Current Directions in Psychological Science, Ahead of Print. The success of methods based on artificial neural networks in creating intelligent machines seems like it might pose a challenge to explanations of human cognition in terms of Bayesian inference. We argue that this is not the case and that these systems in fact offer new opportunities […]

The post Bayes in the Age of Intelligent Machines was curated by information for practice.

Volume 36, Issue 5, September-October 2024, Page 382-397. Read the full article ›

The post Picturing the dance: intersections of gender, sexuality, and age in older women queer square dancers was curated by information for practice.

Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Ahead of Print. In 1997, the United States Agency for International Development established a policy focused on including people with disabilities in its development efforts. For the past two decades, this initiative has been echoed globally, yet research on its effectiveness remains limited. This study revisits a previous 2015 analysis […]

The post Disability Inclusion in Development Efforts: Analyzing the United States Agency for International Development’s Funding Solicitations for Evidence of Inclusive Practices was curated by information for practice.

Organizational Research Methods, Ahead of Print. When modeling responses to items measuring non-cognitive constructs that require introspection (e.g., personality, attitude), most studies have assumed that respondents follow the same item response process—either a dominance or an unfolding one. Nevertheless, the results are not equivocal, as some preliminary evidence suggests that some people use an unfolding […]

The post One Size Does Not Fit All: Unraveling Item Response Process Heterogeneity Using the Mixture Dominance-Unfolding Model (MixDUM) was curated by information for practice.

Abstract Objectives Higher education students experience elevated levels of suicidal ideation, but often face barriers in accessing support. The Mental Imagery for Suicidality in Students Trial (MISST; ISRCTN13621293; NCT05296538) tested the feasibility and acceptability of a six-session imagery-based approach called Broad-Minded Affective Coping (BMAC). This qualitative evaluation explored the experiences of MISST participants and staff. […]

The post A qualitative study exploring participants experiences of the Mental Imagery for Suicidality in Students Trial was curated by information for practice.

Volume 29, Issue 7, October 2024. Read the full article ›

The post Using Legitimation Code Theory to explore knowledge building in English medium higher education teaching: methodological challenges and innovations was curated by information for practice.

Publication date: January 2025 Source: Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, Volume 119 Author(s): W.C. Su, S. Srinivasan, A.N. Bhat Read the full article ›

The post Effects of creative movement, general movement, or seated play interventions on motor performance in children with autism spectrum disorder: A pilot randomized controlled trial was curated by information for practice.

The post General call for papers: Journal of Diversity in Higher Education was curated by information for practice.

The post CfP: Nursing approaches to self-care, self-management, and adaptation to illness was curated by information for practice.

The post Evidence & Policy | CfP – Exploring the Role of Youth-led Research in Policy Change (Interested authors should send a 300-word abstract by 30 Nov) was curated by information for practice.

The post Youth activism in schools: transforming education for social change (Abstract due by 30 Nov) was curated by information for practice.

The post General call for papers: Consulting Psychology Journal was curated by information for practice.

The post General call for papers: The Humanistic Psychologist was curated by information for practice.

The post CfP: Artificial Intelligence in Health Economics and Outcomes Research was curated by information for practice.

The post Youth activism in schools: transforming education for social change (Deadline Nov 30) was curated by information for practice.

Cheeky colors and elegant design are no longer just for interiors. The Tivoli Tech tile collection by Cristina Celestino takes the fun outside.

Step inside Le Petit Merlot, a Montreal duplex renovation _naturehumaine, where classic brick meets modern glass.

Design Milk's latest 2024 holiday gift guide will give you enviable objects to splurge on a dearly beloved or special friend.

A table collection from Cosentino and Modular, designed by Justine Kegels, celebrates the unique capabilities of modular lighting and stone.

Indiana Memorial Union Alumni Hall
Sunday, December 8, 2024, 12 – 2pm

Sugarcoat your holiday season with a Gingerbread House Workshop! Assemble the sweetest house of your dreams in IMU Alumni Hall on Sunday, December 8 and Saturday, December 14.

Spaces are limited so be sure to make a reservation.

Presenter: Indiana University Office of Student Life/ IMU Sugar & Spice
Age Range: All Ages
More info: api.getspoonfed.com…

24 N Washington St
Sunday, November 10, 2024, 2 – 4pm

The Owen County Civic Theatre presents "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever," a heartwarming and hilarious Christmas classic. In this fun-filled production, a couple attempts to stage a church Christmas pageant, but things take a wild turn when the unruly Herdman kids are cast. These “inventively awful” children bring chaos and unexpected charm to the traditional Christmas story, creating plenty of laughs and touching moments.

Adapted from the bestselling Young Adult book by Barbara Robinson, this show has become a beloved holiday favorite across the U.S. It offers great roles for both children and adults, with a mix of Christmas carols and loads of laughter—a perfect way to kick off the holiday season!

If you’re looking for something fun and festive to enjoy with the family, this would be a great event to catch.

For anyone interested:
Event Date: November 8-10
Event Times: Friday 7p, Saturday 7p, Sunday 2p.
Location: Historic Tivoli Theatre, 24 N Washington St., downtown Spencer, Indiana
Doors Open: 40 minutes before showtime.
Admssion: $15 adults / $10 students / $5 youth 13 & under

Presenter: Tivoli Theatre
Contact: Andrea White
Cost: $15 adults / $10 students / $5 youth 13 & under
Ticket Phone: 8127148137
Ticket Web Link: ticketing.useast.veezi.com…
Communities: Bedford, Bloomington, Brown County, Columbus, Greene County, Martinsville, Seymour, Spencer, Terre Haute
More info: www.spencertivoli.org

NW Natural talks up its climate strategy, but new legal challenges say the company has spent years lying about the environmental impact of natural gas. by Taylor Griggs

For years, environmental advocates have said NW Natural attempts to obfuscate the negative climate and health impacts of natural gas utilities in order to remain dominant in the market. NW Natural, Oregon’s largest gas utility operation, has responded to such allegations with fierce resistance, promoting its service as more climate-friendly than electric alternatives and talking up plans to go greener in the future. 

But two lawsuits filed against NW Natural earlier this month put a spotlight on its alleged greenwashing practices, arguing the company has knowingly disenfranchised customers and contributed to the climate crisis. The first lawsuit, filed on October 7, adds NW Natural to Multnomah County’s existing legal challenge against several other oil companies for their role in perpetuating the deadly 2021 heat dome event. Just two days later on October 9, two NW Natural customers filed a class action suit against the company for falsely representing a program it says will offset the carbon emissions caused by customers’ natural gas use. 

Many Oregonians rely on gas heat appliances, whether to heat their homes or power their stoves, and nearly all of them have NW Natural as their service provider. NW Natural serves more than two million people across Oregon and southwest Washington, and is the only gas utility company serving Multnomah County. 

Proponents of natural gas say gas utilities are economical, efficient, and reliable in the case of power outages. But scientists and environmental experts say there are major downsides, too. Residential and commercial energy use accounts for about 20 percent of Oregon’s carbon emissions—the second largest category after transportation—and natural gas combustion accounts for a sizable portion of those emissions. Methane leaks from gas appliances also have a major climate impact, with gas stoves in particular emitting planet-warming greenhouse gasses even when they’re not in use. 

And if the environmental harm wasn’t enough, recent studies also show gas stoves are worse for human health than previously thought, with clear connections to carcinogenic pollutants. Long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide from gas stoves has also been shown to lead to tens of thousands of cases of childhood asthma. 

As experts have sounded the alarm on all the impacts of gas utilities, environmental advocates and lawmakers have ramped up efforts to move Oregonians away from natural gas. The Portland Clean Energy Fund, for example, has invested tens of millions of dollars in deep energy retrofit projects, which will replace fossil fuel-reliant heating and cooling systems with electric systems. The program has invested millions more into building new, energy-efficient housing and commercial buildings. 

In resisting being pushed out of the market, the recent lawsuits say NW Natural has duped customers and pushed false propaganda about natural gas and the environment. 

Environmental advocates hope the legal challenges will have a practical impact on the company’s bottom line and enlighten the public.

Part of NW Natural’s public outreach strategy has been its sponsorship of community events, including those hosted by environmentally-minded organizations. In an effort to limit the gas utility’s greenwashing message, environmental advocates want local groups to cut ties with NW Natural, or think twice before accepting a future sponsorship deal. 

