OPB’s First Look: Judge weighs views on Portland protests, Guard

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.

Good morning, Northwest.

Today, U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut may decide whether to issue a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s deployment of the Oregon National Guard in Portland.

Yesterday, attorneys on both sides presented Immergut with sharply different accounts of the protests near Portland’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement building, according to OPB’s Conrad Wilson and Tony Schick.

On the environmental front, Oregonians have spent more than 15 years clashing over logging, grazing, mining and conservation in the Blue Mountains, an almost 5-million-acre ecoregion rich in diversity. As OPB’s April Ehrlich reports, the public will get a chance to weigh in starting next week.

Meanwhile, in Southwest Washington, the city of Vancouver will hold a ceremony this morning to display six alternate flag designs on the city hall flagpole for public viewing. One design will be chosen by the end of the month and is expected to be officially adopted in November.

And this weekend, the Portland Paddlers will face off against the Los Angeles Spinners, the Chicago Wind and the Carolina Gold Rush in the Major League Table Tennis tournament at the Oregon Convention Center in Portland.

Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news.

— Winston Szeto

Federal judge weighs starkly different views of Portland protests in hearing on National Guard

U.S. District Court Judge Karin Immergut heard arguments yesterday over whether to issue a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump’s deployment of the Oregon National Guard in Portland.

During the hearing, Immerigut noted she was aware she was required to give “great deference” to the president when it comes to federalizing troops.

She also questioned why the official order Trump issued to federalize the Guard in Oregon appeared to be the same one he had used months earlier in California. Immergut also expressed skepticism when the Trump administration’s attorneys pointed to the president’s Truth Social post as evidence. (Conrad Wilson and Tony Schick)

Learn more

Things to know this morning

• Hours after a conservative journalist and influencer was arrested by the Portland Police Bureau, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announced yesterday a “full investigation” into the bureau and the city. And a pair of U.S. deputy assistant attorneys general have issued a list of demands. (Dirk VanderHart and Troy Brynelson) 

• The Oregon House Republican caucus elected Lucetta Elmer Wednesday evening. An entrepreneur from McMinnville, her appointment comes at what she considers a pivotal moment. The state’s struggling schools, economy and housing market all show that “Oregonians are crying for change,” she said. (Bryce Dole) 

• People have until Monday to weigh in on the draft preliminary land management plan for the Malheur, Umatilla and Wallowa-Whitman national forests, collectively known as the Blue Mountains, or more succinctly, “the Blues.” (April Ehrlich)

Headlines from around the Northwest

• Portland’s major league table tennis team prepares to serve this weekend (Sukhjot Sal and Elizabeth Castillo) 

• Vancouver to choose new flag capturing city’s emerging identity (Winston Szeto) 

• Redmond safe parking site faces closure as state budget cuts hit Central Oregon homelessness response (Kathryn Styer Martínez) 

• Idaho’s last Planned Parenthood plans to stay open despite federal cuts (Kyle Pfannenstiel) 

• OHSU wins a $4.25 million federal grant for autism research at an unusual time (Nick Budnick)

Clinton Street Theater celebrates 50 years of ‘Rocky Horror’

Nearly every Saturday night for more than 40 years, it’s been the same routine in front of Portland’s Clinton Street Theater: A line of people dressed in risqué androgynous outfits arrive in the late evening.

Theater employees hand out bags of rice and toast, and they draw a red “V” on the forehead of anyone visiting for the first time.

Those are trademarks of a live showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” the cult classic rock musical that celebrated its 50th anniversary in September.

And for almost as long, the Clinton Street Theater has shown the film every weekend, often with an in-house cast acting out every song and dance. (Joni Auden Land)

Learn more

Subscribe to OPB’s First Look to receive Northwest news in your inbox six days a week.