Education
Nearly 300 Prescott Elementary students voted on colors for a new mural at the Parkrose School District office, with a community painting event open to all set for Saturday, Sept. 12.
Education
Nearly 300 Prescott Elementary students voted on colors for a new mural at the Parkrose School District office, with a community painting event open to all set for Saturday, Sept. 12.
Community
Sonic Silents, a new four-night festival at Portland's Hollywood Theatre Sept. 17–20, pairs classic silent films with live original scores by musicians including members of the Decemberists and Los Lobos, building to a centennial screening of Buster Keaton's Oregon-filmed "The General."
Education
Portland City Council voted 8-4 on Wednesday to advance planning for a new 3,000-seat performing arts venue at Portland State University, choosing the PSU campus over renovating the aging Keller Auditorium. The city administrator's office has until Dec. 1 to finalize a deal with PSU, but no city dollars have been committed yet.
Crime
View MoreA 48-year-old man died at the Multnomah County Inverness Jail on Thursday, Aug. 20, after a medical event in his cell, marking the second in-custody death in seven days and the third at county facilities in 2026.
Crime
View MorePortland fire investigators have not determined what caused the Aug. 2 Centennial Mills fire, but two neighborhood theories have emerged — homeless squatters and possible anti-ICE arson — as a Friday, Aug. 14 demolition deadline nears and K9 teams have flagged likely human remains in the rubble.
Crime
View MoreA Multnomah County judge sentenced Wayne Conrad Thompson to life in prison with a 25-year minimum for the 2021 shooting death of Adrian Richardson aboard a TriMet bus on SE Hawthorne Boulevard; Thompson's defense plans to appeal.
Crime
View MorePortland Police Bureau announced three drug enforcement operations on Thursday, Aug. 6, that resulted in multiple arrests and seizures of fentanyl and methamphetamine, the latest in a series of major narcotics busts the bureau has conducted across the city in 2026.
Crime
View MoreMultnomah County Judge Melvin Oden-Orr sentenced Marquavious Dovontae Ware, 23, to concurrent prison terms totaling 75 months for second-degree manslaughter in the death of his son Jahorden Clay, whose autopsy revealed cigarette burns, broken ribs, and severe malnutrition. The case has renewed scrutiny of Oregon's Department of Human Services, which closed an abuse report two weeks before the boy died.
Local Government
A Street Roots analysis finds only 31% of people offered shelter during Portland camping ban sweeps have accepted, as the city has cleared more than 6,000 encampments since November 2025 and shelter beds are being cut.
Local Government
Emails obtained by Willamette Week show Mayor Keith Wilson rejected a full fee waiver for Portland's Rose Festival and Waterfront Blues Festival, offering a 50% discount for 2026 as both events warn they cannot sustain current costs at Tom McCall Waterfront Park.
Local Government
The Jade Apartments, a 40-unit affordable housing development co-built by APANO and Gorman & Co., opened in Powellhurst-Gilbert as the seventh and final Metro Housing Bond project to open in Portland in 2026.
Local Government
The 9th Circuit ruled Portland State University may have violated the First Amendment when it suspended Cal Jamison McCollough for a vulgar anti-vaccine email, sending the case back to district court.
Local Government
The Multnomah County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Aug. 27 to push a scheduled 0.8% Preschool for All income tax increase back one year to Jan. 1, 2028, choosing a shorter delay than the two years their advisory group recommended.
Local Government
District 3 Councilor Tiffany Koyama Lane submitted an ordinance on Aug. 26 to expand Portland's Mandatory Renter Relocation Assistance program, boosting payments to landlord-evicted renters with school-age children during the school year.
Local Government
The Safer Portland campaign has hired former Trump DOJ attorney Abhishek Kambli to press its federal lawsuit challenging the disqualification of its police-hiring ballot initiative, escalating a local elections dispute with national conservative legal firepower.
Education
View MoreNearly 300 Prescott Elementary students voted on colors for a new mural at the Parkrose School District office, with a community painting event open to all set for Saturday, Sept. 12.
Education
View MorePortland City Council voted 8-4 on Wednesday to advance planning for a new 3,000-seat performing arts venue at Portland State University, choosing the PSU campus over renovating the aging Keller Auditorium. The city administrator's office has until Dec. 1 to finalize a deal with PSU, but no city dollars have been committed yet.
Education
View MoreFive of seven Portland school board members have directed Superintendent Kimberlee Armstrong to plan for closing up to 20 schools, double the spring estimate, as the district faces a projected $65.2 million budget gap and the teachers union mounts organized opposition.
Education
View MoreA former PPS principal removed after a student ingested crack cocaine at Arleta K-8 in 2019 now appears as a kindergarten teacher at Sitton Elementary under a new name, KOIN 6 reports, and the district has not explained how she returned to a classroom.