“NW Natural has a captive audience that trusts what their natural gas utility is telling them,” Carra Sahler, an attorney and director of Lewis and Clark Law School’s Green Energy Institute, tells the Mercury. “The more we can do to encourage skepticism, the better, and the easier it will be for people to make a switch [to electrify their homes] and to feel good about making that switch.” 

County lawsuit alleges a history of greenwashing 

Multnomah County’s amended lawsuit says NW Natural’s carbon and methane emissions have been “a cause of enormous harm” to the county and its residents. But, the lawsuit says, you wouldn’t know that by listening to the gas utility company’s public messaging. 

The county’s lawsuit states NW Natural has emitted at least 72.1 metric tons of CO2 equivalent in the last few decades, but has “deceived the public by claiming its product is safe, clean, and environmentally friendly.” 

The lawsuit provides several examples of the company’s alleged deceitful practices. Some particularly egregious instances include attempts to influence children and the Oregon education system. In 2021, NW Natural offered activity booklets to schools containing colorful drawings and activities for children promoting natural gas. The company also tried to use a front organization to host a training session for teachers about renewable gas, offering a $200 stipend to each teacher who attended. The training was canceled after public backlash. 

An image in NW Natural's school activity book, included in the county's lawsuit. multnomah county attorney

The misinformation from NW Natural got so bad, state agencies had to step in.

Earlier this year, NW Natural distributed a newsletter to its customers containing misinformation about Oregon’s Climate Protection Program policy. The newsletter said the climate policy would not reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but would result in a 14 percent rate hike for all NW Natural customers. In response, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality made a statement disavowing NW Natural’s campaign against the state policy. 

“In summary, NW Natural has routinely misrepresented to the public the climate impacts of extracting, transporting, storing and burning their product while over-estimating the costs of transitioning to renewables or reducing their pollution in an effort to frighten customers and discourage policy makers from using their authority to protect the public,” the Multnomah County lawsuit states. 

Sahler commends the county for including NW Natural in the big oil lawsuit.

“NW Natural is a trusted provider of warmth in homes, part of the local fabric... It’s exciting to see the county taking action—it’s brave to take on one more fossil fuel interest, especially a local one,” she told the Mercury. “Multnomah County's lawsuit appropriately lumps Northwest Natural in with the other big fossil fuel companies that we know are problematic, and it helps people understand what we're dealing with here.” 

David Roy, NW Natural’s director of communications, told the Mercury the company is “disappointed the County is spending resources on litigation instead of on developing effective emission reduction policies that work for County residents and businesses.” 

“We will continue to pursue pathways that allow Oregonians, including low- and moderate-income customers, to have access to two energy systems—electric and gas—for their homes and businesses,” Roy said. “NW Natural will vigorously contest these claims should they come to court. Regarding the Multnomah County action, we believe adding the company to the suit at this later date is an attempt to divert attention from legal and factual flaws in the case.” 

Class action suit says customers were deceived about carbon offsets

While Multnomah County’s lawsuit hones in on misleading claims and practices, the class action lawsuit specifically targets NW Natural’s Smart Energy program, an additional monthly fee available to customers, ostensibly to offset the carbon emissions associated with their natural gas use. Upon further investigation, however, NW Natural sends this carbon offset surcharge to industrial dairy farms for questionable “manure digesters,” which generate energy from methane-producing livestock waste. 

The complaint says the relationship between “carbon offset” funds, like NW Natural’s Smart Energy program, and the industrial dairies may incentivize the expansion of factory farming and enable further livestock waste production. 

“Independent research demonstrates that, at best, the climate benefits of manure digestion are not well studied and remain unclear,” the lawsuit says. “At worst, emissions reductions are significantly overstated.” 

Nicolas Blumm, one of the plaintiffs in the Smart Energy case, tells the Mercury he signed up for the program shortly after becoming a NW Natural customer. Since he didn’t have much of a choice about his gas utility system, he wanted to be as eco-friendly as possible while doing it. 

Blumm said the additional payment for the Smart Energy program was small—last January, he paid about $5 extra on his gas bill—so he didn’t think about it much. But once he realized where the money was going, he felt taken advantage of. 

The Smart Energy lawsuit points out that “corporate claims regarding sustainability and lower climate impact are particularly difficult for consumers to verify” and “climate-conscious consumers are particularly vulnerable to climate-related ‘greenwashing.’” 

“People deserve to have a chance to be honestly informed,” Blumm said. “I don’t think you should have to dig through and make sure every dollar you’re giving NW Natural is going exactly where they say it is. If they say the program is going to make your service carbon neutral, that’s how it should be.” 

NW Natural in the community 

In addition to the two lawsuits, NW Natural recently faced a blow from the Oregon Public Utilities Commission (OPUC). Last week, OPUC ordered the company to phase out gas subsidies by 2027. These subsidies are also known as line extension allowances, which gas utility companies including NW Natural charge existing customers in order to pay for expanding natural gas infrastructure to connect new customers to the service. 

Line extension allowances have been criticized by renewable energy advocates as environmentally damaging and economically burdensome for customers. But Roy, the NW Natural communications director, told the Mercury the company is “disappointed with the Commission’s decision,” and believes its subsidy proposal “supports the state’s goals for increased housing and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.” 

Advocates hope the recent news about NW Natural will lead to change in the community’s relationship with the company. While many consumers don’t have a choice about whether or not they can pay NW Natural for their monthly gas utility service, local organizations have more flexibility. NW Natural frequently sponsors or co-sponsors events across the region, ranging from county fairs to the Portland Bureau of Transportation’s (PBOT) annual Sunday Parkways open streets events. At these events, the utility company often sets up a booth to share information about natural gas, which environmental advocates say is often misleading. 

PBOT Communications Director Hannah Schafer told the Mercury the bureau is “aware of the concerns” and hasn’t made sponsorship decisions for the 2025 Sunday Parkways season. 

Sahler, the attorney, told the Mercury, considering the harm burning natural gas has caused to the planet and to human health, she wants to see local leaders draw a line in the sand. 

“Fossil fuel companies are like tobacco companies. You wouldn’t have a tobacco company at [events like Sunday Parkways],” Sahler said. “At some point it has to be unacceptable to support a business that is poisoning us.” 

Allee Willis was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan. Allee Willis: creative force behind the Friends TV Show Theme, Dangerous Woman to Soviet newspapers Allee Willis: Creative Force, Dangerous Woman, Queer Songwriter Behind Friends' Theme Further Proof That Friends Is Queer-Coded by Melissa Locker

Whether you watched the show or not, you can probably hum the theme song to Friends. Do you know who wrote it for the Rembrandts? And "September"—the Mercury's second favorite song—do you know who co-wrote that with Earth Wind and Fire's Maurice White?

Not to sound like a weird TV pitchman, but what if I told you they were written with the same person. Specifically,  Allee Willis—who was once dubbed “the most dangerous woman in the world” by Pravda, the the official newspaper of the prelapsarian Soviet Union.  

Willis is the star of a new documentary, The World According to Allee Willis, which celebrates its Oregon premiere at the QDoc Film Festival on November 16. The doc is worth your time to burnish your bar trivia skills, but also because Willis was a truly fascinating, wildly-creative artist who worked almost exclusively behind the scenes. She was your favorite artists’ favorite artist decades before Chappell Roan.

Willis had insisted on documenting her life, since 1978, long before reality TV was a thing, so there's plenty of her archival video found in the film. "I've always known that my final art piece would be someone putting together the trail I've left behind," she says in one clip. 

In 2019, Willis died at age 72, and director Alexis Manya Spraic became responsible for following that trail. Spraic intersperses the footage with a cavalcade of famous faces—Paul Reubens, Lily Tomlin, Cyndi Lauper, Pamela Adlon, Paul Feig, Sex and the City director Michael Patrick King, Devo’s Mark Mothersbaugh, as well as—somewhat inexplicably—billionaire Mark Cuban. Their interviews confirm that Willis really was a Hollywood power player, even if you don’t know her name.

Raised in Detroit as Alta Willis, the artist admits that growing up in the shadow of Motown influenced her work. She also did a stint in New York where she wrote her one and only album, Childstar, which had “great reviews and zero sales.” Eventually Willis moved to California because “if she was going to starve to death, she was going to do it in the sun.” ["Not me!" -Portland creatives.]

Willis lived on welfare in that sun, until "Godmother of Soul" Patti LaBelle heard her music, and kickstarted Willis’ songwriting career. Then came Earth Wind & Fire and “September,” the track that made Willis a songwriting star.

