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ICE MAKES FIRST PORTLAND COURTHOUSE ARREST: President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants arrived in Portland this week with the first confirmed arrest outside an immigration courtroom. In a federal legal filing, lawyers said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested a woman from Mexico outside her asylum hearing June 2 in a downtown Portland federal building. The lawyers say the woman, who is transgender, was seeking asylum in the U.S. several years after being abducted and raped by members of the Knights Templar drug cartel in Michoacán state. She was living in Vancouver, Wash., at the time of her arrest. The local office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not respond to a request for comment from WW. The woman’s attorney, Stephen Manning of Immigrant Law Group, says his client has committed no crime while in the U.S. and he doesn’t know where she’s being held. Manning expects more ICE arrests at the courthouse to follow: “We should take them at their word when they say they’re going to do something evil.”
CRACKS APPEAR IN PARKS LEVY PLANS: The Portland City Council on June 2 discussed the future of the Parks Levy, which expires in 2026 and currently pays for 40% of Portland Parks & Recreation’s operating budget. The council is weighing what levy amount to refer to the November ballot: a simple renewal of the current 80 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value; or an increase to $1.30, $1.60 or $1.80 per $1,000. Parks bureau leaders have warned that if the levy isn’t doubled to $1.60, the bureau will have to cut 25% of its current services. Councilors Candace Avalos and Angelita Morillo expressed support for a $1.80 referral, while others—including Councilors Eric Zimmerman and Dan Ryan—pointed to what they saw as issues with the parks bureau. Zimmerman said the city’s parks support groups have “deep reservations in continuing to work with the leadership at our parks bureau as the relationship is today....I am very concerned that if our cheerleaders can’t cheerlead on the levy, we’re in a pretty precarious position.” A poll WW reported last week showed weak support for doubling the levy. “Any discord among and between partners and City Councilors will be amplified at the moment of referral and feed public skepticism,” the pollster wrote.
INTERIM DIRECTORS NOW RUN MUCH OF COUNTY: Heather Mirasol, director of behavioral health for Multnomah County, says she plans to leave her position this month. Mirasol took personal leave earlier this year to care for her children in the wake of a “difficult and long” divorce and the loss of her mother, she wrote in a June 2 email to county staff first reported by The Oregonian. Mirasol is leaving to develop a “plan forward for me and my children that allows them to have the best of me for the years ahead,” she wrote. Her departure leaves the county with yet another interim leader just as it finalizes its budget for the coming fiscal year. Anna Plumb is interim head of the county’s homeless services, and Trisa Kelly is interim director of the Office of Diversity & Equity. Behavioral health, in particular, is rife with interim leaders. Anthony Jordan, who was interim leader of the division while Mirasol was on leave, will remain in that position. He has two interim deputy directors, Jessica Jacobsen and Jay Auslander. Multnomah County Health Department director Rachael Banks acknowledged the turnover in an email to staff about Mirasol’s move. “I understand change can be challenging and we have seen a lot of it,” Banks wrote June 2. “Please know that I appreciate your persistence and commitment to serving our community, especially during times of transition.”
REPORT FINDS OREGON ‘WEAK’ IN ELEMENTARY MATH INSTRUCTION: A report Tuesday from the National Council on Teacher Quality rated Oregon “weak” in math instruction, particularly at the elementary levels. NCTQ evaluated five criteria to determine whether instructional programs were effective. Oregon scored a weak or unacceptable rating on every one of those categories except professional development, where it received a moderate. “Far too many elementary teacher prep programs fail to dedicate enough instructional time to building aspiring teachers’ math knowledge—leaving teachers unprepared and students underserved,” the report reads. NCTQ rated most U.S. states as weak or moderate, with Alabama receiving the only strong rating, and seven states rated “unacceptable” for their “lack of math policy action.” It recommended that Oregon define key standards around four math content topics (numbers and operations, algebraic thinking, geometry and measurement, and data analysis and probability). It also urged the state to support school districts with better curricula and more professional development resources. The report comes as Oregon’s young learners are still struggling with math—just 37.7% of the state’s fourth graders tested proficient in mathematics during the 2023–24 school year.
FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION: WW took home six prizes, four of them first place, at the 2024 Excellence in Journalism Awards, a five-state contest run by the Society of Professional Journalists. Among our honors: the top prize for General Excellence for a medium-size newsroom in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana or Alaska. It’s the second consecutive year WW has won that award, given to outstanding work published by a newsroom with six to 20 employees. Rachel Saslow won first prize for a soft news feature (“Are You Soho House Material?” March 20, 2024); Larry Colton took first place for sports reporting (“Bill and Me,” June 5, 2024); and Lucas Manfield received first prize for crime and law enforcement reporting (“What Happened in Hoover Jail,” March 6, 2024). “Extremely thorough reporting on what happens when a system goes off the rails,” a contest judge wrote of Manfield’s story on jail guards using gang members as enforcers.