Good morning, Portland. These links should be clicked.
Six people were arrested yesterday afternoon while protesting the Portland police killing of 17-year-old Quanice Hayes. Protesters were blocked from entering the Portland Building, where City Council was being held, so they blocked the door for a while, and then protested in the street. Details here.
Riot cops stormed from inside the Portland Building to arrest protesters #QuaniceHayespic.twitter.com/hcG4GckcyH
— doug brown (@dougbrown8) March 29, 2017
Thacher Schmid's piece, out in print as of yesterday, on the Housing Choice Landlord Guarantee Fund: "For the last several years, the guarantee fund has helped Section 8 succeed, supporters say. But now, it’s running low—it has $115,000 remaining as of January after paying out $611,439 in claims—and House Speaker Tina Kotek says it’s been the target of 'abuses' by landlords."
Also out in print yesterday, is our story on the politics of shopping: "Vote with your dollar to make small businesses and Portland great."
"A former Oregon Department of Justice investigator filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the state and its attorney general claiming he was fired in retaliation after reporting what he thought were anti-police postings on the personal Twitter account of the state's top civil rights attorney,"the Oregonian writes. "James R. Williams said in a lawsuit, which also names the deputy attorney general, that he was following the advice of his supervisors and the state DOJ's Human Resources Department when he filed a report in October 2015 on social media postings from Erious Johnson Jr., the state DOJ's civil rights director."
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown fired three of the five members on the commission overseeing the state Department of Environmental Quality yesterday: "The commission oversees an agency that has struggled to regain public trust since last year's Portland air scare revealed just how little it had done to protect city residents from toxic air pollution."
"A U.S. Air Force Airman from Umatilla died Tuesday in a non-combat incident in northern Syria, the Department of Defense announced late Wednesday," the O writes. "Staff Sgt. Austin Bieren, 25 was supporting Operation Inherent Resolve, whose goal is to eliminate the Islamic State, according to the Department of Defense."
Not good:
A Troutdale man returns home from vacation to find hateful graffiti inside every room of his house. https://t.co/6z2PLiEc8wpic.twitter.com/hsZAL4bCDM
— Portland Tribune (@ThePortlandTrib) March 29, 2017
"Homelessness in Southwest Washington is on the rise. On Wednesday, Clark County released its annual tally of people sleeping on the streets or in their cars,"OPB reports. "The number of people experiencing homelessness jumped 18 percent since last year. That’s according to the annual point-in-time count, which identified 269 homeless individuals and families in Clark County on one night in January."
Relevant to Portland: "Seattle is suing President Donald Trump over his executive order cracking down on so-called “sanctuary cities” for how they handle people living in the United States illegally,"the Seattle Times writes. "The city is doing nothing wrong by limiting its own involvement in immigration enforcement, while Trump is overreaching by trying to make cities do the work of the federal government, Mayor Ed Murray and City Attorney Pete Holmes said Wednesday."
A federal judge in Hawaii extended his order blocking President Trump's travel ban https://t.co/DsIHF87nyR
— The New York Times (@nytimes) March 30, 2017