Skip to main content
FENTANYL DEALERS MUST SEE JUDGE: A document quietly published on Multnomah County Circuit Court’s website Friday outlines significant changes to how the court decides whether to hold criminal defendants in jail pending trial, a process known as “pretrial release.” The most notable change: Anyone charged with dealing fentanyl will be held in jail until “first appearance” in court, when a judge can set bail. “It is the intent of this Presiding Judge...that offenses involving the manufacture or delivery of fentanyl should be held for appearance in court and not released,” the document, signed by Multnomah County Presiding Judge Judith Matarazzo, reads. The change is intended to address a glaring problem first identified by WW a year ago: The Multnomah County criminal justice system has struggled to ensure criminal defendants show up in court. In Multnomah County, fentanyl dealers are booked and immediately released from jail only to return to the activity on downtown Portland street corners that got them arrested in the first place, as WW first reported last summer (“License to Deal,” June 28, 2023). Matarazzo’s order goes into effect Aug. 1.
MAPPS OWES $17,000 TO CAMPAIGN VENDORS: City Commissioner Mingus Mapps’ campaign to become Portland’s next mayor continues to flounder. Campaign finance databases show Mapps owes $17,000 to vendors but has only $2,800 on hand to pay those bills. Still, Mapps says he has no intention of suspending his campaign, despite his shot looking longer by the month. Mapps says he’s waiting to unlock $100,000 in matching funds from the city’s Small Donors Election program to pay the invoices—to qualify, he needs 750 individual small contributions. Mapps estimates he currently has around 720. He says he’s been distracted from the campaign trail by pressing city needs: renewing the gas tax, budget season, and the city’s transition to a new form of government.
GONZALEZ GETS NOD FROM PUBLIC SAFETY UNIONS: City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez received endorsements this week from two of the city’s most powerful labor unions: the Portland Police Association and the Portland Fire Fighters’ Association. The endorsements come as no surprise: Gonzalez received the endorsements of both public safety unions in his 2022 campaign to unseat incumbent Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty, despite her overseeing the fire bureau at the time. “Partnering with our public safety professionals is essential to restoring Portland’s status as one of America’s safest cities,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “I am thrilled to have the support of our city’s first responders.” Meanwhile, Gonzalez has outraised his top opponent in the mayoral race, fellow Commissioner Carmen Rubio, by nearly 2 to 1.
NEW SALVO IN KMART SITE BATTLE: The long-running fight over a shipping warehouse in the Argay Terrace neighborhood intensified this week as a group of environmental organizations called on the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals to review the city of Portland’s decision to issue building permits for the project. Neighbors for Clean Air, 1000 Friends of Oregon, and the Northwest Environmental Defense Center filed the petition with LUBA on Monday to stop San Francisco-based Prologis from building the warehouse on the site of the old Kmart on Northeast 122nd Avenue. Throughout the battle, which began in 2022, Argay residents have argued that the facility’s 37 new loading bays would drive more freight-truck traffic into a neighborhood that’s already blighted by it. The area just north of the site, across Sandy Boulevard, is lined with shipping warehouses. This one would be built south of Sandy, bordering apartment complexes, houses and schools. “The city has repeatedly failed to ensure off-site impacts would be addressed before issuing the permits,” said Annette Stanhope, chair of the Historic Parkrose Neighborhood Association. “For over two years, our concerns about the negative impacts from the Prologis development, including diesel truck pollution and increased semi-truck traffic near our students’ schools, still have not been evaluated and addressed. LUBA is our last opportunity to have the community’s voice heard before this facility is completed.” Prologis said in a statement: “We have worked cooperatively with the city and the community for over two years on this project and believe that the LUBA appeal has no basis. Throughout this process, we have followed all government requirements and stayed in close communication with the city.”
PROGRESSIVE COALITION SEEKS ABORTION RIGHTS AMENDMENT: On June 24, exactly two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a coalition of progressive organizations launched a campaign to enshrine abortion rights in the Oregon Constitution. The coalition will gather signatures for a November 2026 ballot initiative that would amend a section of the constitution that prohibits discrimination “on account of sex,” by defining that term to include anything related to pregnancy, gender, sexual orientation, and any health-related decisions. The move comes amid fierce national debate over abortion access, transgender health care, especially for minors, and, in some cases, access to birth control and in vitro fertilization. “At a time when extremist politicians are rolling back the clock on LGBTQ+ rights nationally, it’s beyond time to cement Oregon’s place as the safest place in the U.S. to be queer,” Evelyn Kocher, a chief petitioner for the measure, said in a statement. The petitioners need to gather more than 160,000 signatures to qualify for the ballot.