Education
View MoreTIME magazine ranked Portland State University No. 189 nationally and the highest-scoring public university in Oregon in its inaugural "America's Best Colleges 2027" list, which weights student outcomes at 75%.
Education
View MoreA new PSU Population Research Center forecast projects Portland Public Schools enrollment will fall 14% over the next decade, with high school enrollment already in decline, as the district prepares to discuss closing up to 10 schools this fall.
Public Safety
TriMet's MAX light rail celebrates 40 years on Sept. 5, but the anniversary comes amid a $300 million budget shortfall and the largest service cuts since 2020, with a state survey closing Sept. 10 that could shape transportation funding in the 2027 legislative session.
Public Safety
Portland Police Bureau released body-worn camera footage on Aug. 26 from the Aug. 12 incident in which Lt. Brent Maxey struck armed suspect Joshua R. Kuras with a police vehicle at 3-5 mph during a foot pursuit in Northwest Portland, triggering a deadly force investigation.
Public Safety
Federal prosecutors announced more than 100 fentanyl trafficking charges in downtown Portland since 2023, with seizures topping 100 kilograms of fentanyl, 40 firearms and $1.3 million in a joint FBI-PPB operation.
Public Safety
PBOT activated a $1.1 million pedestrian hybrid beacon on West Burnside at St. Clair Avenue, closing a 1,000-foot signal gap on one of Portland's deadliest corridors, but the Better Burnside Coalition warns that concurrent repaving without a street redesign could increase vehicle speeds.
Public Safety
A ruptured valve sent 115 gallons of heavy acid flowing inside a North Portland warehouse on Tuesday, Aug. 18, the second major chemical incident in the area in eight days, prompting a hazmat response and leaving regulatory compliance questions unanswered.
Public Safety
Portland's Safe Blocks program held six community events in July 2026, including resource fairs, self-defense workshops at two libraries and a National Night Out celebration at Director Park that drew city and county leaders alongside a dozen public safety organizations.
Public Safety
Multnomah County's July 2026 health inspection results show 14 Portland restaurants scoring below 90, with Poke Qube, King Burrito Mexican Food and The Slammer Tavern scraping by in the low 70s, while more than 75 establishments earned perfect 100s.
Community
View MoreSonic Silents, a new four-night festival at Portland's Hollywood Theatre Sept. 17–20, pairs classic silent films with live original scores by musicians including members of the Decemberists and Los Lobos, building to a centennial screening of Buster Keaton's Oregon-filmed "The General."
Community
View MoreThe Letty Owings Center, a residential treatment program where mothers could recover alongside their children, will close permanently by the end of October, leaving a gap in Portland's addiction treatment options.
Community
View MoreSwan Songs Portland, a nonprofit that sends professional musicians to play free concerts for hospice and memory-care patients, hit its highest monthly concert count in July 2026 and holds a $20 fundraising concert Sept. 17 at Artichoke Music.
Community
View MoreThe Portland Craft Chocolate Festival returns Oct. 2–4 at the Olympic Mills Building with more than 40 makers and a new chocolate chip cookie competition judged by Mayor Keith Wilson and local food industry figures.
Community
View MoreSellwood Community House will reopen the 1920s Laurelhurst Studio on Sept. 26 under a $1-per-year lease from Portland Parks & Recreation, marking the third city-owned building the nonprofit has rescued from Portland's deferred-maintenance backlog.
Community
View MoreResearchers with the Portland Crow Roost project are tracking about 1,500 crows near Pioneer Courthouse Square as the annual fall roost reassembles, with the flock expected to top 20,000 by winter.
Business
Alberta Donut Cafe plans to open in fall 2026 at 2805 NE Alberta St., bringing craft donuts, specialty coffee and ice cream to a storefront previously home to Angel's and Tonalli's donut shops.
Business
Rose City Social Club, a Roaring Twenties-themed speakeasy, opened Saturday, Aug. 29, at 203 S.E. Grand Ave. in Portland's Central Eastside, replacing Doc Marie's, the city's only lesbian bar, which closed in October 2025 amid a wave of LGBTQ+ bar closures.
Business
Portland Syrups, a SE Portland drink-mixer company, lost more than $50,000 in Canadian orders overnight after the U.S.-Canada trade war escalated, compounding over $100,000 in prior tariff losses on imported ingredients.
Business
Portland's Converge 45 arts triennial opens Thursday under new director Amanda Donnan and curator Lumi Tan, who scrapped the imported-blockbuster model in favor of works commissioned specifically for Portland across more than 15 venues.
