Good morning, Portland. Crank up that space heater and click these links.
So, out in print yesterday, here's our annual collection of the best/worst of (now former) Mayor Charlie Hales' voicemails over the past year. People called Hales, a staffer transcribed or summarized the messages, we got ahold of those transcriptions, and sifted through more than 450 pages of them to bring you this. An example:
June 15, unidentified male: I just listened to Charlie Hales’ interpretation of the Second Amendment to the Constitution? This guy must be brain-dead. Was Charlie Hales really elected as mayor of Portland, Oregon? Charlie Hales has just been nominated for the Stupidity Award for 2016.
It's been very, very cold. Mayor Ted Wheeler announced yesterday that he'd open the Portland Building as a severe weather homeless shelter last night: "The 90-bed shelter will be set up in the mezzanine level of the building, the city government's administrative heart, says Wheeler spokesperson Michael Cox, and will be staffed by staffers for shelter provider Transitions Projects Inc. (TPI)—along with any city employees interested in helping the effort." If you want to help, here's where you can donate items to unsheltered Portlanders.
Speaking of Wheeler, his inauguration was yesterday at Jason Lee Elementary School. Here's a Portland Tribune story on that.
And speaking of the cold, some guy is accused of locking his three children out of their apartment, and assaulting two of them, on Tuesday night after returning home from a bar. "They were not dressed sufficiently for the below-freezing temperatures,"the Oregonian reports.
Portland Timbers captain Liam Ridgewell's Lake Oswego drunken driving case is going to get tossed by prosecutors after a judge agreed last month to suppress evidence. Apparently Lake Oswego cops gathered evidence against him improperly.
There was a fire yesterday afternoon at Hotel Alder, which has low-income housing. About 90 people were displaced. Everybody survived.
Per @PDXFire - Several reports of residents unable to evacuate at Hotel Alder building. Firefighters attempting rescues. pic.twitter.com/XC7djfkLGJ
— Katherine Cook (@KCookKGW) January 4, 2017
ODOT did a sweep of a homeless camp on SE 92nd and Flavel Tuesday morning.
The Portland Tribune got records of an investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice into the director of the Oregon Educators Benefits Board, who "repeatedly bent or broke state rules pertaining to spending, use of state cars, awarding contracts and being wined and dined by contractors." Solid reporting.
ESPN published a long story yesterday about the Portland Trail Blazers struggling this season after a bad offseason. The Blazers signed Festus Ezeli, who's been hurt and, apparently, has been annoying:
It didn't take long for the harsh realization to hit the locker room: Ezeli wasn't likely to play a game as a Trail Blazer this season, maybe never. At some point this season, it is expected Ezeli will undergo season-ending surgery, league sources told ESPN.For some within the franchise, this route has been puzzling and difficult to digest. On the road last month, during one of the team's toughest stretches of the season, the frustration spilled outwardly.
After suffering a challenging, 115-107 loss to Milwaukee, Ezeli, in street clothes, addressed the team in the locker room with a stern speech centered on playing with urgency, sources told ESPN. Then two games later, after a crushing defeat in Memphis, Ezeli once again started giving a team speech, but he was cut short.
McCollum interrupted Ezeli in midsentence and told him that was enough, sources told ESPN. Portland was in the midst of an emotionally draining December, losing 11 of 13 games. Players were desperately pouring out every ounce of effort trying to change the trajectory of the season, and being lectured by someone who wasn't even playing wasn't received favorably.
If you haven't been following people on "Weird Twitter," you may not know about "comedian" Dan Nainan, who's been trying (often successfully) to pass himself in the media as a 35-year-old "millennial." He's 55 and a fraud:
My story: Dan Nainan has been telling every newspaper he can find he's 35. He's 55.
That's the least weird part.https://t.co/jBbNBIn2EZ
— Ben Collins (@oneunderscore__) January 5, 2017