"Allee said she was lucky to meet us. We were lucky to meet her, too,” the group's bassist Verdine White says in the film. “That was life-changing for all of us.”

Earth Wind & Fire followed the success of "September" by co-writing another hit “Boogie Wonderland” with Willis, helping her become the music industry’s go-to “rock doc” who could fix up a song and turn it into a hit. 

Courtesy of Magnolia Pictures

In addition to being a wildly successful songwriter, Willis was also an art director and set designer, creating the backdrops for Debbie Harry music videos, among others. She continued to collaborate on songs, behind the scenes, and won both a Grammy and a Tony for her work on the musical The Color Purple.  The Friends theme was nominated for an Emmy, but didn't win.

While Willis was able to find professional success, that never quite translated into financial solvency. She also faced challenges in her private life—partially because she was queer at a time when it was extremely difficult to be open and out. She struggled with loneliness for much of her life, Lauper says during one of the film's interviews.

Willis did eventually find love, and then had to contend with the near-universal struggle of balancing work, creativity, and her personal life. When you’re looking at The World According to Allee Willis, it's a wild,  wonderful, and sometimes painful view, but well worth watching.

The World According to Allee Willis screens as part of QDoc Film Festival at Hollywood Theatre, 4122 NE Sandy, Sat Nov 16, 4:30 pm, $12, tickets here. Some streaming starting Nov 22. Visit alleewillisdoc.com for more.

Get your advice lickety-split with the latest edition of Savage Love quickies! by Dan Savage 1. This debate is raging again, Dan, and we need you to issue a ruling: Do straight women belong in gay bars? Some (straight women, gay bars), not all (straight women, gay bars). 2. Why do men keep ghosting me after sex? I’m a 25-year-old woman. No clue. You could’ve had a string of bad luck — and fucked a dozen (or more) shitty guys in a row — or it could be something you’re doing wrong. Even if you don’t think you’re doing anything wrong, once you’ve noticed a pattern of behavior and/or results that makes you unhappy, it’s a good idea to make some changes. Try meeting different kinds of guys in different kinds of ways, try slowing your roll/hole, etc., and take time along the way to engage in constructive introspection and make further changes/course corrections, as needed. 3. How do I stop people from falling in…

[ Read more ]

All the parties, all the results, and all the election night DRAMAZ! by The Mercury Election Strike Force

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Good evening, fellow fingernail chewers! It's ELECTION NIGHT in America and here in Portland, and as always the Mercury Election Strike Force is on the job and ready to give you the information you crave! Stick with us this evening as we report the local/national results you want, while also visiting various candidate parties around town to get a vibe and snack check. That said, here's an important thing to remember: Ballots that are mailed and postmarked by 8 pm tonight will still need to be counted, and it may take days for the final results to be tallied in certain races. However, we should have a pretty good idea where most races stand after the first ballot drop at 8 pm, and many races could be decided as soon as tomorrow. Yours truly (Wm. Steven Humphrey) will be joined by fan favorite Elinor Jones to provide election results and (often sassy-ass) analysis, while Mercurians Courtney Vaughn, Taylor Griggs, Suzette Smith, and freelance photog Sean Bascom will be traversing the town, interviewing candidates while also reviewing and scarfing down various party snacks. In short: IT. WILL. BE. FUN. AND. OCCASIONALLY. NERVE. WRACKING. Scroll down to read our latest dispatches, and LET'S MAKE SOME DEMOCRACY, PORTLAND!]

UPDATE 10:45 PM

We're wrapping this edition of the election live blog for tonight, but be sure to tune in tomorrow morning for Good Morning, News, where we'll give you the latest updates on all the local and state races. All that said....

At this moment in time, Kamala Harris’ path to victory is getting increasingly narrow. So if we wake up in the morning and the worst has happened, it’s important to remember that we in Portland are incredibly lucky and privileged to live here and to be surrounded by people who care about the welfare of others. It will be up to us to knock the dust off our butts, get back up on our feet, and start protecting those who will be persecuted by a possible Trump administration. And there are a lot: Folks in the LGBTQ+ community, undocumented immigrants, women and their bodily autonomy, and that’s just to name a few.

We can look into the darkness and choose to hide there, or we can do like we did in 2016 and rise up. You can bet that’s what we here at the Mercury will be doing. We consider it a privilege to be able to stand up for the voiceless and fight against the rising tide of hatred. We’ve been doing it for the past 24 years, and there is absolutely no way we’re going to stop now.

But we will need your help, because now there are millions of people across the country who will need your assistance as well. We can do it together, because we’ve done it before and we know what it takes. Cry, scream, yell, and grieve—and then get a good night’s sleep. Because tomorrow, we’re going to need that roaring fire that burns inside each of us to continue protecting those who need it most. We believe in you. You are strong enough to face the road ahead, and we’ll be right there beside you. I'll see you tomorrow.—WSH

UPDATE 10:35 PM

Evening wrap-up: We won’t see additional results for the Portland city races this evening, but we do know that Megan Moyer was elected as the new Multnomah County commissioner for District 1 and Shannon Singleton will represent District 2 on the County Board of Commissioners. Singleton bested former Portland mayor Sam Adams, while Moyer beat Vadim Mozyrsky for her seat.

At the city level, trucking company owner Keith Wilson took a strong lead in the Portland mayor’s race. Tuesday night’s preliminary results show Wilson leads with 63 percent, after 19 rounds of elimination. Current City Commissioner Carmen Rubio is a distant second, picking up 37 percent in the 19th round of tabulation. Tuesday’s early results show Rene Gonzalez, a city commissioner running for mayor, did not advance to the 19th round.

In City Council District 1, Candace Avalos, Loretta Smith and Jamie Dunphy are leading after 17 rounds of tabulation.

In District 2, current City Commissioner Dan Ryan, along with candidates Sameer Kanal and Elana Pirtle-Guiney each picked up 25 percent after 23 rounds of elimination, putting them all in the lead.

District 3 also saw Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick each pick up 25 percent of the votes after 32 rounds.

Similarly, in District 4, Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman each pulled ahead with 25 percent of votes counted by 8 pm.

Multnomah County is scheduled to release another update on Portland’s ranked choice voting races at 6 pm Wednesday.—CV

UPDATE 10:07 PM

As more votes roll in for the county races, Shannon Singleton has increased her lead above Sam Adams for the District 2 MultCo County Commissioner seat, sitting at a roughly nine point advantage. Meghan Moyer in District 1 is almost 20 points above Vadim Mozyrsky, and the Oregonian has called the race for her. We won’t be getting more city results tonight, so you’ll have to hold tight on that until tomorrow.

Meanwhile in the state races: Tobias Read, Elizabeth Steiner, and Dan Rayfield are also maintaining their leads for their respective state offices. Read has expanded his and is now beating his Republican opponent by about 12 percent.—TG

UPDATE 10 PM

Back to national stuff: I seriously debated whether or not to participate in this live blog tonight because I knew it would be so stressful, but I also knew I’d be looking at a device anyway, so why not contribute to the noise? And I guess I’m kind of a journalist, but I’m mostly a person and a mom and I’m extremely worried and sad and having a hard time looking at these numbers. As of right now, 633,944 people who live in the same state as me are fine with fascism and women losing bodily autonomy and working people getting their necks stomped on. That’s not fun for any of us.

The House of Representatives is looking to flip blue, though. This is good, in case Harris ekes out a win and Trump tries to steal it. Anyone ready to tuck in for the long haul? Because that might just be what happens. (I am not ready.)—EJ

UPDATE 9:45 PM

As of 9:30 pm, the Oregon Secretary of State page is reporting 48% turnout of all registered voters. Granted, Oregon has an exceptionally high voter registration thanks to our awesome motor voter program, but 48%?! In this economy?!? That number might still change. I hope it does.

And nationally, they’ve called Georgia for Trump. The rest of the battleground states are still too close. This sucks, and I hate it. 

