🌱 Novelist Murder Trial + Unsanctioned Homeless Camp

What's up, friends! It's another week here in Portland and it couldn't be nicer. Sure we've got issues, but we've got another 70 degree day coming up. How exciting is that? Let me tell you about today.

First, today's weather:

There will be a few morning showers and an overall cloudy day with a high of 53.

Here are the top five stories in Portland today:

1. A Beaverton romance novelist who infamously wrote an essay, "How to Murder Your Husband," went on trial Monday for doing exactly that. Nancy Crampton-Brophy, 71, was charged with one count of murder with a firearm constituting domestic violence. She has pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors said that Crampton-Brophy shot and killed her husband of 26 years, Daniel Brophy, 63, a popular chef at the Oregon Culinary Institute, on the morning of June 2, 2018. (Portland Patch)
2. A woman was shot and killed in downtown Portland early Monday morning, police said. Officers responded to reports of the shooting near Southwest College Street and 6th Avenue around 1 a.m. They found the victim, who was not publicly identified, dead at the scene. If the medical examiner determines the woman’s death to be a homicide, it will mark the city’s 26th so far this year. That would be one more than Portland had seen by this time last year, which set an all-time record for homicides in the city at 92. (OregonLive)
3. Stormy weather has knocked out power for many in the Portland metro area early Monday morning. Around 9:20 a.m., Portland General Electric reported that more than 2,100 customers were without power. Many of the outages are due to trees fallen on power lines or high winds, according to PGE. Pacific Power has managed to get service restored to more than a hundred customers and is down to just a handful of outages scattered in the metro area. They are also dealing with some 200 reported outages in the Astoria area. (KOIN.com)
4. After a long wait, the Oregon Supreme Court on March 29 left untouched the ballot title for an initiative that would end the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission’s near-monopoly on liquor sales and allow grocery stores across the state to sell booze. The grocers are now considering whether to move forward with signature gathering. There isn’t much time, however: proponents only have until July 8 to gather 112,020 valid signatures. (Willamette Week)
5. Community groups set up a new campsite in the downtown Portland park blocks on Sunday morning, but some businesses and local leaders are pushing back against the non-permitted shelters. Volunteers with organizations like the People's Housing Project put up 12 tents in total, with three on raised platforms, in the middle of the park. "Folks have nowhere to go. When folks have nowhere to go and the city’s answer to houselessness is either shelters and only shelters or sweeps we have to meet that," local advocate Mimi German said. David Straub owns Premo's Toys and Cantina, a business just a few blocks from the camp. Straub said he's worried this site will grow, and drive away customers during a time when the neighborhood is working to bounce back. (KATU)

Today in Portland:

• Action movie fans should consider the film No Escape No Return showing at the Hollywood Theater as part of their B-Movie Bingo series. Three of L.A.'s finest cops go underground to infiltrate a drug ring. On day one, an all-out war begins between them and the drug lords, leaving bodies all over the place, including two dead policemen and a missing $100,000. Tickets available online. Showtime is 7:30 PM.
• Come On Down To The People’s Jam at Show Bar, Where Space Meets The Earth And Dreams Come True! A trio will play the first set. They have a sign up sheet with 10 tunes picked out as well as openings for songs of choice and originals. They have an open floor plan with bistros with seating in the back. They ask people to be respectful and wear a mask when not drinking, eating or playing a horn. They have hand sanitizer. They will have a PA set with 2 mics, Keys with amp, guitar amp, Bass with amp, Drums, and 2 DI boxes. Bring your sticks, instrument, instrument cable, or anything less the keys and drums. Cheers!! Doors open at 6:00 PM.
• Annie Bloom's welcomes back local author Caroline Kurtz for a livestream reading from her new memoir, Today Is Tomorrow. Caroline will be in conversation with her sister, children's author Jane Kurtz. Caroline Kurtz lived in Ethiopia from ages 5-18. She returned to teach for six years in Addis Ababa. That story, including boarding school, three armed changes of government, and the shaping of her adventurous personality, is told in her first book, A Road Called Down on Both Sides: Growing up in America and Ethiopia. Register online for this free discussion. 7:00 PM.
• It's trivia night at Steeplejack Beer in NE Portland. Assemble your team or arrive solo, but make sure to include Tuesdays at Steeplejack on your calendar. They'll have Last Call Trivia and awesome prizes, not to mention great beer and food. 7:00 - 9:00 PM.
• Schaffer The Darklord will be performing at the White Eagle in North Portland. Schaffer the Darklord (or STD) is a New York City-based rapper, drummer and comedian with material best-suited for nerdy and/or hedonistic audiences. With manic energy fueling a cartoonishly commanding stage presence, STD skewers such topics as substance abuse, sexual compulsion, urban anxiety and obsessive cat-enthusiasts. Also appearing will be Lex the Lexicon Artist. Showtime is 8:00 PM.

From my notebook:

• The tribes of the indigenous Kalapuya people have lived throughout Oregon’s Willamette Valley for thousands of years, with their own customs and languages. It’s estimated that there are 4,000 people who identify as descendants of the Kalapuya people living in Oregon today. But for the last half century, there have been no native speakers of the Kalapuyan language. Now there’s an effort underway to preserve the Kalapuyan language. There’s a new dictionary, and some descendants of the Kalapuya people are now working to learn their ancestors’ language. (OPB)
• While I love all things TV and movies, I take special interest in shows with an Oregon connection. Which is why I'm excited to see Metal Lords which will be coming to Netflix this Friday. Metal Lords is a teen musical comedy arriving on Netflix which is like School Of Rock but with a thrash metal twist. It's from the Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss, and tells the story of three high school misfits who try to start a heavy metal band. Some of the filming locations include Parkrose High School and Revolution Hall. (IMDB)
• Where can you find the best burritos in Oregon and the rest of the U.S.? The answer is highly personal, but Yelp has given us a place to start. The popular review website identified businesses in every state that serve burritos, then ranked those spots based on the number and quality of reviews between January 2019 and February 2022. Saint Burrito in Portland earned Oregon’s top spot. As for the rest of the country, Joliza’s Tacos in Long Beach earned the top spot in California, a state with an especially crowded and competitive burrito market. (KOIN)
• GEOGRAPHICALLY, YOU CAN’T GET MUCH farther from Latin America within the contiguous United States than Portland. Gastronomically, however, Portland Mercado is doing a whole lot to bridge that gap. On paper, the Mercado is a business incubator for Portland’s Latin American entrepreneurs, who can apply for affordable retail and commercial kitchen space within the indoor-outdoor market (one manager referred to it as a “mini Shark Tank”). On the ground, however, Portland’s first public Latino market is a celebration of the Central and South American foodscape. (Atlas Obscura)
• Though Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera have the most artworks combined in the Portland Art Museum exhibition, there are almost 30 other artists on view, including María Izquierdo. During her lifetime, Izquierdo was one of the most important and well-known Mexican artists. She formally trained under los tres grandes—the three prominent Mexican modernist muralists—though distanced herself from using art solely as a political tool and instead focused on subjects that held personal importance to her. (Instagram)

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Welcome to a new week, Portland! May your Tuesday be grand. If you like what you're reading, come on back tomorrow and I'll tell you more news of Portland.

— 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.