by Suzette Smith If you appreciate the Mercury's interesting and useful news culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. You can also subscribe and have our papers de livered! Good Morning, Portland! The cold continues this week and into next with low lows of 24 and 25 degrees possible. When it gets more reasonable, we get more rain. You've got two options, cold and bright or dank and wet. I know that I prefer dank and wet—let's hit the news! IN LOCAL NEWS:• Multnomah County leaders announced in a memo on Wednesday that they do not plan to install metal detectors in the Multnomah County's Central Library downtown. The library's research does not indicate metal detectors would meaningfully impact the "most frequent security incidents or alleviate community concerns,” County Chair Jessica Vega Pederson wrote. • Today in homegrown true crime horror: A jury in Clark County found 52-year-old Kevin West guilty of his wife's murder, after swift deliberation on Tuesday. Medical evidence suggested that West strangled his wife, but he tried to explain away the bruising around her neck and the back of her head as the result of a “deep and firm” massage that the Wests’ 22-year-old son gave to his mother the day before her death. At the time of Marcelle West's murder, Kevin West was battalion chief at Camas-Washogual Fire Department, and he made several strange remarks to some of his firefighter colleagues around the time of his wife's death, which they testified about in court. • Today in LOGS ON LAKE, heavy flooding of the Clackamas River has left the North Fork Reservoir, above the Faraday Dam, cluttered with logs and log-adjacent debris. Portland General Electric has made plan to clear the logs in February. That's leaves plenty of time before the boat docks reopen, you waterways weirdos. • No one has been awaiting this, but I AM PERSONALLY EXCITED that Art Snack is back. Portland's art, culture, and food scenes are super messy, and they get all over one another. Could one ambitious culture editor round-up stuff you should know about? I made a newsletter like this during the pandemic, and now I'm doing it again here. This week we've got three artsy and two foodsy—and one of the foodsy is paczki. • Women's basketball team Portland Fire (not Portland Fire and Rescue) announced its game schedule for its 2026 season, with an opening game at Moda Center on May 9. They'll face off against the Chicago Sky. Wait, are all the Women's Major Basketball Association names like... ponderous?           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury) • Table tennis is an allegedly deep and entertaining sport that's popular overseas, but in the US it's been relegated to mere club enthusiasm. Earlier this month—infused with enthusiasm from viewing Marty Supreme—writer and photographer Corbin Smith attended a Major League Table Tennis event in Portland, which attracted players from all over the world. • The James Beard Awards has announced businesses and chefs that made its semifinalist round for the competition's annually awarded titles. While semifinals are still two rounds away from winning an actual award, this is your early early warning that an already busy restaurant in Portland could become impossibly busy very soon (June). This could also be a romance win, if you can get reservations at one of these spots for Valentines or the night of the month we set aside to picture Timothée Chalamet in our minds and manifest his greatness or whatever the kids are doing. Like notorious fuckboi Enya always says, "it could impress bae."  The Portland restaurant semifinalists are (find the complete list here): Le Pigeon - semifinalist for outstanding restaurantCoquine - semifinalist for outstanding wine and other beverages program Scotch Lodge - outstanding barJoel Gunderson, Heavenly Creatures - outstanding professional in beverage service There are 20 folks in the running for best chef of the Northwest Pacific region, but the Portland has four! Taylor Manning and Siobhan Speirits of Cafe OlliKristen Murray of MåuriceThomas Pisha-Duffly of Gado GadoRyan Roadhouse of Nodoguro IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:• A memo obtained by the Associated Press—dated May 2025—provides a view inside the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), its general counsel, and its instructions to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) about how they should observe Fourth Amendment protections. It seems that since spring of last year, ICE higher-ups have been told that they no longer need a judge's warrant to forcibly enter someone's home and are instead permitted to do so with an administrative warrant. The whole AP piece breaks down 1) the memo 2) how the order undermines years of advice from advocates, and 3) why the direction given to ICE trainees—which runs in direct conflict with their written training materials—is likely unconstitutional. • In related news, ICE took a five-year-old Minnesota boy into detention on Tuesday. He and his father were taken in their family driveway, but not before ICE officers had the young child knock on the door to his home to see if other people were inside, “essentially using a 5-year-old as bait,” Columbia Heights Public Schools Superintendent Zena Stenvik said during a news conference Wednesday. • In a one sentence order, given with no explanation, US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit granted the Trump administration's request (yadda yadda yadda) and federal agents in Minnesota are permitted to use tear gas on protesters again. Stay tuned for more injunctions. Two cents from a journalist who's been tear gassed... a lot. While terrible and dangerous in unexpected ways, tear gas doesn't stop protests. Full stop. • I wish that someone who wanted to get deep into all the foibles and fuckups President Donald Trump has made this week while threatening Greenland was writing Good Morning, News today. In short: The President says weird stuff that he doesn't mean. He's openly threatening another country, after recently invading a different one. Most of what he says will not ever be useful information, and the responses to it aren't really great either. Here are a couple useful breakdowns on the constantly changing reports on the situation: World leaders to hold emergency summit on Greenland. (NPR)Europe’s Leaders Try to Find a Path Forward With Trump (NYT)Trump Says He Has Framework for Greenland Deal as NATO Mulls Idea of U.S. Sovereignty Over Bases (NYT) Zelensky Criticizes European Allies After Meeting With Trump (NYT)NATO chief Mark Rutte shows he’s a ‘Trump whisperer’ with Greenland diplomacy (AP) • Greenland’s government announced Wednesday—apropos of nothing—that it would ✨just be good 🌟 for households to keep emergency supplies to last them at least five days on hand. NO REASON. • I have been responding to many things this week with an adjusted version of the "it's fuckshit o'clock" meme/somee card. An adaption of an old Someecard that once read "It's fuckshit o'clock!" • New column alert: That guy who tweets about suits is now tweeting writing about them for Bloomberg. I'm excited to announce I'm doing a new Bloomberg column about the business of fashion. The first column is about how we can re-shore US garment manufacturing. Instead of mass deportations and raising tariffs, I argue the government should move the industry upstream: tinyurl.com/reshoringapparel[image or embed] — derek guy (@dieworkwear.bsky.social) January 22, 2026 at 6:45 AM • Do you ever just relaunch the newsletter you like writing just in time for the end of the dang world?           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by A drag queen once said (@a.drag.queen.once.said) ...read more read less