Portland

Old tweets slamming police resurface right after Portland voters reject a second push to fund 400 more officers: timing the piece calls anything but coincidental. Meanwhile Macklemore's tour exit over "Free Palestine" and the police chief's own complaint-triggering statement expose how narrow the lane for dissent really is, even for white men with platforms.

— via Portland Mercury, Donovan Scribes (fka Donovan Smith)

Fax machines and overnight shipping broke comics out of New York roughly 20 years before Hollywood decentralized, letting artists like Karl Kesel ditch Manhattan for Portland in 1989. A new documentary traces how that migration turned a rainy mid-sized city into an indie comics capital.

— via Portland Mercury, Corbin Smith

A Pearl District council forum invited just four candidates, one a Portland cop. Turns out neighborhood associations legally can't play favorites like that, and the whole event just collapsed days before it was set to happen.

— via Portland Mercury, Taylor Griggs

73% of Oregonians oppose data center tax breaks, and a grassroots coalition born from a failed farmland bill is now trying to unseat the politicians who backed them. Oregon already hosts the world's second-largest data center footprint, with Hillsboro's set to more than quadruple.

— via Street Roots, Henry Brannan

A Portland editor back from 19 days of DIY touring rounds up the week's shows, from Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 with cellist Abel Selacoe to Geordie Greep's genre-hopping return and a Jane Remover set once known for scaffolding climbs and champagne-in-a-heel theatrics.

— via Portland Mercury, Starly Lou Riggs

Three corn mazes sit within walking distance on Sauvie Island, and they're built for completely different nerves: one has trivia at 10 stations and an easy exit, another traps puzzle-lovers in narrow dead ends, and a third turns loose actors who chase you down. Pick wrong and you'll either get bored or genuinely spooked.

— via Portland Mercury, Joe Streckert

Multnomah County is set to spend roughly $2 million a month on empty Preschool For All seats even as families sit on waitlists, auditors find. State staffing ratios and location mismatches make the fix messier than just merging classrooms.

— via Portland Mercury, Courtney Vaughn

A Pearl District candidate forum invited only four of twelve District 4 hopefuls, then collapsed after organizers realized nonprofit rules require inviting them all. The city's attorney has stepped in, and it's unclear if the event at the Armory happens at all.

— via Portland Mercury, Jeremiah Hayden

A 1923 journalist's trip to a Haitian cotton field birthed Hollywood's zombie genre, and the real horror wasn't sorcery but US occupation and forced labor. A new documentary traces the monster from vodou nightmare to box office staple, though it juggles too many storylines to stay tight.

— via Portland Mercury, HR Smith

Mayor Keith Wilson says he won't endorse city councilors who back police abolition, no nuance included. Meanwhile Portland weighs $395 million for Blazers owner Tom Dundon, cyclists protest, and Eugene eyes its own clean energy fund fight.

— via Portland Mercury, Wm. Steven Humphrey

Seven names, one ranked-choice ballot: North and Northeast Portland picks a county commissioner this fall. A perennial candidate and a former commissioner returning after nearly two decades headline a field with sharply different resumes and endorsements.

— via Portland Mercury, Mercury Election Strike Force

Eugene voters get a November ballot measure copying Portland's $200 million-a-year clean energy fund, taxing big businesses' gross profits instead of sales. Business groups are fighting it with the same complaints they lodged against Portland's program.

— via Portland Mercury, Taylor Griggs

Portland's political fights get personal: opaque, chamber-aligned cash is targeting progressive council incumbents with billboards, while Eugene weighs its own PCEF-style tax amid familiar opposition. Plus, a PPB K9 died after a Gresham homicide shooting whose shooter remains unnamed.

— via Portland Mercury, Jeremiah Hayden

Fall officially arrives with a Dolly Parton tribute bash, a beaver mascot's game-day appearance, and a field trip to meet actual cats. Portland's weekend calendar has a full lineup, and none of it involves staying home.

— via Portland Mercury, EverOut Staff

Free ticket pairs to seven Portland events, from a witchy film series at Tomorrow Theater to Oregon Ballet Theatre's Swan Lake and the Erotic Ball's 26th anniversary. Entries close September 28, winners get notified the following Monday.

— via Portland Mercury, Mercury Promotions

Hans Zimmer rolls into Moda Center next spring with a 19-piece band, part of a fresh wave of tickets going on sale this Friday. Ha*Ash and comedian Charlie Berens round out the newly announced shows.

— via Portland Mercury, EverOut Staff

Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in a A24 drama that treats "To Catch A Predator" as rotten at its core, ratings monster or not. Told through a queasy, neon-blotched lens, it follows the show's newest decoy into a machine built on shame, zeal and self-justification.

— via Portland Mercury, Dom Sinacola

Mayor Keith Wilson broke a tie for only the second time ever Wednesday, pushing through Zenith Energy's contract transfer to I Squared Capital without the enforcement measures the public demanded. Also: Portland's police chief now faces three state complaints, and a proposed tax tweak could pull $72 million a year from mega-corporations while zeroing out taxes for 18,000 small businesses.

— via Portland Mercury, Suzette Smith

Afro-psych at Turn! Turn! Turn!, a Crystal Ballroom homecoming for local dream-poppers, and a sold-out Tricky night: Portland's week in music, picked venue by venue, price by price, for anyone tired of algorithm slop.

— via Portland Mercury, Starly Lou Riggs and Holly Hazelwood

Mayor Keith Wilson broke a tied Council vote to hand a $50 billion investment firm control of Portland's most dangerous fossil fuel hub, after the same measure failed once already. An amendment letting the public sue over violations died first: the same enforcement gap advocates say let Zenith skirt the rules for a decade.

— via Portland Mercury, Jeremiah Hayden