🌱 Cost Of Gun Violence + Fentanyl Overdose Deaths

Oh, happy day! It's Friday here in the City of Bridges and that's cause for celebration. But before I get to partying, let me tell you about today.

First, today's weather:

Partly cloudy today, but no rain and a high of 64. Sounds just fine to me.

Here are the top five stories today in Portland:

1. The rise in gun violence in the Portland area has made us all keenly aware of the human cost of these crimes, but there are other costs we don’t talk about as much, like the incredible cost to treat injuries from gun violence, and the overall cost to the community. According to OHSU, the hospital treated 126 patients for gunshot wounds in 2021, up significantly from 92 patients in 2019. A report by the Government Accountability Office found each inpatient stay costs between $8,000 and $11,000. (Fox 12 Oregon)
2. Federal and state health officials are recommending some Oregon residents start masking up again as COVID-19 cases climb. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Community Levels recommendations, six Oregon counties are currently classified as being at “medium” risk. Residents in those counties — Multnomah, Washington, Columbia, Clackamas, Deschutes and Benton — are being recommended to wear masks indoors if they’re at high-risk for severe illness and to take other precautions. (KOIN.com)
3. The fate of seven-term incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader hung in the balance Wednesday as election officials in Oregon’s third-largest county scrambled to tally tens of thousands of ballots with blurry barcodes that were being rejected by vote-counting machines. The county reported results for just 10,356 ballots on Tuesday night and more results would be posted by 5 p.m. Thursday, county Elections Clerk Sherry Hall said. The tally will be done by June 13, which is the last day to certify results under state law, Hall added. (The Skanner)
4. Starbucks employees hoping to form a union rallied at Jantzen Beach on Wednesday. One organizer there said his store in Beaverton was one of the first to apply for a union and since then about 300 more across the nation have done the same. The group Starbucks Workers United says 12 Starbucks stores in the Portland-metro area are trying to unionize, and they accused the company of retaliating against people trying to organize. (KATU)
5. Portland Police shared new data about fentanyl, showing just how widespread and dangerous it is. Already, almost half of the 58 overdose deaths in Portland this year are suspected to be from the extremely potent drug. Usually blue in color and referred to as M30′s in pill form fentanyl is made to look like common pharmaceutical drugs like oxycodone or xanax. Police said drug cartels want people to get hooked on this because it’s so cheap for them to make, but the problem is people are mistakenly buying it thinking they’re getting another drug, and just a little bit can be deadly. (KPTV)

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Today in Portland:

• Storytelling 101 Class Showcase will be at The Shoebox Theater in SE Portland. The students have been learning the art of storytelling over the last five weeks and have perfected their final story for this show! These are true, real life stories curated for performance. Wine, beer and sodas are available for donation. Tickets available online. Doors open at 6:30 p.m.
• Genderbomb presents t4t Art Collective's springtime art show pop-up gallery for transgender artists. Genderbomb seeks to give space and opportunity to transgender artists by turning the gallery scene on its head and having an art show without art world gatekeeping. The show starts at 6 p.m.
• The Oregon Historical Society presents Northern Paiutes of the Malheur: High Desert Reckoning in Oregon Country, a conversation with David H. Wilson, Jr. and Kerry Tymchuk. Indian agents’ betrayal of the people they were paid to protect saddled the Paiutes with responsibility for a war that most opposed and led to U.S. dissolution of their reservation, misappropriation of their land and deprivation of all but the paltriest benefits. This talk is free and open to the public. 5:30 - 7 p.m.
• Come to the Portland Climate Festival at Revolution Hall in SE Portland. Celebrate the climate that sustains us and the movement to sustain our climate at this free/all ages festival. With live performances by Marisa Anderson, Rebel Wise (featuring Mic Crenshaw and Quincy Davis), Anis Mojgani, Teeth, MOsley WOtta, DJ Acidwash, Chainsaw Girl, The Apricots, Riyana/Daboi King, and more wonderful humans! 2 - 8 p.m.
• Everything in Between Comedy Showcase will be at the 4th Wall in SE Portland. A femme-focused standup comedy showcase, featuring a lineup of Portland’s finest and funniest not straight white dudes. Can men even really BE funny? We’re not so convinced. Tickets are $5 and available at the door only.7 - 9 p.m.

From my notebook:

• Portland Audubon: "Are you interested in learning more about the endangered Snowy Plover? Join us for a free Snowy Plover Interpretive Walk this summer! There will be five walks held at various locations on the coast, June - August." (Instagram)
• Portland Audubon: "Tree Swallows have a varied diet, eating both insects and plant food. This helps them survive particularly cold days in early spring, especially in places like Portland where they arrive back as early as the beginning of February. (Facebook)
• No cooking competition cast is truly complete without a Portlander, and The Great American Recipe, premiering June 24 on PBS, is testament. Southwest Portland’s Christina McAlvey is one of the show’s ten home cook contestants from across the country, and she’s bringing her own spin on Filipino cuisine, which she calls “Fili-fusion,” to the table. Though she grew up in Michigan, McAlvey has lived in Portland for the last nine years, where she works as a small business banker, helps out part-time at the desk at a yoga studio (she’s also a certified yoga teacher), and cooks with ingredients from farmers markets as well as Filipino and Asian markets everywhere from 82nd Avenue to Beaverton. (Portland Monthly)
• The 7th Annual Vanport Mosaic Festival starts today. This year marks the 80th anniversary of the building of Vanport, once Oregon’s second largest city, and the largest WWII federal housing project in the United States. At a time when exclusion and racial segregation were the norm, Vanport was a place of belonging. Eighty years later, at a time when today's many crises have highlighted our community's continuing inequities, what can the history and living spirit of Vanport tell us today? Come to the festival for arts performances, screenings, exhibits, tours, dialogues, gatherings and celebrations. (Vanport Mosaic)
• On any given day, thousands of people in Portland navigate the challenges of being homeless. Countless city resources, non-profit organizations, volunteers, business owners, neighbors and homeless people are focused on the crisis and how to respond. On April 21, a team of KGW journalists set out to document this street-level response to Portland’s homeless crisis. The result is the documentary “One Day” that tells 14 unique stories from all sides of our homeless crisis over a single day. (KGW)
• Calling All Citizen Scientists! ODA Kicks off Statewide Tree-of-Heaven Tally. As part of Oregon Invasive Weed Awareness Week, the Oregon Department of Agriculture's (ODA) Noxious Weed and Insect Pest Prevention and Management programs are kicking off a six-month statewide tally of invasive tree-of-heaven locations thanks to funding from the U.S. Forest Service. (Oregon Dept. of Agriculture)

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Have a great Friday, Portland! It's a fine day and the start of a weekend. And I'll be back tomorrow to talk all about it. L8R Sk8R.

— Dominic Anaya

About me: Doctor, educator and now a writer/artist, I'm just chillin' in Portland, OR with my wife, our ferrets, our chickens and our goats.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Portland Daily? Contact me at portland@patch.com