PORTLAND DRIZZLE

Waves of light showers are expected over the next few days, with Thursday being the wettest — highs topping out around 51°F, a 65% chance of rain.

Chauncey Billups, head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers, was expected to appear in federal court Wednesday following his arrest last October on charges connected to allegedly rigged poker games. Billups was accused of conspiring with the mafia to rig illegal poker games — allegedly helping lure players into games where high-tech equipment was used to cheat them out of millions of dollars. Today's appearance is a status hearing alongside roughly 30 other defendants. New court documents show the federal government plans to extend plea agreements to a dozen of the people involved, and prosecutors are submitting extensive evidence, including body-worn camera footage and more than 100,000 pages of financial records. Billups is not among those reported to be accepting a deal. He remains on unpaid leave, his $5 million bail secured by his Colorado home, represented by prominent white-collar defense attorney Marc Mukasey. Tiago Splitter continues to run the team. The Blazers sit 29-33, tenth in the West, hanging onto the play-in picture like a man clinging to a rope over a very expensive poker table.

Oregon Democrats spent years building a transportation funding package. Then roughly 250,000 Oregonians signed a petition to put it on the November ballot. Fine, said Democrats — the state House of Representatives gave final approval to Senate Bill 1599, moving the tax decision from the high-stakes November general election to the May primary ballot. Republicans called it unconstitutional and promised to sue. They were not bluffing. In a lawsuit filed Tuesday against Secretary of State Tobias Read, two GOP legislators joined dozens of others in asking a county judge to block Senate Bill 1599. The plaintiffs argued that Democrats are illegally subverting the will of voters, roughly 250,000 of whom signed a petition last year to send the gas tax vote to the November ballot. Rep. Diehl, who is now running for governor, called it "an unconstitutional mid-game rule change that suppresses voter voices." Democrats say they just want to resolve the uncertainty sooner. Republicans say Democrats want to keep an unpopular vote far from a November ballot where Governor Kotek is running for reelection. Both things are probably true. A Marion County judge will eventually have to pick one.

A federal lawsuit brought by protesters and backed by the ACLU against the Trump administration entered its second day Tuesday, with attorneys wrapping up their case against the Department of Homeland Security over the use of force at Portland's ICE facility in the South Waterfront. Attorneys for the plaintiffs played anonymous depositions from Federal Protective Service officers and supervisors assigned to Operation Skip Jack — a mission to protect the ICE building and its visitors. Among the plaintiffs is Jack Dickinson, known as the Portland Chicken, who is named in the ACLU's filings alongside Laurie and U.S. Navy veteran Richard Eckman, a couple both in their 80s — who said agents shot a pepper ball at Laurie's head and launched a gas canister at Richard's walker, injuring them both. One deposed officer testified he hadn't received any training on Oregon laws limiting use of force. Another said he wouldn't do anything differently. A temporary restraining order barring the use of tear gas and pepper balls at the site is set to expire Thursday. Judge Michael Simon has the matter under advisement. The city of Portland is separately considering issuing fines for chemical munitions use near the facility. Everyone is waiting.

On March 4, 1844, the Cockstock Incident unfolded near the Willamette Valley. Funny name, sad story. It was a violent confrontation between American settlers and members of a local Indigenous band that resulted in multiple deaths and accelerated calls for formal U.S. governance over Oregon Territory. It was one of those moments where history turned, as history often does, on something no one planned and everyone remembered.

That's your Tuesday, Portland. The skies are gray, the hold music is playing, and the deflection center's operating plan remains somewhere in the maybe-later pile. But there are 100 restaurants waiting to make you a three-course meal for $35. Layer up for the drizzle, make a reservation somewhere good, and try not to have an emergency that requires a phone call.

by Michael Simpson