Celebrity chef Michael Mina's Italian-inspired Bar Sprezzatura opened Oct. 16 at Portland's historic Heathman Hotel, bringing Venetian-style cocktails and dining to downtown as the landmark property prepares for its 100th anniversary.
Crime
View MoreThe FBI is offering up to $25,000 for information in the unsolved March 2023 shooting that killed Eskender Tamra, 17, Babu Daudi, 19, and Patrick Johnson, 20, in their car on North Foss Avenue in Portland's Portsmouth neighborhood.
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
More than 23,000 Multnomah County Medicare Advantage enrollees must find new coverage as Providence Health Plan shuts down, OHSU exits Regence networks and other insurers pull back before a Dec. 7 enrollment deadline.
Local Government
Portland's Clean Energy Fund is reimbursing small landscaping businesses up to $2,200 each to trade gas leaf blowers for electric models ahead of the city's 2028 year-round ban, with training sessions showing both the appeal and the growing pains of the switch.
Local Government
A community solar project on a former landfill near McDaniel High School aims to cut energy bills for 140 low-income East Portland households, with 130 enrollment spots still available and a February 2027 completion target.
Local Government
TriMet will replace MAX Yellow Line trains with shuttle buses between Interstate/Rose Quarter and Expo Center for a full week starting Oct. 25 to install expansion joints that prevent heat-related track problems.
Local Government
Portland's City of Portland Professional Workers union and the city submitted competing final offers to the state on Oct. 1, opening a 30-day cooling-off period that could end with a strike Sunday, Nov. 1, if a roughly $10.7 million gap between the two proposals is not closed.
Local Government
Portland's Office of Arts & Culture opens applications Wednesday, Oct. 14, for $105,000 in Cultural Vitality Sponsorships, with rolling grants of $2,000 to $20,000 for community arts groups too small to qualify for the city's larger funding programs.
Local Government
The U.S. Small Business Administration opened low-interest disaster loans of up to $2 million for small businesses and nonprofits in Multnomah County and 24 other Oregon counties affected by the summer 2026 wildfires, with no property damage required to qualify.
Education
View MorePortland State University will embed AI chatbots and peer tutors in high-attrition STEM and business courses under a nearly $3 million federal grant targeting first-generation and low-income students.
Education
View MoreThe Urban League of Portland's 2026 State of Black Oregon report shows Black voter participation nearly doubled since 2012, but the income gap with white households grew by $9,000 and Black teachers make up just 0.9% of Oregon's teaching workforce.
Education
View MorePortland State University cut the ribbon on the Jordan Schnitzer School of Art + Art History + Design on Oct. 13, opening a 106,000-square-foot mass-timber building that replaces a parking lot at the southern end of the South Park Blocks.
Education
View MorePortland State University assistant professor Josh Méndez burned more than 100 pickles in his downtown Portland lab and found that the decades-old glowing-pickle mystery has a hybrid answer: an electrical spark ignites hydrogen gas at the negative electrode.
Education
View MoreThe Portland Association of Teachers has launched a "pauseclosures" petition and sent a teacher and parent to KBOO radio to argue against closing up to 20 PPS schools, escalating organized opposition ahead of the district's expected October release of closure scenarios.
Education
View MoreA Portland State University forecast projects Multnomah County's senior population will outnumber children within a decade, a demographic shift driving PPS school closures, a Preschool for All seat surplus and evolving city spending priorities.
Public Safety
Portland Police Bureau homicide detectives are investigating after cleanup crews found human remains at two separate downtown homeless encampments within a week, with investigators saying the discoveries may involve one deceased person pending confirmation from the state medical examiner.
Public Safety
The emerald ash borer, confirmed in Portland in 2025, puts an estimated 94,000 ash trees at risk citywide, and the city is responding with chemical treatments, biocontrol wasps and a free tree giveaway program.
Public Safety
Family and community members gathered Oct. 6 to honor Geraldine Avery, Portland's first Black police matron, who died at 103 after a career that spanned wartime welding, barrier-breaking law enforcement and a sex discrimination lawsuit against the city.
Public Safety
Protesters broke at least one window at the LGBTQ+-owned Southeast Portland restaurant on Sunday, Oct. 4, after a social media call to rally against a private brunch they believed was booked by white nationalists. Portland police responded twice but made no arrests.
Community
View MoreThe Portland Bureau of Transportation wants to raise event-day street parking from $5.40 to $8 per hour in the Eliot neighborhood's Zone V permit area near Moda Center, where occupancy hits 96% during major events. The proposal, referred to the full City Council on Tuesday, Oct. 13, would not affect residents with Zone V permits.
