, including those who help city councilors manage schedules, administrative staff shared by each district, policy analysts, communications staff, and other council operations staff. Council Alliance of Workers organized with the Communication Workers of America, which happens to contain the same letters when abbreviated, so don’t get it twisted. Jeremiah Hayden scooped this one.
• For the first time under the city’s new form of government, Portland City Council could exercise an authority to investigate official acts by city staff. Councilor Mitch Green filed a resolution this week calling for oversight hearings after city leaders learned of $21 million in unspent Housing Bureau revenue. It appears Green has decent support for a resolution he proposed directing the city administrator to release public records that may help them figure out why $21 million in funding the Portland Housing Bureau collected between 2021-2024 wasn’t reported to city councilors when they were trying to fill a nearly $18 million funding gap in November. Jeremiah Hayden has more.
• What kind of idiot is flashing a piece at eight in the morning on the goddamn bus? On Wednesday, Portland police arrested an 18-year-old who allegedly “displayed a firearm” on a TriMet bus in the Kenton neighborhood before getting off the bus and boarding MAX. When the train arrived at the next MAX station, police say they surrounded the area, although the man fled the scene. They later found the youth in the detached garage of a vacant home and arrested him.
• Lincoln High School students walked out of class on Tuesday; roughly 80 students marched to Portland City Hall, where they rallied against recent abductions and deaths in ICE custody. The event follows a violent immigration arrest outside George Middle School last week, reports Mercury news editor Courtney Vaughn. It also wasn’t the only walkout in Portland that day.
• Last Wednesday, as a Portland lawyer was leaving the federal courthouse, FBI agents detained him and seized his briefcase. The Oregonian‘s Maxine Bernstein reports what’s known on the unusual instance, including that the attorney, Jonathan Ogden, argued his briefcase held confidential attorney-client material and was furthermore the only one he owns. He estimated its value at $595. Ogden retained an attorney to block search of his briefcase and demand its immediate return, but his attorney withdrew that motion after Ogden apparently reached an agreement with the federal government on the matter.
• God-fucking-dammit. I forgot about Toys for Tatas. On Tuesday, at Alberta Rose Theatre, approximately 30 strippers and burlesque performers took part in a tradition that’s both sweet and scintillating, performing for 400 attendees and setting a new record for funds to buy toys for patients at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital. The Oregonian‘s Samantha Swindler has a little more on the show, which has been raising funds annually since 2011.
• Directed and co-written by Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems) and starring Timothée Chalamet, Marty Supreme hits the Christmas Day box office with the largest budget of any film in the history of its production studio, A24. It is a colossal team effort. It’s also yet another film made by insecure men for insecure men. For the Mercury, HR Smith offers her review. And OH SHIT that review is actually Jeff VanderMeer approved, folks.
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• President Trump delivered an 18-minute speech last night—not the State of the Union, which happens in the new year. The address was unusually-timed and not particularly factual. He claimed the economy is doing well, blamed Biden for it—if it is not, in fact, doing well—blamed immigrants for various issues, grossly exaggerated some figures, and then promised a “warrior dividend” for those in active military service. Par for the course. Read six takeaways here. And a fact check of the speech here.
• Apropos of nothing, the New York Times dropped more Epstein document analysis this morning.
• On Wednesday, Ghislaine Maxwell asked a federal judge to set aside her sex trafficking conviction and free her from her 20-year prison sentence. Maxwell argues that constitutional violations spoiled her trial.
• On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed legislation which—if enacted—would criminalize gender transition treatments for minors and would subject providers to up to 10 years in federal prison. It is expected to pass another today seeking to bar Medicaid payments for gender-related treatments for minors. Neither bill is expected to pass the Senate, but both “showed how far the ultraconservative Republican majority was willing to go to deliver on President Trump’s campaign promise,” the New York Times reports.
The House passed legislation today that would charge doctors with a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for providing transition-related care to minors. Rep. Sarah McBride strongly condemned the legislation in rare personal remarks ahead of the vote. www.nbcnews.com/politics/tru…
— Jo Yurcaba (@joyurcaba.bsky.social) December 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
• Today you may hear that a very big statue fell over in Brazil, as a consequence of 50 miles per hour winds, according to local officials. FWIW, no that wasn’t Christ the Redeemer. It was an approximately 78-feet-tall fiberglass statue in a parking lot. However the person saying “mio dios” at the end of this Guardian video is VIBES.
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Suzette Smith
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