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Portland Mercury

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It's the Return of Portland Mercury's Wiener Week!

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/15

From January 26 to February 1, you can chow down at 46 locations for just $8 a pop. by Mercury Promotions The Portland Mercury proudly welcomes back its newest, most mouthwatering member of the Food Week Family: Wiener Week! From January 26 to February 1, the city’s boldest chefs will craft their most creative, flavor-packed wieners for just $8 a pop. Whether you like ‘em spicy, saucy, or piled high with unexpected

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City Council Elects Jamie Dunphy as New President

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/15

Jeremiah Hayden by Jeremiah Hayden Technically, Portland City Council finally adjourned a meeting that began January 7 on January 14, after it elected Jamie Dunphy to serve as its president for 2026. Dunphy’s election came after some 13 hours of deliberation over three days stretched across a grueling week for Portland leaders and community members. City Council remained in a 6-6 tie through multiple meetings

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Update: City Councilor Apologizes After Lashing Out...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/15

Councilor Dan Ryan said he lacked appropriate context for a statement. Here are the receipts. by Jeremiah Hayden Updated January 15 Councilor Dan Ryan sent the Mercury an apology on January 15. Ryan: "With reflection, I know I wasn't my best self after a marathon Council session Wednesday, and I apologize for the unfair criticism I leveled at the Mercury and its reporter. Had I known what the text messages said,

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Swimming Through Trauma in The Chronology of Water

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

Kristen Stewart’s first feature film interprets Lidia Yuknavitch’s 2011 memoir through fragmentation and aquatic metaphor. by Lindsay Costello “I remember things in retinal flashes. Without order. Your life doesn’t happen in any kind of order… It’s all a series of fragments and repetitions and pattern formations. Language and water have this in common,” the Oregon-based author Lidia Yuknavitch writes in

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Mercury Music Picks: Dim Wit's Farewell Show and...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

Nolan Parker by Nolan Parker Underestimate Capricorn and Aquarius season at your own peril, friends. While there are fewer touring acts coming through town this time of year, it’s an excellent time to catch up on your locals. But what am I saying? We’ve got Uniiqu3, Steve Gunn, and Rehash gracing Portland with their presence this week! Plus a bunch of local talent to boot. Heads up: Mercury Music Picks is on break

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Good Morning, News: Racist Texts From Portland Power...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

by Taylor Griggs The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good morning, Portland! It's set to be sunny this afternoon after a foggy morning, with temps in the high 40s. More January sun is coming your way

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The Trump Administration Needs To Be Overthrown

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

by Anonymous This is a rage post so I'll keep it short. ICE arresting and holding Oglala Sioux tribal members is just one of many steps too far by this administration. The tribal leaders do not, under any circumstances, have to comply with ICE for anything. And they certainly don't need to sign an 'immigration agreement' to be able to find out what happened to their detained loved ones. This is beyond ridiculous.

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The god damn grind

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

by Anonymous I feel like I was in a pretty dark place a while back. Losing my house and everything I’d worked for and going all manic about everything like some tin foil hat nut job. If I had any friends back then, they must have had some kind of conversation about it. Like, hey man I’m really worried about him. I don’t know what he’s going through but it looks like he’s probably gonna end up hurt or in jail or worse. If he does make it

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Council Workers’ Union Complaint Alleges Loretta...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/14

The newly-formed Council Alliance of Workers union is calling on city councilors to uphold their commitment to labor rights in their own workplaces. by Taylor Griggs A new union representing Portland City Council aides and operations staff filed an unfair labor practice (ULP) complaint against the city for alleged anti-union conduct from Councilor Loretta Smith’s office. The complaint, filed January 13, alleges

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Is Marxism-Leninism European?