Business
Bossa, a Brazilian cafe and cocktail bar owned by Emanuelle and Tilion Lieberman, plans to open in mid-October at 305 NW 21st Ave. in Northwest Portland, bringing specialty coffee, Brazilian street food, and nightlife programming to a space vacant since 2022.
Business
Jade Rabbit, Portland's queer-run, worker-owned vegan Pan-Asian restaurant, reopens Thursday, Aug. 27, at 3632 SE Hawthorne Blvd. in a larger space with expanded dim sum and teahouse offerings.
Business
After a customer in mental health crisis kicked through the glass door at Heretic Coffee on SE 28th Avenue, Portland's nonprofit coffee shop stayed open and the community raised more than $10,000 in less than a day to keep its free-meal mission alive.
Sports
View MoreThe Portland Timbers host Minnesota United at Providence Park on Saturday, Sept. 5, trailing the Loons by one point for the Western Conference's final playoff spot after a stoppage-time loss to Austin FC.
Sports
View MoreThe Portland Timbers lost 2-1 to Austin FC on Saturday night at Providence Park after conceding a stoppage-time goal, dropping to 11th in the Western Conference in their first home defeat under manager Martí Cifuentes and first match without sold striker Kevin Kelsy.
Sports
View MorePortland State built a 21-0 halftime lead over No. 6 UC Davis at Hillsboro Stadium on Saturday, Aug. 29, but the Aggies scored 31 unanswered second-half points to win 31-24 in the Big Sky Conference opener for both teams.
Sports
View MoreSix Portland Fire players representing France, Spain, Germany and Nigeria head to the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup in Berlin starting Friday, Sept. 4, giving Portland fans teammate-vs.-teammate matchups to watch during a nearly three-week WNBA break.
Sports
View MoreNike and RAJ Sports unveiled a multiyear partnership that will bring free sports clinics, camps and gear to Portland girls while embedding Nike expertise inside the new Kaiser Permanente Performance Center shared by the Thorns and Fire.
Sports
View MoreThe WNBA denounced "bad-faith" efforts to stoke a transgender athlete debate on Wednesday, Aug. 12, in direct response to former Portland Trail Blazer Enes Kanter Freedom and ex-NBA player Royce White declaring for the 2027 WNBA draft.
Hip Hop
The Artist Mentorship Program, which served 20,000 meals and hosted 1,500 recording sessions for homeless youth last year, is moving to a facility three times its current size in Northwest Portland and hosting a two-night fundraising festival Sept. 11-12 at The Star Theater.
Hip Hop
The 13th Annual Montavilla Jazz Festival runs Sept. 4–6 across Portland neighborhood venues with 25 shows, headlined by six women presenting original themed programs including an album debut, a feminist Orpheus reimagining, and a tribute to late Portland jazz icon Nancy King.
Hip Hop
A new mural at My Voice Music's East Portland headquarters features a hidden rabbit honoring late co-founder Ian Mouser, whose nickname among bandmates was "The Rabbit." The unveiling anchors a free block party Sunday, Aug. 30, that also debuts a mobile recording studio.
Hip Hop
Vince Staples closed out PDX Live's fifth season at Pioneer Courthouse Square on Aug. 20 with a punk-band performance of his album Cry Baby, turning Portland's central public square into a sweaty, genre-bending experiment.
Hip Hop
Portland Monthly profiles Queso Queso, the anonymous son of Guatemalan immigrants whose municipal-style tags have blanketed the metro area and made him a local folk hero connecting lucha libre culture, the Chicano Movement and immigration politics to Portland's streets.
Hip Hop
A benefit concert for Oregon music documentary 'No Quiet Hours' lands at Crystal Ballroom on Aug. 28 with seven bands and zero Hip Hop acts, raising a familiar question about whose music counts as Oregon history.
Hip Hop
The Off Beat, Portland's first dedicated all-ages music venue in over a decade, opened in Kenton's former Dancin' Bare strip club in February, giving young Hip Hop artists a 400-capacity, alcohol-free stage where they can perform and get paid.
Roveena Chand Jassal is the editor of the Cascadia Wire Network, producing community relevant news for residents living in the Portland and Seattle suburbs.
Roveena Chand Jassal is the editor of the Cascadia Wire Network, producing community relevant news for residents living in the Portland and Seattle suburbs.
Roveena Chand Jassal is the editor of the Cascadia Wire Network, producing community relevant news for residents living in the Portland and Seattle suburbs.
Rose City Beat
Powered by Surround Sound Media
Copyright © 2026. Rose City Beat. All Rights Reserved.
Rose City Beat
Powered by Surround Sound Media
Copyright © 2026. Rose City Beat. All Rights Reserved.
Rose City Beat
Powered by Surround Sound Media
Copyright © 2026. Rose City Beat. All Rights Reserved.