Community
View MoreA new advocacy group called Music Craft Northwest says Portland's concentration of music instrument and gear manufacturers is several times the national average, and it plans to showcase the sector at a free launch event at the Jupiter Hotel on Saturday, Oct. 24.
Community
View MorePuddletown Theatre Collective, a new artist-owned LLC founded by Chase Davidson, opens Sunday evening with a free concert reading of the musical "Floyd Collins" at First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Portland, betting that profit-sharing and site-specific productions can pay theatre artists fairly.
Community
View MorePortland Parks & Recreation and APANO host a free Arbor Day celebration Saturday, Oct. 17, at Harrison Park in the Jade District, giving away hundreds of trees to residents along with food, music and bucket truck rides.
Business
Celebrity chef Michael Mina's Italian-inspired Bar Sprezzatura opened Oct. 16 at Portland's historic Heathman Hotel, bringing Venetian-style cocktails and dining to downtown as the landmark property prepares for its 100th anniversary.
Business
Casandra Hanson, a member of the Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs, opened Sahaptin Stories at 4181 SE Division St. on Sept. 26, giving Portland what may be its first bookstore dedicated to Indigenous authors and perspectives.
Business
JinJu Patisserie, Portland's 2025 James Beard Outstanding Bakery winner, soft-opens Wednesday, Oct. 21, at 3494 N Williams Ave. with a larger kitchen, new Korean-inspired menu items and five additional bakers.
Business
A grassroots four-day bar festival called Barmageddon kicks off Sunday across more than 40 Portland venues, filling the gap left by Portland Cocktail Week's 2026 hiatus, while the city's restaurant scene absorbs the permanent closures of OK Omens, Bistecca, and Function Brewing's two taprooms.
Sports
View MoreFourteen players from Portland-area high schools appear on The Oregonian/OregonLive's list of Oregon's best 6A boys soccer midfielders, led by Lincoln's UCLA-committed Andy Krapf and a six-player group from Central Catholic.
Sports
View MoreMcDaniel High School's girls cross country program fielded both a varsity and JV squad for the first time this fall, with captains Mira Shah and Mirai Ooglesbee posting personal records as OSAA state qualifying meets approach.
Sports
View MoreThe Cleveland Warriors girls soccer team opens Portland Interscholastic League play with a 5-3-1 record and a No. 15 OSAA ranking, powered by 21 combined goals from senior Ella Cohen and sophomore Stella Ahlemeyer.
Sports
View MoreThe Portland Trail Blazers opened training camp Tuesday with Damian Lillard and Ja Morant scrimmaging together for the first time, a surprise pep talk from 1977 champion Lionel Hollins, and first-year head coach Micah Nori's debut running practice.
Hip Hop
Barn Radio, an electronic music venue in Portland's Old Town, has hosted 300-plus artists from 30 countries in a 75-person space, but a GoFundMe campaign remains about $20,000 short of its $50,000 infrastructure goal.
Hip Hop
Photographer Norm Eder's six-year, 520-portrait project documenting Portland-area musicians gets its first public showing at The Old Church Concert Hall, with a free Oregon Health Plan workshop for artists on Oct. 22.
Hip Hop
Grant High School junior Gus Jeffers has built a self-taught pop and R&B career through Portland's youth music organizations, including Friends of Noise and the Life of Music mentorship program.
Hip Hop
Portland DJ and producer Juma Blaq co-leads The w(H)ealthy, an organizing group hosting community health walks through historic Albina neighborhoods, and appears on KBOO Radio on Thursday, Oct. 15.
Editor, Cascadia Wire Network
Roveena Chand Jassal is Surround Sound Media's very first news producer with a vibrant background in magazine and print journalism herself. Starting off in beauty and fashion at Women's Health Magazine and featuring my own mom and friends in an InStyle South Asian beauty traditions feature, I knew I had a passion for shining light on multicultural voices, especially growing up in the Chicago suburbs. After attending fashion shows in Miami and trying out products for Black Friday deals, I had a desire to do more serious reporting, and found myself being the youngest Punjabi Sikh journalist at Toronto Star. It was here where I really felt a connection to the diverse community I serve, from running around on the ground investigating international students being exploited for overpriced housing to amplifying those same students who have been able to find peace and confidence in the city's growing Hip Hop scene. I've had the opportunity to interview major celebrities, government officials, businesses, and creators, but what I enjoy most of all is being a contradicting human being because this truth is what allows me to pick and produce real stories that give a community true knowledge of their contradicting human being selves too.
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