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

by Anonymous This is probably only funny to me as a first-gen American of Western European parents. I see a take sometimes that capitalism and Marxism-Leninism are both European imports which overshadow and undermine indigenous political thought, history, and practice. While it is true that they are imported, and that it is essential to people who want systemic change on Turtle Island to engage with local history rather than to valorize

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And You Run for Your Life And You Hide

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

by Anonymous I saw you running down the street full speed. You weren't wearing active wear, so I knew something was amiss (plus you were sprinting like your life depended on it). I was surprised when you suddenly stopped in front of a downtown apartment building and started frantically typing in the keypad. Maybe you were rushing to help a friend who's about to commit suicide I thought, or perhaps OD-ing. Nope! Just then another dude ran

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SAVAGE LOVE: Cissies

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

How to decode the behavior of cis het men. by Dan Savage I am a 45-year-old femme-presenting genderqueer AFAB person. When I have romantic relationships with cis het men, I’ve noticed two general types: They either enjoy sex and prioritize pleasure and making things fun for their partners and themselves, but make no special big deal about it, and we usually have frequent enough sex and that’s enjoyable and good. Or

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"Racist, Dehumanizing": Chat Images Show Portland...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

Messages obtained by the Mercury contain a slew of offensive tropes sent during a council president election by Jeremiah Hayden Updated at 2:30 pm January 13 As Portland city councilors engaged in a tense discussion about entrenched racism and changing power dynamics, an influential real estate broker was simultaneously exchanging texts with multiple people who used discriminatory language about councilors of

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Good Morning, News: A Potential Mask Ban For Law...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

by Courtney Vaughn If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is

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Everything is MAGA

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

by Anonymous Eventually these dipshits will lose and they’ll all try to go back to pretending to be model citizens or some gross shit, but it’s just fucking this was everywhere right now. We learned about nazis. We all agreed nazis were bad, but a barely veiled group all did a special nod and said, yeah but we’ll do it better next time. These are people I grew up with. Teachers, bosses, community members that you would have wanted to

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So, we're still doing this, huh?

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/13

by Anonymous This whole "talk about politics on the internet" as if it makes a difference thing? We're still doing this? We think the things we say on the internet matter to literally anyone? We think if we craft the perfect anti-Trump argument, maybe one person will change their mind? I mean listen, go ahead. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm just saying it's worse than internet porn. Because at least with internet porn, you

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Dems need backbone infusion!

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/12

by Anonymous Last Tuesday, one of the 10 richest people in the world said he's "perfectly fine" with a proposed 5% wealth tax in California. Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, said he has not "not even thought about it once", even though he himself would be on the hook for $8 billion! The next day, it was announced that Oregon's 2025 transportation funding package is headed for repeal because the Legislature could not raise taxes to pay

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The Mercury’s Do This, Do That: Your Top Events for...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/12

This week: Ghibli favorites, medieval books, and Steve Gunn's ambient guitar. by Lindsay Costello The news is bleak, the nights are long. Yet somehow... the calendar is still stacked. January is when culture gets weird in the best way; this week, medieval manuscripts emerge from the vault, and camp horror and queer literature come out to play. Plus, artist Elizabeth Knight presents her dog embroideries, and local

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Terry Dactyl Traces Queer Survival From the AIDS...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/12

Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore’s signature style rolls and whirls with long sentences—descriptions as artfully enduring as her characters. by Katie Lee Ellison [This profile originally appeared in our sister pub The Stranger. -eds] Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore takes long and meandering walks through Capitol Hill most days. From the height of summer to the depths of winter, if the sun is out, she’s soaking

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Submit a FREE Mercury Reader's Valentine for Your...

Portland Mercury ·

2026/01/12

Or friend, or sex pal, or pet... that's up to you! by Wm. Steven Humphrey Are you in love? In lust? In a complicated situationship that started because of a drunken and convenient New Year's Eve kiss, but now you're ready to take things to the next level by publicly declaring your adoration in the permanency of newsprint? Good news, the Mercury's reader Valentines are back, and NOW is the time to submit your

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