PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🐧Hey Thursday! High near 63°F, 25% chance of rain, basically a perfect Portland May. Thunder last night! Rad. The school district is cutting teachers while its vendor contracts somehow went up 62%. A doctor got a shockingly gentle sentence. And Tuesday night the Portland Fire got their first win in franchise history on a buzzer-beater.

Portland Public Schools is heading into its third straight year of budget cuts, trying to close a $56 million gap by trimming staff and programs. But buried in the proposed 2026-27 budget is a line item going the other direction: spending on outside contractors jumped 62%, from $270 million to $437 million. The board votes May 26 after public comment sessions this week at Benson High. A separate oversight committee raised an uncomfortable question: that students without resources at home may be getting "meaningfully fewer instructional resources" despite the district's high per-pupil spending, and that lower-income kids are the ones most harmed when that's true. OPB

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That’s where Jr Junk Services stands out. Family-owned in Portland, this is the team people call for the jobs others avoid—especially boat and trailer removal. I used Jr’s Junk Services recently, and Jose was great to work with. He showed up on time and made everything so easy for me. If you need something big gone without the stress, this is the move.

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A Portland-area ER doctor was sentenced Tuesday to 13 months in prison for a hit-and-run that killed a man on a Woodburn crosswalk in December 2024. Dr. Kenneth Kolarsky, 59, struck Nicolas Hernandez-Mendoza, who had activated the crosswalk safety lights before crossing, then stopped, drove around his unconscious body, and kept driving to work at Silverton Hospital, arriving about 20 minutes later. Hernandez-Mendoza died in surgery. Prosecutors couldn't charge Kolarsky with causing the crash itself, only leaving the scene. During sentencing, the judge said Kolarsky left a community member "fallen and in the dark." KGW

After seven years, the stop-motion studio behind Coraline is finally back. Laika, based in Hillsboro, unveiled the first trailer for Wildwood at Cannes today, a darkly magical feature adapted from the beloved kids' novel by The Decemberists' Colin Meloy and Portland illustrator Carson Ellis. The story follows Prue McKeel, a Portland teenager who chases her baby brother into the Impassable Wilderness after he's stolen by crows. Pittock Mansion shows up. Talking animals show up. The voice cast, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Tom Waits, Awkwafina, Jacob Tremblay, shows up in a big way. Travis Knight directed and called it "a love letter to Portland." It opens October 23. Deadline

This beautiful photo was shared HERE on Reddit by u/madscot63.

On this day in 2011, the Portland Timbers hosted the Seattle Sounders in their first MLS regular-season match. The Derby was born. Portland lost 2-1.

A doctor drove around a dying man before going to his shift…. at the hospital… where he- saved lives? Make it make sense.

by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]