PORTLAND DRIZZLE

🥾Wednesday tops out at 64°F with barely a cloud threatening. NCAA Tournament tips off at Moda Center Thursday, a suspected bomber got nabbed on the MAX, and a meth-fueled attacker grabbed a mom holding her baby. Sometimes I wonder about this town, you know?

Judson Defir, 43, told police he smoked meth that morning, then went to church and had pancakes. Then he allegedly groped multiple women near SE 67th and Brooklyn before walking into a home where a mother was alone upstairs with her two young children. He grabbed her — baby still in her arms — pulled her into a guest bedroom, and attempted to rape her. She asked to put the baby down first. He let her. She barricaded herself and her children in another room and screamed from the balcony for help. Defir fled, was chased by neighbors, and arrested nearby. He's been charged with first-degree attempted rape and first-degree kidnapping. A prior 2024 arrest for chasing young girls from a park had ended in a plea deal. The system let him stay on the streets.

Transit police were doing routine patrols on a Yellow Line train Tuesday morning when they spotted a man committing a code violation. When the train stopped at the Interstate/Rose Quarter station, officers escorted him off — and he tried to run. They detained him on the platform and found a cylindrical device, eight to ten inches long, wrapped in tape, with ball bearings inside. The bomb squad showed up. Streets closed. The Yellow Line went offline. Portland Police spokesman Mike Benner said authorities treated it with urgency given its location near mass transit and Moda Center, where large NCAA Tournament crowds are expected this week. By mid-morning, investigators confirmed the device was not explosive and the MAX was running again by 10:30 a.m. The man remained in custody. What exactly he was planning to do with a taped-up tube full of ball bearings remains, charitably, unclear.

For the second time under the Trump administration, Portland International Airport has told the TSA to take its political messaging and find another screen to ruin. The roughly 30-second clip — starring former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, blaming congressional Democrats for the federal government shutdown and the resulting TSA staffing mess — will not be playing at PDX. The Port cited the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees, plus an Oregon law barring public workers from promoting or opposing any party or political committee. PDX is in good company: airports in New York, Atlanta, Chicago, Las Vegas, Seattle, and elsewhere have also told the administration to pound sand. Meanwhile, TSA workers are operating without pay, this being the third shutdown in under a year, and lines are getting longer. But sure — the real problem is that airports won't show the video.

Bar Nouveau : Chef Althea Grey Potter's Bar Nouveau — a pop-up turned brick-and-mortar French bistro in St. Johns — is Portland Monthly's hottest new table. Expect chicken liver mousse piped like frosting onto sablé cookies, roast duck with spaetzle, and Sauvie Island produce. Reservations by text only. Very Portland. Website

On March 18, 1925, the Tri-State Tornado — the deadliest in U.S. history — tore through Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana, killing nearly 700 people and forever reshaping American tornado warning policy.

64 degrees and sunny. Thank you for reading this, now go outside and be good. by Michael Simpson Contact: [email protected]