🌱 Police Reform Questions + FBI Surveillance + Snow Plow Maps

Okay, so it's Christmas Eve. If you don't celebrate Christmas that may mean nothing to you and that's just fine. But given the holiday nature of the season, I hope you've found something to celebrate. Because the why of celebration is less important than finding things in life to be celebrated. And in that spirit, I say to all of you Happy Holidays. Let me tell you about today.

First, today's weather:

It'll be cloudy with light sprinkles all day and a high of 41.

Here are the top five stories today in Portland:

1. In June, Mayor Ted Wheeler and Portland Police Chief Chuck Lovell announced a procedural change to the Police Bureau’s traffic enforcement protocols: Officers would no longer prioritize traffic stops for low-level infractions that don’t present an “immediate public safety threat,” like expired tags or a broken taillight. But the most up-to-date data made available by the Police Bureau shows that, in the first three months after the change in protocol, the racial disparities remained mostly the same. (Willamette Week)
2. A new legal challenge seeks to curtail the use of solitary confinement as discipline in Oregon prisons. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports the Oregon Justice Resource Center argues the practice is cruel and unusual punishment in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The center asked the state appeals court Wednesday for a temporary restraining order halting the Oregon Department of Corrections from sending inmates to solitary confinement for over 15 days while justices consider the motion. (KGW)
3. Every year in Oregon, home heating fires come in second only to cooking fires, with 487 heating-caused fires in 2020. Think back to February's ice and snowstorm. Four people died — with many more close calls — after people lost power and tried to heat their homes with gasoline-powered generators, barbecues and camp stoves. (KATU)
4. The FBI deployed surveillance teams inside demonstrations in Portland, where agents dressed in black clothing and took video of protesters, according to a report in the New York Times. The FBI's Portland field office confirmed with KATU News that it operated a command post during protests in Portland over the past two years to gather intelligence and assess threats. (KATU)
5. With 4 or more inches of snow possible in and around Portland for the holiday weekend, transportation authorities are pointing to online snow plow trackers for people who want to know when or if their street or travel route will get cleared. Here’s where you can get road information. (The Oregonian)

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Today in Portland:

• The Lombard Pub in North Portland is doing its annual Nightmare Before Christmas dance event and this year it's on Xmas Eve. This is Portland’s longest running 80s night. Often imitated but never duplicated and Portland’s original New Wave B-Side and Alternative Dark 80s night every week for the last 17 years. The Lombard Pub is open and this is a livestream from the bar. Mask mandates are in effect. If you are not feeling good please stay home and/or get tested. 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM.
• Join MadgesdiqCEG & The Everyday Mystics at Alberta Street Pub in NE Portland on the Eve of Christmas for an Infinite Vibes Holiday Experience! Classic covers to warm your soul, combined with infinite vibes from MadgesdiqCEG, featuring an opening set from Side Moves. COVID Policy: The venue requests either a negative COVID test within 48 hours OR valid vaccination card. You can get Free COVID tests & results in 15-30 minutes via Curative in front of Mississippi Studios & many other locations. Visit www.curative.com to schedule an appointment. 6:00 - 10:00 PM.
• Wassail Wassail! Andrea Wild presents a three day Winter Solstice Festival at Al's Den in downtown Portland. Celtic Christmas falls on day two of the festival and features Andrea Wild & The Bad Wolves and the fabulously festive Poinsettia Sisters. Ancient carols, traditional wassail songs, pub carols, Welsh plygain, and traditional Cornish songs. Make merry with us on Christmas Eve in one of Portland's sweetest listening venues. 6:00 - 9:00 PM.
• Unsure of what the holiday weekend is going to bring? Why not set it off right with a little disco at North Portland bar, Bar Bar? It's having a special holiday disco night. Forget about Santa's naughty list and shake your booty to some funky hits. The boogie starts at 9:00 PM.
• If you're looking for cult classic holiday themed movies, check out the Clinton Street Theater as it screens the Christmas-themed horror movie, Black Christmas. Some folks go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Other folks come to the Clinton Cult Classics screening of BLACK CHRISTMAS. Also known as STRANGER IN THE HOUSE, this film is the rare slasher with enough intelligence to wind up the tension between bloody outbursts. It's a fiendishly enjoyable holiday viewing for genre fans. Show time is 10:00 PM.

From my notebook:

• Portland Audubon: "We are hiring! We have two positions open for our Backyard Habitat Certification Program with @columbialandtrust which is a program that helps people make a difference in our community by taking care of the environment in their own yard..." (Instagram)
• Portland Art Museum: "Constantin Brancusi’s polished bronze “A Muse” is one of the anchors of the museum’s collection of European modern art. The sculpture is a refined distillation of a woman’s facial features. A muse is a person, or a personified force, tha..." (Instagram)
• It may seem a bit odd with the omicron variant and a COVID-19 surge expected for Oregon, but Fan Expo (formerly Wizard World) is coming to the Portland Convention Center next month. As a nerd, I have a hard time complaining about Agent May (Ming-Na Wen) and Hell Boy (Ron Perlman) coming to town, but at least I'll have gotten my booster by then. Stay safe and nerd out! (Fan Expo)
• Okay, so now things are going to get a bit weird. Starting with a Portland Christmas Carol. Follow rich Ebenezer Wheeler through encounters with the ghost of his old partner, Jacob Adams, tours through Portland with the three spirits of Christmas, and gains a better understanding of how his greed harms others. This work of parody contains 12 illustrations with image descriptions. (PDX GDC)
• In the summer of 2015, a chimney sweep in Elgin, Oregon, redrew the map of the American West. “Imagine for a moment Idaho’s western border stretching to the Pacific Ocean,” Grant Darrow wrote in a letter to the editor of his local paper. Rural Oregon, he insisted, should break its ties with the urbanites of Portland and liberals of Salem, and join Idaho. “The political diversity in this state is becoming unpalatable,” he argued. “Rural Oregonians in general and Eastern Oregonians in particular are growing increasingly dismayed by the manner in which Oregon’s Legislature and Oregon’s urban dwellers have marginalized their values, demonized their lifestyle, villainized their resource-based livelihoods, and classified them as second-class citizens at best.” Read about the Oregon secessionist movement. (The Atlantic)
• Want to keep Portland weird? Watch the latest video from the Be Weird Project 2021. (YouTube)

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Merry Christmas to everyone out there. Or, if you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Holiday Season! This is a time for friends, family and connecting with others, so I wish everyone a gathering of your tribe, whoever, whatever, they might be. I'll be with you in spirit and, while I'll be taking my own break for a few days, I'll be back next week to talk about my favorite place on Earth, 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.