Alcoholic beverages consumed: Four-ish

Cigarettes smoked: One (I quit in 2015. Dumb move.)—EJ

UPDATE 9:32 PM

One of Oregon's biggest races this year is the contest between incumbent Republican Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer and her Democratic challenger, Janelle Bynum, in the state's 5th District. We knew this race would be tight, and that still looks to be true, though Bynum has a 2 percent lead over Chavez-DeRemer at the moment. But with only about 60 percent of the votes counted at this point, there's a lot that's still up in the air, and we may not know the results of this race immediately. With the Republicans just nabbing a majority in the U.S. Senate, it's more important than ever for Democrats to take over as many House seats as possible, so national eyes will be on Oregon to see if Bynum can maintain her lead.—TG

UPDATE 9:30 PM

Results are coming in hot on state races! Republican Steve Bentz is handily carrying Oregon’s 2nd District, while Democrats Suzanne Bonamici, Maxine Dexter, Val Hoyle, Janelle Bynum, and Andrea Salinas are leading in Districts 1, 3, 4 5, and 6, respectively.—EJ

UPDATE 9:28 PM

As far as state races go, here's a quick update. About half of all Oregon ballots have been counted so far—so there's the possibility of change here. Democrat Tobias Read has a pretty nice advantage for Secretary of State, ahead of Republican candidate Dennis Linthicum by about 10 percent. Democrat Elizabeth Steiner has a roughly five point advantage to Republican Brian Boquist for the state treasurer seat, with Mary King (from the Working Families Party), who's sitting at almost six percent of the vote, likely taking some Democratic voters. Dan Rayfield, the Democrat vying for the Oregon AG position, has a roughly six point lead over his Republican opponent, Will Lathrop.—TG

UPDATE 9:25 PM

Multnomah County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson made an appearance at the Portland For All/Working Families shindig. District 3 candidate Chris Flanary is also here. Flanary says even if they don't win, they're not going anywhere. District 3 seats will be up for election again in two years. A sentiment conveyed earlier by a speaker here seems to be the new prevailing mood: "No matter what happens, all we have is each other."

People are now leaving in droves. By far the coolest feature of this election party has been a color changing panther statue.—CV

Color changing panther statue for mayor. COURTNEY VAUGHN

UPDATE 9:15 PM

Democratic Party of Oregon is holding a big soiree in the basement of the Hilton Hotel. The main affair is happening in a large ballroom that—as seems to be tradition—has very little signal, so of course the hallway is a madhouse of glad handing.

A couple TVs are broadcasting CNN’s presidential coverage—LOOKS BAD—and there are folks watching these in concerned semi-circles.

Inside the ballroom itself, a variety of Democratic politicians are celebrating state wins, like Tobias Read and Maxine Dexter.

Snacks-wise what I’m seeing at this time a few robust veggie platters and charcuterie platters that the chefs of Reddit would respect. There’s a full bar—several full bars—but they’re constrained by drink tickets, not open for the loosening of anyone who made it through the not-insignificant security.

Senator Jeff Merkley takes the stage and is still hopeful that Kamala Harris will win. He’s hopeful Democrats can win big tonight, then get to work on reforming the systems that are set up to benefit the powerful.

He introduces Sen. Ron Wyden, pumping his fists behind him onstage, and we briefly wonder—not for the first time—if someone will ever make a buddy comedy about the two of them.

Wyden delivers remarks that feature the phrase “full court press” repeatedly. Protecting the rights of women—full court press! Civil liberties for all, including LGBTQ+ people—full court press! Getting the people at the top to pay their fair share—full court press! And a full court press to “protect our democracy from those plotting in plain sight to end it.”—SS

Dems at the Hilton. SUZETTE SMITH

UPDATE 9:10 PM

Meanwhile at mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio's party at the Sports Bra, it's a packed house with the crowd elbow to elbow across the room. Rubio is chatting and moving through the room from family to friends to campaign team. Mixed vibes all over. People cheering for Democrat wins in Oregon and Washington, while other barely holding back tears as they watch Trump maintain his lead. Local election energy is high though.

State Rep Bob Nosse introduces Rubio for a speech. She congratulates everyone for engaging with local politics, thanks her family and team, and ends by saying, "We deserve leadership that looks like us, that takes Portland forward for all of us. Let's hang in there for Portland."—SB

Mayoral candidate Carmen Rubio. Sean bascom Rubio thanks her many supporters. SEAN BASCOM

UPDATE: 9 PM

Just arrived at the Mercury’s election party at Mississippi Studios. I wouldn’t say the mood is somber, necessarily, but it’s also not exactly celebratory. Many people’s eyes are on screens—their phones and the big one playing MSNBC loudly for all the hear. With so many races and states that are too close to call, will we remain in a state of limbo all night? Only time will tell.—TG

Let the nail-biting commence. taylor griggs taylor griggs

UPDATE 8:55 PM

At the District 1 candidate party at CORE food carts on 82nd Ave, candidate Steph Routh has been buzzing around the party of about 50-75 people. "I'm just glad people are here!" says Routh.

Sean Bascom

City Council candidates Candace Avalos, Timur Ender, David Linn, Joe Allen, Metro Councilor Duncan Hwang, and their teams all chatting and in good spirits. Former city commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty arrived with former Oregon BOLI commissioner Dan Gardner in support of Avalos.

Winner of the "Cutest Picture EVER" award. Sean bascom

A documentary film crew—focused on the 2024 elections—was covering the event as well, as community organizers Donovan Scribes and Zoe Pilafas chatted with Routh, Avalos, Hardesty, and others. Pilafas says, "East county matters the most to us. It's the strongest place Portland can focus on equity. It's where you should be if you give a shit."

Candidate Timur Ender remains upbeat: "We ran a great campaign, hustled hard, and the rest is up to the voters."—SEAN BASCOM

UPDATE 8:50 PM

Oregon is voting on a handful of state measure as well, and I’m surprised to see that voters have rejected Measure 117, which would have made ranked choice voting an option statewide. I personally enjoyed ranking my choices when I filled out my ballot, even though the sheer amount of bubbles was initially very overwhelming. People could have gotten used to the bubbles. Babies don’t like bubble baths at first, but they come around. Alas, Oregon voters will never know the bubble lyfe. Voters also rejected Measure 118, which would have granted a universal basic income of $1,600 to every Oregonian, an idea which sounds kinda fun but like... why? However, Measure 115 did pass, which means lawmakers can now impeach other lawmakers. Yay! I love an impeachment. So chic. Very West Wing-esque.—EJ

UPDATE 8:30 PM

There are two Multnomah County Commissioner seats up for grabs, and here are the latest preliminary numbers: For the District 1 seat, Meghan Moyer has a substantial lead (57% so far) over perennial candidate Vadim Mozyrsky (at 42%)—but who knows? Maybe for Vadim, the 37th time running for office will be the charm.

Meanwhile in the District 2 race, Shannon Singleton holds a hilarious lead (53%) over former mayor Sam Adams, who I'm surprised was likable enough to garner 46%. Yes, I'm a bitch, deal with it.—WSH

It appears Portland is on the verge of electing its third consecutive guy who looks like Charlie Hales as its next mayor. (Charlie Hales began the streak in 2012). https://t.co/eM79arkSmH

— Señor Eder Campuzano ???????? (@edercampuzano) November 6, 2024

UPDATE 8:26 PM

In District 4, early results show Olivia Clark in the lead, followed by close races among Mitch Green, Eric Zimmerman, and Eli Arnold. Back on scene at the Portland For All/Working Families Party gathering, candidates have disappeared, at least for now. Supporters and campaign volunteers are loading up to-go boxes of food. Some are nervously hovered around a TV showing presidential race results.—CV

UPDATE 8:23 PM

Meanwhile in national news: I got a little gloomy in my last post, but now that polls have closed on the west coast, those blue and red maps are looking a lot less terrifying. Oregon is called for Harris, as is California. Phew. In other races, Democrat Sarah McBride is projected to win an open seat in Delaware to become the first trans person in Congress, and Democrat Andy Kim won the New Jersey senate seat vacated by the slick-palmed Bob Menendez, which makes Kim the first Korean-American in the Senate. Here in Oregon, Janelle Bynum is leading incumbent Republican Lori Chavez-DeReremer by a paltry 2%, but that race is nowhere near called yet. It’s a real mixed bag tonight, folks.

My cat Sprinkles seems to have picked up on my anxiety and is sitting in his emotional support slipper. —EJ

"I'm staying right here until inauguration day." elinor jones 

UPDATE 8:20 PM

Early results are rolling in. In District 1, Candace Avalos is gaining notable momentum as the top vote getter. In District 3, Tiffany Koyama Lane, Angelita Morillo and Steve Novick appear to be leading. Raucous applause and cheering rang out at The Get Down when the early results for District 3 were announced.—CV

UPDATE 8:15 PM

Eric Zimmerman (D4) and Sam Adams (MultCo D2) arew looking over preliminary results at T.C. O’Leary’s on Alberta. No definitive mood shift as the results roll in. People struggling to read the ranked choice results.

