Murmurs: Portland Podcaster Teams Up With RFK Jr.

PORTLAND PODCASTER TEAMS UP WITH RFK JR.: Bret Weinstein, Portland’s best-known COVID vaccine skeptic, released a podcast with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on June 29, spending almost three hours talking to the scion of the Kennedy dynasty, who says childhood vaccines cause autism, Sirhan B. Sirhan didn’t kill his father, 5G cell towers are being built to control our behavior, and Anthony Fauci and Bill Gates conspired with Big Pharma to profit from COVID vaccines. (None of these claims is true.) Weinstein, a former professor at The Evergreen State College, became a right-wing celebrity during the pandemic after going on Joe Rogan’s podcast and touting a livestock medicine called ivermectin as a cure for COVID, a claim that has been disproven by multiple studies (“Drug & Pony Show,” WW, Sept. 15, 2021). Weinstein interviewed Kennedy on his DarkHorse Podcast in November 2021 but didn’t release the episode until last week. Weinstein didn’t say why, and he didn’t return a call or email seeking comment. On Twitter, though, he said he’s “enjoying the conspiracy theorizing that has ensued.” The episode was a lovefest. “I simply appreciate your commitment to doing what is necessary in spite of the costs,” Weinstein told Kennedy. “I regard you as a patriot, I know that I’m a patriot, and as one patriot to another I appreciate what you’ve done for us.”

COUNTY SETTLES PROSECUTOR’S GENDER DISCRIMINATION COMPLAINT: Nicole Harris, a veteran Multnomah County prosecutor with 20 years experience, accused District Attorney Mike Schmidt of gender discrimination in a draft legal complaint sent to his office in March and recently obtained by WW. She demanded a $550,000 settlement to drop the accusations. In recent weeks, she received $125,000, half from the county and half from Schmidt’s employer, the state. A spokeswoman for the office, Liz Merah, says settling was the most financially responsible option. “Settling this case provides closure and allows us to move on as an agency,” she tells WW. Harris’ last day with the office was June 1. A law firm commissioned by the county to look into Harris’ complaints determined they were unfounded. Harris is the second prosecutor to threaten the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office with a gender discrimination lawsuit in the past year. Former prosecutor Amber Kinney filed a tort claim notice with the office last July, saying she was repeatedly passed over for promotion and retaliated against when she spoke out about the office’s failure to promote women. Harris’ 39-page draft legal complaint makes similar accusations, although in much more detail. In a statement to WW, Harris said, “I am proud of my lengthy career in the DA’s office and I hope that the fact that I and others have raised these issues will make the path to leadership easier for younger women who want to be career DA’s.”

BRAIN INJURY BILL PASSES: Among the many pieces of legislation that breathed new life when Senate Republicans returned to work June 15 was Senate Bill 420, which will create a new brain injury resource navigation center within the Oregon Department of Human Services. Prior to the bill’s last-minute passage June 22, Oregon was one of just 11 states that did not provide residents with a central coordinating agency for the many services that people suffering from brain injuries and their families may need. As WW reported earlier this year, Oregon also lags behind nearly every state in providing specialized rehabilitation services for brain injuries—and big health care providers want to keep it that way (“Free Fall,” Jan. 18). David Kracke, Oregon’s brain injury advocate coordinator, implored lawmakers to create such assistance within DHS. SB 420 overwhelmingly passed both chambers after Republicans returned and will get startup funding of about $2.3 million in the next biennium. “It’s really great news,” Kracke says.

DEQ FINES OWNERS OF FLAMING TIRE PILE: The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality fined the owners of a defunct grain terminal on the Willamette River $13,600 for storing tons of shredded tires in open-air piles without a permit. DEQ’s action comes a month after the pile burst into flames, spewing acrid smoke in the middle of Portland. The pile reignited at least three more times as hot spots in the pile flared anew. The owners of the pile, Beau Blixseth and Chandos Mahon, load the tire shreds onto ships bound for Asia, where they are burned for fuel. Blixseth is the son of Tim Blixseth, a Roseburg timber baron who pivoted to hospitality and started the ultra-exclusive Yellowstone Club near Bozeman, Mont. In a letter to Blixseth and Mahon, DEQ compliance manager Kieran O’Donnell said the agency had erred by not requiring a waste-tire storage permit for the site before the fires. “DEQ recognizes that it previously communicated that a waste tire storage site permit was not required for storage of chipped tires at this facility,” O’Donnell wrote. “Those communications were in error as applicable rules do require a permit for the storage of 200 or more cubic yards of chipped waste tires.” Neither Blixseth nor Mahon returned messages seeking comment.

FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: WW reporter Sophie Peel was named 2021 Rookie of the Year by the Oregon chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. The award honors the reporter who excelled in their first full-time journalism job. (The chapter fell behind in bestowing awards during the pandemic, and in June announced its 2021 winners.) Peel was recognized for her work covering Portland’s heat islands, the failure to keep impoverished seniors housed, and the rocky launches of venture capital-backed startups. SPJ also noted her later work from this year: the exposure of Secretary of State Shemia Fagan’s moonlighting for a troubled cannabis company, which caused Fagan to resign.