A fire ripped through the Portland Mercado food court early Wednesday morning. Vendors there are currently closed so that the damage can be fully assessed. The location has been a hub for Latino communities and featured food from countries including Mexico and Columbia. Hacienda Community Development Corporation owns the space. Ernesto Fonseca is the CEO of the organization. He joins us with details of the fire and what this means for the future of the Mercado.  

Efforts to remove former president Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot are under way in multiple states, including in Oregon. The challenges rest on an obscure clause of the 14th Amendment that prohibits anyone who has “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” from holding federal office. It’s unclear whether the clause applies to the presidency, but groups in Colorado and Maine successfully argued that Trump’s actions after the 2020 election disqualify him from running for office.

Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade has said she doesn’t have the authority to bar Trump from the primary ballot. But the Oregon Supreme Court is expected to rule in the coming weeks on a suit that seeks to oust him from the 2024 contest.

Norman Williams is a professor at Willamette University who teaches election and constitutional law. He’s been following the litigation in Oregon and elsewhere, and joins us to talk about the details. 

Over $3.6 million in federal funding will be given to the City of Salem and Umatilla and Clackamas Counties to improve street safety. The money will be used to develop and update road safety plans. Joseph Marek is the traffic safety program manager for Clackamas County. Treven Upkes is the deputy chief of the field operations division for the Salem Police Department. They join us to discuss what traffic safety looks like in their community and how they plan to use these new funds.

The local alt weekly in Eugene has been publishing community and regional news since 1982. It’s no purple prose to say that many readers consider Eugene Weekly to be an institution. So when editor Camilla Mortensen put out a letter explaining that the paper had suffered a huge blow from alleged theft and mismanagement by a longtime employee, the community responded with offers of help and donations of cold hard cash. Law enforcement are investigating, and Mortensen says the Eugene police chief personally assured her he is overseeing the case. Some details are under wraps because of the investigation, but Mortensen joins us to discuss the situation and what the paper hopes can be a way forward.

Where the deep waters of the Pacific Ocean meet the shallower waters of the Columbia River, the waves, the wind and the current combine to make what is often a very hazardous situation. More than 2,000 vessels and 700 lives have been lost at the Columbia Bar, and many more in the surrounding area, known as ‘The Graveyard of the Pacific.’ Christopher D’Amelio is one of a select few people who have qualified as surfmen for the U.S. Coastguard. Surfmen pilot rescue boats over sometimes huge waves and help keep boaters safe. D’Amelio’s book about his time on the Columbia is called “Life and Death at Cape Disappointment.”

Last month, the Biden administration announced an agreement with four Northwest tribes, the states of Oregon and Washington, and environmental groups around the waterways of the Columbia River Basin. As a part of the agreement, the Federal Government commits to fund salmon restoration projects, build clean energy generation for the tribes and clear the pathway for the possible eventual removal of the four Lower Snake River dams. We talk to Nez Perce Tribal Chairman Shannon Wheeler, who is party to the agreement, and Kurt Miller, executive director of the Northwest Public Power Association, who wrote a letter objecting to the agreement.

Soccer is a sport enjoyed around the world, but a new accessible version is growing. Amputee soccer follows many of the same rules as the original, but with a few differences. The field is smaller, teams have fewer players and, most notably, players use forearm crutches to balance, run and kick. The sport was created in Seattle in the 1980s as a way for amputee athletes to get out on the pitch. It’s been slowly gaining popularity since then, with teams and conferences across Asia, the Americas, Europe and Africa. A clinic in Portland on Jan. 13 will allow prospective players to learn the basics of the game and test out their skills. 

Thuy Williams helped organize the Portland clinic, and Katie Bondy is a member of the U.S. Women’s National Amputee Soccer team. They join us to talk more about the sport and how prospective players can get involved.

Above-normal temperatures have caused a slow start to the ski season in the Pacific Northwest. Many ski resorts at lower elevations in Oregon still haven’t opened, and resorts at higher elevations are starting the season with lower snowfall totals. Greg Pack is the president and general manager of Mt. Hood Meadows. Andrew Gast is the general manager of Mt. Ashland Ski Area and Lauren Burke is the director of marketing and communications for Mt. Bachelor. They join us with details.

From the housing crisis to public safety, Oregon has a whole set of new state laws taking effect in January. The laws range from targeting “paramilitary activity” to tax breaks for families with children. We learn more on what Oregonians can expect in the new year from OPB political reporter Dirk VanderHart.

Jonathan Lethem, the bestselling author of twelve novels, including “The Fortress of Solitude” and “Motherless Brooklyn,” has often focused his books on the Brooklyn neighborhood he grew up in. His newest, “Brooklyn Crime Novel,” makes the neighborhood a main character. The book examines gentrification, nostalgia and race, among other topics. Lethem spoke to Dave Miller in front of an audience at the 2023 Portland Book Festival.