Taylor Griggs

I would also like to note that there’s a six-piece Irish band playing at T.C. O’Leary’s, seemingly unaffiliated with the campaigns hosting parties here. Hearing them play has been helpful to my nervous system, but makes it hard for the campaigns to follow results on TV. The Adams and Zimmerman campaigns have moved into another room in the bar to watch the TVs. 

Taylor Griggs

Seems like I should’ve stayed at the Wilson campaign party! Early results show him with a major lead. Unclear how things will shift, but I bet the mood is even better over there now than it was a half hour ago. —TG

UPDATE 8:10 PM

Okay, the first results of the evening are in, and as a reminder, THESE ARE VERY PRELIMINARY, so chill out y’all! Let’s start with the mayoral race. So far mayoral candidate KEITH WILSON has a commanding lead (63%) over the rest of the pack with CARMEN RUBIO coming in second with 37%. Rene Gonzalez is not even on the board. 

And here are the preliminary 8 pm results for the City Council races (reminder that each district is electing three people):

DISTRICT 1: Candace Avalos is currently tied at 25% with Loretta Smith, and Jamie Dunphy pulling up the rear in third with 21%.

DISTRICT 2: It’s currently a three-way tie in District 2 between current commissioner Dan Ryan, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, and Sameer Kanal.

DISTRICT 3: Another three-way tie in D3 between Angelita Morillo, Tiffany Koyama Lane, and Steve Novick. 

DISTRICT 4: Olivia Clark, Mitch Green, and Eric Zimmerman have 25% each in their battle to represent the West Hills, downtown, and Sellwood.

Stand by for state results next!—WSH

UPDATE 7:53 PM

I keep feeling all sorts of hope for this country, but Texas was AWFULLY QUICK to determine that Ted Cruz won his reelection to the US Senate. Florida handily approved a statewide ban on abortion after six weeks (which, as a reminder, is not six weeks of being aware of a pregnancy, but six weeks after the first day of a person’s last period, which is often before they even know they are pregnant, and is functionally a total ban on abortion). And Iowa, which gave all of us libs a jolt of unexpected happiness when pollster Ann Selzer said it suddenly leaned Harris, has gone to Trump. Polls are still open on the West Coast, but I am prematurely not okay. Perhaps another vodka tonic will fix things? I’m gonna try. —ELINOR JONES

UPDATE 7:50 PM

There are plenty of election night parties this evening, and while it's equally exciting and nerve wracking, it's important to remember that the local City Council and mayoral race results tonight will be VERY preliminary. Stay patient! A large group is partying at The Get Down, where Portland For All and Oregon Working Families Party are co-hosting an event for several progressive candidates. It's a lively scene. District 3 City Council candidate Angelita Morillo is mingling. Khanh Pham is making her way around the room. District 2 candidate Michelle DePass is also here. A few speakers from each org are talking about the importance of what Portland is doing to transform the city's local government. The bar is open and the excitement is palpable.—COURTNEY VAUGHN

Getting down at The Get Down. COURTNEY VAUGHN

UPDATE 7:45 PM

Hey everybody! Your old pal Steve Humphrey here, holding down mission control in the Mercury’s election night live blog. THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR TONIGHT: Ranked choice voting is taking center stage in this year’s election, particularly in the races for City Council, mayor, and city auditor. (Simone Rede was the only person running for auditor this time around, so I guess she’s RANKED #1!! ????) Thanks to a rather lackluster lineup of mayoral candidates (I’m sorry, but it’s true), I bet it was difficult for people to rank more than three—but at least we all know who we shouldn’t have ranked, right? Stay tuned for the first ballot results drop of the night, coming up in under 15 minutes.—WM. STEVEN HUMPHREY

UPDATE: 7:40 PM

The party for mayoral candidate Liv Østhus, AKA Viva Las Vegas, is at Bunk Bar in Southeast Industrial. We’re here just as it’s opening, but both Østhus and her campaign manager try to give me snacks and drinks. The cocktails are pretty enticing, but we have much left to do.The Mercury described Østhus as a political newcomer that nevertheless ran a serious campaign. We ask her if this run signals her intention to join politics permanently—regardless of tonight’s results. She describes the campaign as another step in her arts career and practice, which has felt like a series of vocations, as much as she moved between different facets of her life—stripping, musicianship, writing, and even being a mother. “I felt called to it,” Østhus says, of local politics. “People are craving new types of leaders, visionary ones. Look at this campaign, run with entirely volunteer support until a few weeks ago. I ran against three sitting commissioners! Ultimately, it’s harder to resist a calling than to follow it.” At this point, a crew of supporters from Mary’s—the downtown strip club where Østhus works—arrives, and the room’s energy skyrockets. We part ways with Østhus, and she tries to feed us once more before we leave.—SUZETTE SMITH

Liv Østhus says "cheers" to the democratic process. Suzette smith

UPDATE: 7:30 PM

Mayoral candidate Keith Wilson is having his election party upstairs at Old Town Brewing. Wilson has run a very competitive campaign against some big names and the crowd here has a lot of energy. He told me part of the fun is that we don’t know what we’ll find out tonight. “We’re just here to celebrate. We ran a great campaign with a lot of great people,” Wilson said. —TAYLOR GRIGGS

Rustic, log cabin vibes at Keith Wilson’s party. taylor griggs

UPDATE: 7:20 PM

A couple dozen people are currently at Old Town Brewing on NE MLK for District 2 city council candidate Nat West’s party. People are eating pizza and drinking beer, as to be expected at this establishment. Overheard West make a crack to former Mercury/current OPB reporter Alex Zielinski about the infamous “bowls of popcorn” from Knute Buehler’s election party when he ran for governor. We’ve got a Mercury liveblog reader, folks! West’s energy is upbeat. “I did what I wanted to do,” he says. “I got at least two first-place votes.” (He pointed to himself and his wife.) Everyone is seemingly avoiding paying too much attention to the multiple TV screens in the building, broadcasting presidential race results. —TAYLOR GRIGGS

Taylor Griggs

UPDATE: 7:15 PM

Hey, everybody! I’m Elinor Jones. Usually they keep me over in the humor area, away from real news, so my inclusion in tonight’s lineup of writers really underscores the YIKES! of it all. Some results for the Presidential election are already up, and it looks scary, because the red states seem to count the fastest; it will be a while before we have good information on that front, and if you ask if that will stop me from refreshing every news site every minute, the answer is no! 

I’ll mostly be keeping eyes on the results coming out of Oregon’s 5th Congressional District (which encompasses the area directly to the southeast of Portland, including parts of Clackamas, Multnomah, Linn, and Marion counties) where Democrat Janelle Bynum is hoping to unseat Republican Lori Chavez-DeRemer. Chavez-DeRemer is a mega MAGA Republican. Bynum is a sitting state Representative, having beat this very same Chavez-DeRemer twice for that seat. 

I was first introduced to Bynum when she was a guest on my favorite podcast Lovett or Leave It and she was delightful AND hilarious—a winning combo if you ask me! If you need 14 minutes of entertainment to kill time before the big results start pouring in, here's a video I highly recommend.—ELINOR JONES

by Suzette Smith

The Mercury provides its readers with interesting and useful news & culture reporting every single day. If you appreciate that, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. If you read something you like, something you don't like but are glad to know about, and/or something you can't find anywhere else consider a one-time tip. It all goes in the same pot and it all goes to the editorial team. Thanks for your support!

Good Morning, Portland! We're still "turning and turning in the widening gyre" over here, and we may be for quite some time.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Last night's round of election results arrived without any notable changes in the Portland City Council races. News editor Courtney Vaughn writes: "With Keith Wilson securing the mayor’s seat the day prior, results in City Council districts largely held firm."

• While the national election results have been [understatement incoming] pretty distressing, local races are lined with silver. The Columbian reports Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has maintained her lead over far-right, perennial challenger Joe Kent. The Oregonian has a good breakdown of the race and history of Gluesenkamp Perez's hard-fought win.

• PCC Automotive Service Technology Program instructor Jay Kuykendall has been named this year's Educator of the Year by the North American Council of Automotive Teachers, Portland Tribune reports. "Kuykendall oversees the auto shop lab and teaches engine performance classes, along with elective courses like Subaru U, electrified vehicles and light-duty diesel."

