TopFeatured.com

The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

It’s official: ODOT has transferred the management of 82nd Ave to Portland—and things are about to get a LOT safer. FELICITY J. MACKAY / PORTLAND BUREAU OF TRANSPORTATION

GOOD AFTERNOON, PORTLAND! Welp, after two years of successfully avoiding it, I finally caught the ‘Rona. (BOOOOOOO!) And while I almost certainly won’t perish from my COVID malady, this is probably a great time for you to reflect on how shitty this world would be without me! (Let me know if you want any bittersweet anecdotes from my life to share at my HUGELY attended memorial service.) In the meantime, HERE’S THE NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Want to learn more about the two centrist challengers being propped up by the city’s rich developers and the police union to unseat the first Black woman on city council, Jo Ann Hardesty? Check out this thorough report from OPB before voting on either of those two puppets.

• RELATED (and you’ll see why in a moment): As of today, Portland City Council has now given the final authorization to transfer the management of 82nd Avenue from ODOT to the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT), and the city already has $80 million worth of planned pedestrian safety improvements ready to put into action. (Oh yes, and be sure to thank, among others, JO ANN HARDESTY who oversees PBOT for helping make this happen—only one of her many accomplishments while in office. Ahem, ahem, AHEM.)

On Wednesday, county leaders announced a program dubbed “Move-In Multnomah,” that offers incentives to private landlords who agree to rent apartments to people exiting homelessness.https://t.co/zKxb3EYFxD

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) April 27, 2022

• In more good transpo news: TriMet has a goal of having an all-electric fleet by 2040, and today they got another step closer after purchasing 24 electric buses, which should go into rotation by 2023.

• Hey smarty trousers! It’s time for the new POP QUIZ PDX, featuring fun trivia Qs about local wealthy stinkers, talented kitties, and what YOU’D do with a time machine! (Also enter to win free pizza pie! 😍🍕)

In @JenniferKayMo‘s Hear in Portland column this week: The One Moto Show has a great music line-up this year. Sotaé headlines May’s edition of The Thesis. AND, Lizzo ticket go on sale tomorrow! AH!https://t.co/YG2iKDBTFh

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) April 28, 2022

IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

• President Biden has asked Congress for $33 billion to go to Ukraine to help them fight their lopsided war against Russia—which is more than twice as much as his original ask. Meanwhile, bombs are once again raining down on Kyiv as Russia continues their assault on the Ukrainian city.

Weeks after the editor of a pro-democracy Russian newspaper was doused in red paint laced with acetone, chemically burning his eyes, the U.S. government has concluded that the attack was planned by Russian intelligence, according to reports. https://t.co/0ghMjpTgGu

— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) April 28, 2022

• In a couple weeks, Prez Biden should have a decision about what he’ll do about student loan debt. Right now, he’s leaning toward forgiving some debt… perhaps up to $50,000.

• Here we go again: The Oklahoma legislature has passed a six-week anti-abortion law (verrrry similar to the shitty one in Texas), which will go into effect immediately if their governor signs it.

Republicans’ new fake threat: GOP candidates in Ohio and elsewhere have created a new stolen election fiction by falsely saying that undocumented immigrants are committing voter fraud, a claim that has been repeatedly discredited. https://t.co/UPg0ElEUUJ

— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 28, 2022

• Moderna is asking for FDA permission to start giving their COVID vaccine to kids six-years-old and younger.

Twitter right now is like going into a crack house, and the crack dealer is on crack and his cracky friends are shooting at kids, but your friends are all “we can’t can’t abandon the crack house to the crackheads” and you see the absurdity but also remember you need some crack.

— Elie Mystal (@ElieNYC) April 28, 2022

• Amazon reported a significant drop in profits (a net loss of $3.8 billion!) for the first time in three years, causing their stock to plummet.

• And finally… if someone could do this for me right now, I wouldn’t be mad at ya!

Perfect…you have no idea how much I need this. 🥴😏🤣👶🏼 pic.twitter.com/kGqkrNxNni

— Fred Schultz (@FredSchultz35) April 28, 2022

[ Comment on this story ]

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]