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by Wm. Steven Humphrey

Here’s your daily roundup of all the latest local and national news. (Like our coverage? Please consider making a recurring contribution to the Mercury to keep it comin’!)

• Former NAACP president and Portland city councilperson Jo Ann Hardesty has issued an emotional statement regarding the Mercury‘s investigative report about the sexual abuse allegations leveled against E.D. Mondainé who just stepped down from his role as the local NAACP’s most recent leader. Our Alex Zielinski has more.

• In adjustments to the city budget for this fall, Commissioners Jo Ann Hardesty and Chloe Eudaly are expected to ask for $18 million in cuts to the Portland Police Department, which is on top of the $15 million cut that was made this past summer, but still far short of the $50 million total that many in Portland were asking for. Meanwhile, Mayor Ted Wheeler is steering clear of any further cuts to the Portland Police—despite previous promises of police reform. Our Alex Zielinski has more on this story.

Commissioner Hardesty has proposed a $18 million reduction in the police budget. Mayor Wheeler’s suggestion? $0.https://t.co/XrZHA0JRhZ
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) October 20, 2020

• Meanwhile, Multnomah County Commissioner Sharon Meiren is once again floating the idea of absorbing the Portland Police into the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department—the advantage being that the cops would be under the supervision of the sheriff, who is an elected official, and the system would be easier to restructure.

After police in Portland started covering their badges, a protester built a facial recognition app to identify officers.

Portland’s mayor told him it was “a little creepy” but it doesn’t seem to be illegal despite city’s new anti-face recognition laws: https://t.co/6aQLVYGBUi
— Kashmir Hill (@kashhill) October 21, 2020

• If you’re looking for some very delicious things to stick in your mouth (AND YOU ARE), don’t miss “Takeout Club”— the Mercury column that explores the very best in Portland’s to-go food scene!

IN NATIONAL NEWS

• FINALLY, SOMEONE IN THIS RACE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS: On the heels of the horrifying story that 545 migrant children have not been reunited with their families because their parents can’t be located, Joe Biden had harsh words for Trump saying: “This administration ripped babies from their mothers’ arms, and then it seems, those parents were in many cases deported without their children and have not been found. It’s an outrage, a moral failing, and a stain on our national character.”

• In another clear example of rats leaping off a sinking ship: “Mitt Romney says he did not vote for Trump in the 2020 election.”

Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee say they will boycott the committee’s vote on the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. https://t.co/bvCuYhEH4y

— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) October 21, 2020

• Trump’s followers continue to be inspired by him, and one such fan in Maryland has been arrested for threatening to kidnap and kill Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.

• Pope Francis has taken a small step to reform the homophobic Catholic Church by saying they should adopt civil union laws for same-sex couples. On behalf of the rest of us, we’d like to welcome Pope Francis to the 1990s.

• Despicable Trump crony Rudy Giuliani is featured as the latest patsy in Sacha Baron Cohen’s new Borat movie, where the former NYC mayor is apparently touching his genitals in the presence of a female actor playing a reporter who is also Borat’s 15-year-old daughter. YEEEESH!

If Borat was able to compromise Rudy- just imagine how easy it was for Russian Intel. https://t.co/KhLNDAS4Su
— David Hogg (@davidhogg111) October 21, 2020

• Investigators have located 10 bodies (so far) in a mass grave that may be victims of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, in which white marauders burned 35 blocks of a prosperous Black district, murdered at least 26 people, and sent 6,000 Black people to internment camps.

• Make no mistake, the nation is experiencing a brand new wave of the coronavirus, and unlike previous here-and-there outbreaks, cases are growing at an alarming rate in every part of the country. This is in part why the CDC has expanded their definition of “close contact” with those infected by the virus, and now say that risk is multiplied when the person has been within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period. (In other words, infection can be transmitted over multiple short exposures over a day’s time.)

• After falsely claiming that Joe Biden is a “puppet” of China, it turns out that Trump, according to his own tax records, has a secret, shady bank account in that very same country.

• Acclaimed magician, escape artist, and paranormal debunker “The Amazing Randi” has died at the age of 92.

• Find out what it’s like to be on the front lines of Portland’s nightly protests against systemic racism and police brutality with our livestream event/forum, “Eyes on the Ground: A Conversation With Portland’s Protest Journalists and Documentarians”—coming at you Tuesday, October 27 at 7 pm. GET THOSE TIX NOW!

• In these terrifying times, don’t you need a good, wholesome scare? Get your tickets now for SLAY—the short, eight-minute-or-less HORROR film festival from the makers of HUMP! Streaming right now through the 31st! (Interested in getting out more? Then come to the SLAY Drive-In at Oaks Park! Details here!)

• The WEATHER REPORT: A sunny day tomorrow with a high of 58 and a cold morning!

• And finally… HEY WHITE SUPREMACY! Here’s what’s coming for ya.

Black women and swords ❤️❤️❤️ (Shaina West @TheSamurider) pic.twitter.com/Y06Hud1Ugw

— Rebecca Theodore-Vachon (@FilmFatale_NYC) October 20, 2020

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