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, th ere is no us. Thanks for your support! Good morning, Portland! The rain continues today, though the soaking weather may, kindly, pause for most of the day and return at night. So your concerns might be less about the rainy trek to and from work, and more about potential flooding. Falling asleep to the sound of rain is one of life's greatest pleasures, IMO, but not so much when you're worried about floods.  Onto the news. (By the way, my fellow newsies helped me out a bit with this morning's roundup, as you'll see. Expect more collabs during this crazy week, when we're all trying to get a million things done before everything stops next week.)  IN LOCAL NEWS:  • Oregon recently passed a law—the POWER Act—requiring data centers to pay for their own, growing energy costs, hoping to avoid spikes in residential power rates for state residents who never asked for all these data centers. But Portland General Electric, which is Oregon's largest electric utility company, appears to want regular Oregonians to foot the data centers' bills. PGE has a plan that would place new electricity cost burdens on state residents for the vast majority of a data center's lifespan. For some reason, this plan warrants consideration from Oregon Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to decide this spring whether or not PGE can carry out its little maneuver. Laws: They only work if you enforce them! Read more from the Oregon Capital Chronicle's Alex Baumhardt here.  • The Oregon Government Ethics Commission has launched an investigation into half of the Portland City Council over a meeting held back in August. As reported by the Oregonian, six councilors—all of whom happen to be part of a progressive caucus—are being investigated for meeting in private to allegedly discuss stripping funds from the city’s economic development agency, Prosper Portland. The six councilors included the investigation are Candace Avalos, Jamie Dunphy, Sameer Kanal, Angelita Morillo, Mitch Green, and Tiffany Koyama Lane. By law, a quorum of the Council cannot hold a private meeting. While the 12-person Council needs seven votes to pass any legislation, the meeting likely included a quorum of at least one Council policy committee. COURTNEY VAUGHN  • A federal judge in Oregon on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from fining states millions of dollars over erroneous SNAP payments—a big win for Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield and lawful permanent residents across the country. Last month, Oregon and New York led a lawsuit alongside 20 other states against the US Department of Agriculture after it issued guidance that would pull SNAP benefits from green card holders. That's good news for tens of thousands of legal residents who are eligible for benefits under the law, and also for state coffers, which could have paid out millions in fines to the federal government for mistakenly issuing payments it could not avoid paying. You can read about the lawsuit here. JEREMIAH HAYDEN • Police ID’d the man who died last week during a burglary at a convenience store. Santi Ram Rai, 33, of Portland, was shot and killed around 5:20 pm last Tuesday, December 9 while working at 3D’s Market at SE 139th and Mill Street. Rai left behind a wife and two young kids. KATU reports he was the sole income provider for the family, and was well-known among the local Nepalese community. Police haven’t identified a suspect yet. COURTNEY VAUGHN  • You need stuff to do this week. We've got you covered with Do This, Do That. Aren't we a good pair? Here's a taste of what's on our radars. TONIGHT: The Hollywood Theatre hosts the Psychotronic After School Special, involving bizarre, festive 16mm footage. TOMORROW: Karaoke from Hell's 33rd (and a third) anniversary party at the Star Theater. SATURDAY: The Mall Rats Holiday Art Market at the Lloyd Center. Also this weekend: Meet Asian Santa at Lan Su Chinese Garden, or check out the Milagro Theatre's cultural Christmas celebration on Sunday. MORE HERE.  • I regret to say that David Sedaris, once among my top five literary idols, has officially jumped the shark. I don't really recommend reading his piece in the New Yorker about his recent experience getting bitten by a dog in Portland, which is less a funny article and more a series of tired, boring complaints about people who are addicted to drugs and those defend them. Christen McCurdy's recap of Sedaris' article in Willamette Week is a much better read, with a funnier title. As McCurdy explains, Sedaris has been on this trajectory for a while, but god, it's still a bummer! David, if you're reading this, Amy has always been funnier, which I think you're aware of. You and your little Japanese culottes can remain in your English hamlet—nobody's making you come to Portland. Somehow, this is all Ira Glass' fault.  