• Beloved local coffee chain Jim and Patty's Coffee announced earlier this week that it will close its remaining two locations, in Beaverton and in Portland, on November 11. "Thank you all from the bottom of our hearts for your support..." owner Patty Roberts wrote. "Now I will need to find a job. If anyone has any ideas for an old lady who has been off the job market for over 40 years, let me know!" ???? For more backstory, check out this Mercury piece about the struggling coffee shops from October.

• There was once a time in Portland when one could easily—well, depending on connection issues—rent a cheery little blue and white hybrid car to drive. The little smart cars were great for unforgiving rain showers and surprisingly solid in the snow. Car2Go merged with Reachnow in 2018, then tanked in 2019. In 2021, Free2Move announced it would drop a "fleet of 200 Jeep Renegades" for Portland consumers to rent, but the cumbersome cars departed once more in 2023. This week MSN reposted that story from 2023, so some people have been letting us know about it. Sorry about MSN, and this all happened last year. Still fun to revisit this tweet:

so let me get this straight

car2go joins sharenow, while reachnow becomes reachnow pic.twitter.com/gJi7R6YZ8e

— Cabel Sasser (@cabel) March 4, 2019

• Politicians are politicians, but I find Sen. Jeff Merkley's vibe calming:

          View this post on Instagram                      

A post shared by Senator Jeff Merkley (@senjeffmerkley)

• Every week, the Mercury gives out free tickets to local shows and this week we've got sweet tix for Reverend Horton Heat, Des Demonas, Karina Rykman and moooore—check'm out and win with our Free Ticket Thursday giveaway!

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• I can't immediately find who said this, but I think it's a valid concern: As we watch the transition back to a Trump administration presidency, the cabinet appointments are probably going to feel like being repeatedly punched in the face. President-elect Donald Trump named Florida strategist Susie Wiles as his White House chief of staff on Thursday. Wiles has run his political operation for nearly four years, making her one of the few people to survive at his side for any length of time. What's Wiles deal? Nepo baby. Ronald Reagan campaign staffer. Wiles has been credited with putting Rick Scott in Florida's governor’s office. Associated Press has a nice, long profile on her this morning. Is she going to tear the tampon machine out of the White House bathroom again? We're watching.

• A Biden administration initiative known as “Keeping Families Together” was struck down by a Texas-based US District judge yesterday; Judge J. Campbell Barker argued that the Biden administration had overstepped its authority with its attempt to lessen barriers to citizenship for undocumented immigrants married to US citizens.

• Soccer fans did violence again, but this time it might be motivated by cultural and political friction. NPR reports that "leading political figures in the Netherlands have condemned the violence that followed a match between a Dutch team Ajax and Tel Aviv's Maccabi. According to NPR, "Dutch police said 62 people have been arrested following several clashes." Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema described local men seeking out Israeli fans on scooters. Dutch police chief Peter Holla said fans of Tel Aviv Maccabi had "set a Palestinian flag on fire in the city and attacked a taxi." Dutch authorities have banned demonstrations through the weekend.

• Happy Martian New Year... soon! In Scientific American Phil Plait writes: "Why would anyone pick November 12 as New Year’s Day for Mars? And why does our official reckoning of Martian time set the eons-old Red Planet only in its 38th year? The answer involves a combination of natural cycles and the human need to impose order via somewhat arbitrary timekeeping—pretty much like on Earth."

• And now we part—wishing a fine weekend to my naysayers and hatchet men in the fight against violence.

by Elinor Jones

What's happening Trash Pandas? Welcome back to the Trash Report. I am Elinor Jones and I am not doing well! Lucky for us, things have been shitty often enough and recently enough that we can disassociate and do our silly little activities. How fortunate we are to live in times that challenge us! JK! I hate it!!

Elections Trash

Well my friends, I guess we didn't coconut hard enough, because Donald Trump is headed back to the White House. A lot of people will have a lot of thoughtful breakdowns in the coming weeks and months about what went wrong, but it seems pretty obvious to me that we live in a country that hates women—Black women especially—and they like Trump. It sucks, but usually the simplest explanation is the correct one. Ad buys in Pennsylvania or door knocking in Michigan wouldn't have changed the fact that people hate women and like Trump, and even if they didn't totally love Trump, they were at least more comfortable with him in power than with a woman. Democrats spent a billion dollars to try to educate voters on why Trump is bad, but it didn't work; people know he's bad, they just don't care, or they like that part about him. They like how Trump talks more than they like the way Democrats talk, especially Democrats who are women. This handwringing about like "oh, if only people understood the real issues" and like: no. We're past that. Issues don't matter. Not only do people not care, but it also makes Democrats even less likable when we're trying to scold them over to our side. During one of my spirals I realized how weird it is that there isn't even a phrase like "owning the libs" for chuds? Like, us bullying them into silence or an embarrassing hissy fit isn't even on the damn table. Why is that? What are we doing? In hindsight the best messaging of the entire campaign was when everybody laughed at J.D. Vance for fucking a couch; if we could have had more like that in play instead of Liz fucking Cheney reminding us that Kamala Harris is pro-military and celebrities who will never worry about money insisting that Biden's economy is good, actually, we probably could have could probably have gotten some people (who voted only off vibes) to like ours better, although probably not enough to convince people not to hate women. As you can tell, I am very, very angry! Most of it is directed at Joe Biden. He should have run in 2016, he should not have run in 2020, he shouldn't have attempted a reelection campaign this year, and then he should have dropped out faster when the writing was on the wall after the debate in June. End rant. (For now. There's still a lot of juice in this tank, and it's gonna be a loooong four years.)

Portland: Inspirational!

Trump promised RFK Jr a role overseeing health in his new administration, and the first order of business floated is removing fluoride from our nation's drinking water. This captured headlines for its absurdity. "Why in the world would we not take such an easy and impactful action to help everybody, but especially poor children, have healthier teeth? What anti-science freakshows would take issue with fluoride in the water?" "Wow, yeah, totally," said the city of Portland as we pulled our shirt collars up around our faces and sought an immediate exit from the conversation. Being part of a Venn diagram where one circle is RFK Jr. and the other circle is Portland and the middle part is "fluoride = bad" is not a good look for us.

In other news, fans allege that someone attending a recent Sabrina Carpenter concert squatted and peed in the middle of the pit before the show started. Knowing that Carpenter had just played in Portland, when I saw the headline about someone being gross at a show, I immediately assumed that it happened here. I was wrong—it was San Francisco—but that is the kind of national news I'd like our city to make and not "RFK Jr approves of Portland's municipal health initiatives." Let's go back to "Portland Sucks." Nationally, it's an easier place for us to be.

Wicked Merch

The thing that might divide my family this Thanksgiving is not politics—we are all aligned there, thank God—but whether we should first see Moana 2 or Wicked. We are leaning Moana 2, mostly because this Disney sequel is shockingly not the one unleashing inescapable product tie-ins everywhere I look. Speaking of which, the folks at Mattel did so by putting a link to a porn site on the packaging for some Glinda and Elphaba dolls and had to apologize and issue a recall. LOL. I can imagine the exhausted and overworked marketing associate who's trying to stave off sleep by occasionally watching some adult content and deliriously copy-pasting the wrong link. Look, you mass produce 10,000 different green and pink items, you're bound to screw up something.  

In other Wicked news, director Jon Chu missed the LA premiere because his wife went into labor and gave birth to a baby girl. The baby is the couple's fifth; a full three of those five children were born during the development and filming of Wicked. His wife may have told him she was proud of him, but her body was clearly saying "no sir, we are not doing that anymore." And she feels like five kids is plenty, but knows that Wicked 2 is only a year away and is debating whether a sixth baby could keep that press buzz out of their family life.

AOTY When?

Grammy nominations came out last week, and women came out on top. Imagine if Kamala Harris won the White House during the same week that Beyoncé became the most nominated artist in Grammy history? We could have been so happy, and so annoying. Etsy would have gotten absolutely filthy with throw pillow bearing feminist catchphrases. This column would have been damn near unreadable, even more so than usual. The gods took a look at us American women as our souls threatened to leave our bodies with how badly we (at least most of us) needed a win, and said "they simply cannot have both things" and went with Grammys instead of the presidency, which isn't the direction I would have gone, but I am not a god. Yet.

