7/23/2023 News Roundup

SHOOTING <<Gunfire erupted inside Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Northwest Portland Saturday morning, leaving one security guard dead in the aftermath. After an hours-long search for the shooter, the suspect died in an officer-involved shooting in Gresham. The incident began around 11 a.m. when the shots were fired on the 5th floor of the Irving …

7/22/2023 News Roundup

HOMELESSNESS <<Urban Alchemy describes itself as a job-creation program for formerly incarcerated people. It was cofounded in 2018 by Lena Miller, a PhD in psychology who has spent decades on a mission to heal the affliction of violence in urban communities. She says that the traumas that the formerly incarcerated have experienced increase their emotional …

7/21/2023 News Roundup

DEFUNDING <<A John Day police funding ballot measure couldn’t muster enough support last year, and with the sheriff’s office feeling the effects of the fallout, Grant County leaders are debating whether to return to the ballot box. The judge and commissioners of the Grant County Court, the county government’s top elected body, discussed putting a …

7/20/2023 News Roundup

NOT COPS <<Dozens of Portland nonprofits, businesses, advocacy groups and state lawmakers are urging the city’s elected officials to fully fund and expand Portland Street Response, the city program that sends mental health workers — instead of police — to 911 calls related to people having behavioral health crises outside. The coalition released a petition …

7/16/2023 News Roundup

PRISON CLOSURE << Larch Corrections Center, a Washington State Prison, is set to close in October, according to the state’s Department of Corrections. At the time, the officials explained this decision was due to a decline in the statewide prison population, and a surplus of minimum security beds. However, since the news nearly three weeks …

7/15/2023 News Roundup

HOMELESSNESS <<A 48-year-old man was indicted this week for shooting at three people at a southwest Portland homeless camp in March, according to the Multnomah County District Attorney on Friday. Ryan S. Fardreamer was indicted by a grand jury on Monday for 12 charges that include attempted murder, assault and robbery.>> <<Witnesses told police that …

7/14/2023 News Roundup

DEATH SQUAD <<A federal lawsuit alleges police in Washington state had no plan other than to use deadly force against a fugitive who was on the run in 2020 after shooting a supporter of a far-right group during clashes between supporters of then-President Donald Trump and Black Lives Matter in the streets of Portland, Oregon. …

7/13/2023 News Roundup

REINOEHL <<The estate of a man shot and killed by a U.S. Marshals task force Sept. 3, 2020 is suing over his death, alleging the officers had no plan to arrest him without using deadly force. Officers killed Michael Forest Reinoehl while attempting to arrest him in front of an apartment complex in Lacey, Washington, …

7/2/2023 News Roundup

LEGALIZATION <<Thorne cites a half-dozen hurdles for anyone trying to make a living with psilocybin: competition from physicians if psilocybin wins Food and Drug Administration approval (it’s in Phase 3 trials); opposition from pharmaceutical companies that are working to get those approvals; high costs for running a psilocybin service center; black-market competition; and growing religious …

7/1/2023 News Roundup

POLICE SHOOTINGS <<A man fatally shot by police after firing at them in a Vancouver Safeway parking lot in May was carrying a 9mm handgun and a handwritten robbery note and had a wig, burglary tools and a pipe bomb in his car, investigators said Friday. James Wilson, 43, had active warrants for his arrest …