IN NATIONAL NEWS: • In a move apparently meant to speed-run the worst of Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush's presidencies, President Trump signed an executive order yesterday designating fentanyl a "weapon of mass destruction." Because a president can't talk about WMDs without lying, Trump claimed that fentanyl kills between 200,000 and 300,000 people each year in the US "that we know of." In fact, roughly 48 thousand people in the US died of fentanyl overdoses last year. That's still way too many people, but let's get the numbers right. (Let's also blame the right people: The opioid epidemic in this country can be pinned, almost exclusively, on the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma.) At any rate, it seems like Trump is not as interested in helping people struggling with opioid addiction as he is in demonizing people from Latin American countries. His executive order seems to imply cartels from Latin and South America are deliberately getting Americans hooked on fentanyl out of nowhere in an act of war against our country. And in another familiar move, he has chosen to take unfounded action against these supposed weapons of mass destruction by killing innocent people in the Global South—in this case, by striking alleged "drug boats" in the Caribbean, leaving more than 80 people dead. I don't really believe in hell, but I know these people will pay for their evil actions, whether during their time on earth or after.    WATCH: Replica of the Statue of Liberty topples due to strong winds in Guaíba, Brazil[image or embed] — BNO News (@bnonews.com) December 15, 2025 at 1:26 PM   • Trump filed a lawsuit Monday against the BBC, saying the British network "intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively" edited his speech to supporters before the January 6, 2021 insurrection. Trump is seeking up to $10 billion in damages, or $5 billion on each of two counts of defamation, arguing the edits were in violation of Florida's Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The central piece of his argument is that the BBC edited together two sections taken an hour apart, and that made it look like he wanted the insurrection to happen (which he obviously didn't). It goes to show that doing the news is very difficult to do when the Dear Leader is a sensitive, litigious crybaby. Alas, we'll keep at it. (To be fair, it is a pretty bad edit, though.) JEREMIAH HAYDEN  • Four people in California have been arrested on terrorism charges for allegedly planning a series of bombings across Southern California, set to take place on New Year’s Eve, December 31. The four suspects were arrested in San Bernardino County—which is known for covering a large swath of Southern California’s Mojave Desert. Apparently they were gathered there to test out and detonate their explosive devices. What’s chilling is the FBI classifies the suspects as part of a group called Turtle Island Liberation Front, described as a “far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-government, and anti-capitalist group.” In other words, just your local Portland PTA group.A prosecutor says the suspects allegedly concocted a "detailed, coordinated plot" to detonate bombs at logistics centers of two U.S. companies on New Year's Eve, with the devices exploding simultaneously at midnight. COURTNEY VAUGHN • Some icons hacked traffic signs in Denver last week to display the message "CARS RUIN CITIES." If you don't believe their message, I've got a book to recommend you.    "Denver transportation officials said an anti-car message that was displayed on traffic signs in Denver on Friday was the result of a hack. One sign, photographed by The Denver Gazette on Friday evening at E. Colfax Ave Lincoln St near the Colorado Capitol, shared the message 'Cars ruin cities.'"[image or embed] — The War on Cars (@thewaroncars.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 11:57 AM   • The Mountain Goats are (is? I know it's one guy. Don't come after me) right.    Primary them all and block anybody who comes with the “at this crucial juncture the most important thing is that we win.” if they believed that they wouldn’t do this and with friends like them  nobody needs enemies[image or embed] — the Mountain Goats (@themountaingoats.bsky.social) December 15, 2025 at 7:12 PM   • I didn't realize that donkeys have the zoomies gene, too. This is exactly what my cat will act like when I'm trying to go to sleep tonight. OK TTYL happy Tuesday!              View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Shallochmill Shetland Ponies (@shallochmill.shetland.ponies)     ...read more read less