Fugitive Animals

A passenger got video of a raccoon falling out of the ceiling at La Guardia airport in New York City. La Guardia had just been named America's Best Airport, taking the coveted spot that PDX usually holds, and you know what? I agree. We simply need more raccoons. Trash Pandas: assemble.

Meanwhile down in South Carolina, 43 monkeys escaped a research facility and are currently on the loose. Authorities are advising residents to lock their windows, and I would definitely have a hard time doing that. I think they would like me. It's like how at Yellowstone they have to put up all the signs advising people not to approach bears. While I understand the reason for the signs, I also believe that I am a person who a bear would allow to pet it. I think monkeys would feel the same way. Any other indoor kids read Summer of the Monkeys? It's a book about a circus train that derailed and a bunch of monkeys got loose and they finally trusted one young man to return them to captivity. I think I could be that young man. Call me, South Carolina. 

I'm gonna be honest, Trash Pandas: I could keep writing this column all night. I didn't want to start working on it, but as I've been writing, and reflecting, and trying to put words to all the big things I feel, I have to admit that Doing Something does feel better than doing nothing, even though doing nothing is so tempting. We may not have fluoridated water, and we may not be pissing on the floors at arena concerts (yet), but we have each other, and I'm very grateful for that.

Togetherly,

Advice for those who feel like democracy has abandoned them. by Dan Savage Dear Readers: Well, fuck. Reading a sex-advice column at a time like this — to say nothing of writing a sex-advice column at a time like this — might seem a little pointless. But I’ve lived long enough to know that seemingly pointless distractions, small comforts, and guilty pleasures have the power to sustain us in bad times. Taking a moment to read (or write or illustrate) a sex-advice column — or listen to or make some music or watch or make some porn — doesn’t mean you’re complacent or complicit. (Unless you voted for him, of course, in which case you can fuck the fuck off.) Because it’s the little things — the small pleasures — that keep us sane, keep us connected, and keep us going. Anyway, sitting down to write a column this week lifted my spirits a bit. I hope reading this week’s column lifts yours.…

[ Read more ]

Citing ethical issues and potential conflicts of interest, advocates want the city to halt a no-bid contract renewal that would funnel millions to the Portland Metro Chamber. by Courtney Vaughn

For years, Portland has collected fees from property owners in enhanced service districts to pay for added cleaning and security services in designated areas. The districts are typically concentrated around businesses, offering private security, extra policing, janitorial services, and more recently, removal of homeless camps. 

Some stakeholders say the city has yet to confront the unique and outsized role of Portland’s most powerful business lobbying group at one enhanced service district (ESD) in particular—Downtown Portland Clean & Safe.

This week, Portland City Council is scheduled to vote on a 116-acre expansion of the Downtown Portland Clean & Safe district, as well as a fee hike and a five-year management contract renewal for the district. 

Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, more than 100 Portlanders and over a dozen community groups are urging City Council to postpone the contract renewal that would funnel a hefty portion of a $58 million, no-bid contract to the Portland Metro Chamber.

An open letter to city commissioners outlines a number of transparency and ethics issues surrounding the Clean & Safe contract, asking the Council vote to be tabled until a new Council is sworn in this January.

Currently, the Downtown Portland Clean & Safe district is overseen by an organization of the same name, whose management has significant overlap with the executive leadership of the Portland Metro Chamber (formerly the Portland Business Alliance).

A large chunk of funding for the Metro Chamber’s leadership staff comes from a lucrative contract to oversee the Downtown Portland Clean & Safe ESD.

That means a private group that lobbies the city on behalf of private business interests is being paid millions in public money to oversee a service district that includes a large swath of its own dues-paying members. The downtown district also includes several government agencies and properties that pay into the ESD—including Portland City Hall. Moreover, community groups say the contract and service delivery model are convoluted at best, with next to no oversight from the city.

The letter’s signatories say the petition for district expansion, and the accompanying contract renewal “raises serious concerns related to affordability, efficient use of public resources, accountability, and transparency.”

“The City contracts with Clean & Safe, which subcontracts with other organizations to carry out cleaning and safety services. Yet the executive director of Clean & Safe is simultaneously an employee of the Portland Business Alliance, which is also a subcontractor of Clean & Safe,” the open letter to Council states. “Unclear lines of oversight make it difficult for ratepayers or the public to hold anyone accountable. Even more concerning, the contract allocates significant overhead to the Portland Business Alliance, the city’s most active lobbying organization.”

It's a contract that mystifies everyone from accountants, to ratepayers, and even auditors. 

A 2020 city audit of Portland's ESDs found "little oversight" of the privately funded public service districts and noted "complicated governance and management systems" that obfuscate public access to basic information such as budgets and subcontracts.

Not long after the city audit, a local business executive spoke out about the questionable business arrangement baked into the Clean & Safe contract. When she did, she was allegedly threatened with a lawsuit from the Portland Business Alliance.

Since then, other local government watchdogs have taken note, but gotten little traction with city leadership.

“I think this council has an ethical responsibility to answer all these questions for the voters, or wait,” Diane Goodwin, a member of local political advocacy group Portland For All, says.

Cleaning services praised; expenses questioned

It's unclear what Clean & Safe's latest budget includes. A 2021 budget calculated total expenses at around $5 million, including about $858,000 in salaries. Exactly what portion of staff is covered in those salary expenses is murky. Both the Metro Chamber and Downtown Clean & Safe share staff. In fact, the Chamber's CEO and president, Andrew Hoan, is also the CEO and president of Downtown Clean & Safe. The 2021 budget shows $243,000 in "shared administration" salary costs. 

Tax documents from 2022 show Hoan drew a $333,000 salary from the Chamber that year. The two organizations also share an executive assistant and an advocacy coordinator. Clean & Safe's operations director and executive director are also listed as part of the Chamber's staff. The Clean & Safe executive director drew a $154,000 salary from the Chamber that same year.

Businesses and commercial property owners in the district overwhelmingly support the expansion, saying the frequent cleaning and beefed up security have improved downtown Portland and made it safer for workers and visitors.

“We want our associates to feel safe coming into work,” Kelly Mullen, president of Portland’s Safeway and Albertsons division, told the Council on October 31 during its initial consideration of the contract and ESD expansion. Mullen said recently, the Safeway location at 10th and Jefferson has had to reduce store hours and close off an entrance, to improve safety at the grocery store.

“We want to be part of the solution and really make our community thrive,” Mullen said.

The council also heard from the principal of a private school advocating for the district expansion so her students and staff could receive extra security and clean-up around the campus.

One element of Downtown Clean & Safe that’s lauded by nearly every district member, even critics, is the Clean Start program, run by Central City Concern. The program offers janitorial jobs cleaning city streets to people transitioning out of homelessness. For many, it offers a fresh start and a path toward self-sufficiency. 

City staff and Clean & Safe reps say the expanded district and new proposed rate structures will offer more transparency, reasonable fee calculations, inflation adjustments, and a cap on rates for condo owners. Several residential ratepayers say the whole Clean & Safe arrangement leaves them with more questions than services received. 

John Pumphrey owns a condominium in the downtown district. He and other condo owners say the services they pay for are often duplicative of private security and janitorial services they already pay for through their homeowners association. They also say the services serve mainly to benefit businesses, not residents.

“I’m a condo owner in downtown Portland and our building pays $24,000 a year to Clean & Safe and for this, [we] receive next to nothing,” Pumphrey told the Council, asking them to vote against the contract renewal. “What’s really irritating to some of us about Clean & Safe is that 50 percent of what we contribute … is skimmed off the top by the Portland Metro Chamber.”

Pumphrey isn’t the only one critical of the unusually high compensation provided to Portland Metro Chamber staff from the Downtown Clean & Safe contract.

The open letter to City Council also makes mention of the compensation arrangement, asserting the Clean & Safe contract “pays nearly 50 percent of Business Alliance executive salaries in addition to up to 30% in administrative overhead.”

“Many of these executives appear in City lobbying records and in state filings for PACs that advocate for private business interests, often directly in conflict with the will of the voting public,” the letter reads. “It is inappropriate to use public resources to offset the cost of business lobbying.”

Devin Reynolds, the city's ESD coordinator, said the arrangement between the Metro Chamber and Dowtown Clean & Safe isn't an anomaly.

“Having an ESD contract with a third party to fulfill some, or all their service areas is indeed common across business improvement districts, business improvement areas, and enhanced services districts,” Reynolds told the Mercury earlier this year.

