PORTLAND DRIZZLE

👮Thursday sunshine! Skies dry out today after Wednesday's drizzle — highs around 52°F and no rain in the forecast. ICE is at airports nationwide but PDX says it's running fine. A SW Portland park finally has a new name after five years of process. And some Lake Oswego kids just outshined everyone at TEDxPortland. ⚠️ Also be advised that ODOT will be doing repairs along I-84 until autumn, so expect delays ⚠️

While spring break travelers in Atlanta waited four hours to clear security, Portland's airport is moving passengers through in under ten minutes. The Port of Portland confirmed to KOIN 6 that ICE agents have not been deployed to PDX, with the airport running normal operations. The reason: PDX's federal agencies weren't experiencing chronic staffing shortages heading into the partial DHS shutdown, and callout rates haven't spiked enough to affect wait times. Border Czar Tom Homan says the focus is on airports with three-hour lines. Portland doesn't qualify. Lucky us — at least until it does.

Portland Parks & Recreation spent five and a half years and nearly $20,000 landing on 'Scht Wiwnu — pronounced "ish-chit way-el-noo" — meaning "path of the huckleberry" in Ichishkin Sńwit, a language of Columbia River tribes including the Umatilla, Warm Springs, and Yakama. The park had been called "A Park" since 2020, when Commissioner Amanda Fritz stripped the Custer name for honoring a military oppressor of Indigenous peoples. Not everyone is thrilled with the new name — some neighbors are already snickering about how easy it is to turn into an obscenity. A naming ceremony is set for this Saturday. Progress is messy.

Park Academy is a small private school in Lake Oswego with 115 students, built specifically for kids with dyslexia. This week, five of them — Syrah Garbely, Elliot Kalin, Josh Kellem, Aya Idriss, and Roxy Burke-Morales — took the TEDxPortland stage and delivered their own original talks. Aya Idriss, a sixth grader, became the youngest presenter in the event's 14-year history, speaking about salt, family tradition, and people brave enough to keep going. The full TEDxPortland event hits April 18. These kids already stole it.

This incredible photograph was taken by Marlee Boxler at Westmoreland Park, and shared on Facebook. Thank you Marlee!

On March 26, 1955, a Pan Am Stratocruiser crashed into the Pacific off the Oregon coast, killing four of 23 people aboard — one of Oregon's deadliest aviation disasters.

Quick editor’s note about the Upcoming Events section. I love making this list and I know it’s a big part of what keeps y’all coming. However there is an issue: errors. It’s a lot of data to manage and keep fresh which is why I keep making mistakes- getting dates wrong, etc. Double-checking every item every day is just too much. I’m one man working 40 hours as an X-ray tech and still on the ass end of my battle with rectal cancer. Here’s my solution until I come up with something better, and I’m open to suggestions. Just 3-5 events happening tonight (double-checked for accuracy) with a few extra weekend ones added on Friday and Saturday’s editions.

Five years, twenty grand, and people are already calling it Shitty Park. Portland gonna Portland. by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]