Good Morning, News: Global Oil Prices Soar, Former Trail Blazer Running for Governor... Again, and Is This "Scathing Rebuttal" Just Good Boundaries?

by Suzette Smith

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In an extremelyCharge Nurse Dana Evans voice] Good Morning, Portland! Get tha 2026 Spring Arts Guide, starting today. It was on stands as early as yesterday, to tell you the truth, but we always put it online on Thursday so people don't send us emails lookin' for it. By today, you can find it at [over 500 locations in the Portland area. Do you need to hear about the weather? It's raining. Less windy. Let's get to the news.

**IN LOCAL NEWS: ** • This week Nike co-founder Phil Knight gave $1 million to a Republican candidate running for Oregon governor—Chris Dudley, a former NBA basketball player and Portland Trail Blazer, who also notoriously ran against former governor John Kitzhaber in 2010. Dudley has been called "a political outsider," meaning he had no governing experience. After Kitzhaber won, Dudley "kept a relatively low public profile in the 15 years since," as the Oregonian puts it. That's a euphemism for still has no experience holding political office.

• No matter your political leanings, this year's election season is looking like it'll be a slog for Gov. Tina Kotek. She just lost three senior staffers, OPB reports. Kotek thanked the departing workers in a statement and noted that the conclusion of the annual legislative session is "a time of transition," telegraphing that this is an ordinary time for staff to change positions/campaigns. It's not like in 2024, when Kotek's office weathered some high-profile resignations. This = normal.

• I heard about this "scathing rebuttal" that City Council president Jamie Dunphy shared on his personal social media yesterday, but here in the stark light of morning—unable to decipher what this note even says—it does seem somewhat appropriate to respond: "No. Mind your own business and keep your small-minded opinions about other peoples bodies to yourself,” as Dunphy did. Much has been made of the age of the person who sent the note. Don't be ageist. It's not okay to comment on people's bodies, and it is okay to firmly let people know that's unacceptable behavior.

• If you've been on the internet before, you've heard the "nice v kind" argument. Well Black Byline columnist Donovan Scribes has some more knowledge to put down on the concept—as he examines a recent cringeworthy exchange during a Metro Council meeting and how it exemplifies the pitfalls of being "Portland Nice."

• But not all pits white people fall into need to be bad. Mercury Music Picks points out there's lot's of pit fruit playing Portland this week (Peaches and Cherry Cheeks). Are there any shows on the docket for TONIGHT TONIGHT TONIGHT? YEAH. Seffarine at Alberta Rose and a Lo Steele's free record release at Music Millennium. All this and more in the Mercury Music Picks pit!

• Don't sleep on this pretty, goofy, mischievous new game from the Untitled Goose Game folks. We reviewed it (!) in the Spring Arts Guide (!), but I finally bullied our social media person into making a short video to show off the scenery.

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• WYD tonight? Lindsay Costello recommends The Gleaners and I at Hollywood Theatre in this week's Do This, Do That. "Agnès Varda's sprightly late-career documentary follows foragers of all forms, from dumpster diggers to oyster scavengers, while drifting into meditations on waste and art."

• The Blazers loss to the Charlotte Hornets Tuesday night was a comedy of errors. The errors: 19 turnovers, numerous misses of easy shots, and some interesting refereeing. Read what Mercury contributor Cameron Crowell thought of the shenanigans, and we'll hold out breath for Friday's matchup against the Jazz.

**IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS: ** • Iran claimed responsibility for an attack on two oil tankers, located in Iraq's Basra port, on Thursday morning. The two vessels, which exploded into massive towers of smoke and flame, were in the process of transporting petroleum products. The New York Times reported that one was owned by an American company. The strike has forced Iraqi authorities to halt the oil terminal's operations, which has led to a lot of reporting on the havoc this is playing on global fossil fuel prices, but it also seems like we could be talking about the environmental impact.

• Countries around the world are releasing their oil reserves, attempting to cut off price gouging and inflation as a major oil-production area of the globe is suddenly, avoidably at war. The prices continue to surge.

• On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom sought to sooth constituent concerns, responding a warning from the FBI that Iran may seek to attack the West Coast with drones as retaliation for the war Trump's administration has waged there. “We’ve been aware of that information. ... It’s all about a posture of preparedness for worst-case scenarios,” the governor said.

• Today in kind of nice if true:

Republicans fear that further attacks on vaccines could harm the party during the midterms, according to reports.

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— Ars Technica (@arstechnica.com) March 12, 2026 at 9:02 AM

• Today in released internal messages, the people you were pretty sure didn't respect you have been found to not respect you.

Ticketing employees at Live Nation called fans “so stupid” for paying inflated charges and boasted that they were “robbing them blind baby,” according to internal messages released in the Justice Department's antitrust lawsuit against the concert giant that includes Ticketmaster.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) March 12, 2026 at 9:20 AM

• Now get out there and explain everything you're doing like you're on Jujutsu Kaisen.

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