Commonplace or not, some downtown ESD ratepayers say they’ve been cut off from any meaningful participation in their district’s oversight or decisions.

Anita Davidson, a condo owner in the downtown district, told the Mercury that for years, condo owners have had no representation in district leadership, and there is little to no transparency around operational decisions.

“As residential people, we don’t feel we belong there. We don't have a vote in who runs Clean & Safe,” she said. “We can’t even join Portland Metro Chamber, because it's for businesses. I’d like to see Clean & Safe become a public nonprofit. That would solve a lot of things. I still have to make a public records request [just] to see their budget.”

In an effort to appease homeowners, the new contract includes a fee cap on residential units. It’s a nice accommodation, but homeowners in the industry-dominated district say what they really want is a way to opt out.

There currently is no mechanism to do that, and the process for annexing additional property into an ESD doesn’t require a vote from affected property owners. It’s left up to City Council to approve. Current standards only require the city to notify affected property owners by mail and hold public hearings where they can chime in. 

“Unfortunately for ratepayers, the city has not yet, after 30 years, adopted standards for formation, renewal, or expansion of the ESDs,” Davidson told Council. “At some point, we hope and expect that this will happen, although listening tonight, it sounds like it's an all-in-one thing.”

Other district members say they disagree with their tax revenue being used to initiate homeless sweeps, and pay for increased police presence.

That’s especially true in the case of Sisters of the Road, a homeless services nonprofit and member of the Downtown Portland Clean & Safe district.

“From 2016-2020, unhoused residents accounted for over half of arrests made in Portland. Their charges were primarily nonviolent, survival crimes. That same data showed that people are 20 times more likely to experience criminalization in Downtown Clean & Safe versus other areas of the city,” Lauren Armony, program director at Sisters of the Road, told the city in written testimony earlier this year. “Hyper-surveillance has not made our neighborhood any healthier or safer, but further entrenched vulnerable individuals in the cycle of incarceration and poverty.”

Organizations like Sisters of the Road say they're irked that the ESD funnels its members’ taxes into the Metro Chamber, which has powerful influence over city politics and often advocates against the city’s vulnerable, unhoused residents–the same population Sisters of the Road is trying to help. 

The Clean & Safe contract and district expansion are currently scheduled for a second reading and vote by Portland City Council on Wednesday.

Tell Me More has regularly turned to Alfredo Corchado for insight on Mexico. He gives host Michel Martin one last look into his reporter's notebook.

Around the world, it can still be very hard to live as an openly gay man. Host Michel Martin learns more from two LGBT activists: Jamaican Maurice Tomlinson and Nigerian Bisi Alimi.

The host shares some final thoughts before the close of the show.

China's government is censoring puns and wordplay on-line. NPR's Scott Simon explains why double meanings are a problem for Beijing.

A federal judge has ruled that a Louisiana law requiring the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms is unconstitutional.

NPR's Michel Martin talks with Edward Whelan of the Ethics and Public Policy Center about President-elect Trump's influence on Senate Republicans' selection of a new majority leader.

In acknowledgment of Women’s History Month Basic Black presents a Women’s Roundtable. This special presentation will be a conversation on the issues and concerns of women of color coming out of the political landscape in this presidential election year. In addition to the wealth income gap and health care reform, we’ll dig deep on issues such as reproductive rights, women of color in political life, and setting the "women's agenda.'"

Our panel this week:

Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
Anita Hill, Professor of Social Policy, Law and Women's Studies, Brandeis University
Lani Guinier, Bennett Boskey Professor of Law, Harvard Law School
Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (MA-2nd Suffolk)
Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Literature and Publishing, Emerson College

Monday March 19th, Professor Anita Hill co-hosts "Disrupting The Script: Raising To Legal Consciousness Sexual Assaults On Black Women." Click on the image to learn more.

(Originally broadcast May 11, 2012)

President Obama surprised the world yesterday when his stance on same-sex marriage finished "evolving" and he came out in support of it. Will his position hurt or help his chances at re-election? How will it affect his relationship with black clergy? Will it alter his support in the black community?

Our panelists:
- Callie Crossley, host and executive editor, The Callie Crossley Show
- Kim McLarin, author and assistant professor of creative writing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Lionel McPherson, associate professor of philosophy, Tufts University

(January 11, 2013)

Basic Black welcomes actor Teagle F. Bougere to the studio for a conversation on the themes raised in the play Invisible Man, based on Ralph Ellison's seminal work and currently on stage at The Huntington Theatre. Bougere is the lead actor in the production.

Among the many questions on the table: Does this play have any resonance for a contemporary audience? What does the play say about the experience of the African American man in particular? What would a contemporary version of the play look like or have as its focus?

Our full panel:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH radio
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of writing, literature, and publishing, Emerson College
- Barbara Lewis, executive director of The Trotter Institute, UMass Boston


(Photo by Astrid Reiken, 2012)

February 22, 2013:

Is the context for the murderous rampage of Christopher Dorner one that people of color recognize? Tonight on Basic Black – anatomy of a killer’s racial experience… what happens at the intersection of racism, rage and mental illness?


Our panel:
- Callie Crossley, host and moderator, Boston Public Radio, WGBH
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Peniel Joseph, professor of history, Tufts University
- Kim McLarin, assistant professor of writing, literature, and publishing, Emerson College
- Dr. Chidi Achebe, President & CEO, Harvard Street Neighborhood Health Center




(Photo: War, Maria Gertsovskaya/Flickr.)

May 24, 2013

President Barack Obama's address to the graduates of Morehouse College last week drew criticism and praise, not only for what he said but also for how he said it. Was he talking down to the graduates in pressing for personal responsibility? Does he whip out the "preacher" cadence for black audiences only? As graduates of HBCU's and other institutions go out into the world, what is the most useful message they need to hear?


Panelists:
- Latoyia Edwards, anchor, New England Cable News
- Kim McLarin, author, Divorce Dog: Men, Motherhood and Midlife
- Phillip Martin, senior reporter, 89.7 WGBH Radio
- Peniel Joseph, professor of history, Tufts University


(Photo: Official White House photo by Pete Souza)

May 8, 2015 This week Basic Black opens with a follow-up look at the events in Baltimore with a conversation about black leadership and variations on the “blue wall of silence.” Later in the show: as tensions in Baltimore increased, it was the White House Correspondents Dinner which included a few jokes on the state of race relations, that took center stage in many media outlets; and just after the state of emergency in Baltimore was lifted, the comedy duo Key and Peele premiered a sketch called “Negrotown”… we ask, when is the right time for satire?


Panelists:
- Latoyia Edwards, Anchor, New England Cable News
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News
- Kim McLarin, Associate Professor of Writing, Literature, and Publishing, Emerson College
- Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University
- Emmett G. Price III, Associate Professor of Music, Northeastern University and author of The Black Church and Hip Hop Culture


Photo: (Left) Scene from “Negrotown” Key & Peele, Comedy Central. (Right) Protesters demonstrate as a curfew imposed in the aftermath of rioting following Monday's funeral for Freddie Gray goes into effect Friday, May 1, 2015, in Baltimore. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

The Hedgerow Theatre teams up with Mauckingbird Theatre Company, auteurs of “innovative, affordable, gay-themed theater,” for their production of...

In 1703, only a century and change after Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing, the first houses were built...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, produced by the Great Lakes Theater in repertoire with the musical Into the Woods, is...

Brady chats with NYT columnist and Dartmouth political scientist Brendan Nyhan about this week's avalanche of political ads. Then, two seasoned primary watchers weigh in on the celebrities (and non-celebrities) candidates call upon in the primary's waning weeks. Finally, a public radio host who's interviewed hundreds of primary candidates shares her strategy to get them to open up. #FITN #2016 #Politics

In this week's episode we get into the primary free-for-all, from three towns that all want to be the first to vote first in the nation; to the dozens of lesser-known names on the primary ballot and what exactly they're doing there. #Politics #2016

When Joe Hill launched his career as a writer, he didn't want anyone to know about his famous writer parents, Stephen and Tabitha King. Rather than ride their coattails, he wanted to find success on his own—thus the pen name, Joe Hill.

Novelist Alex Myers came out as transgender in the mid-90s, when society's understanding of what it means to be transgender was less clear than it is today.

Asst. Clinical Prof. Claudia Flores discusses report on abuse of immigrant children