Multnomah County, Ore., agreed on Wednesday to eliminate all race-based housing programs as part of a voluntary compliance agreement with the Trump administration, which had alleged that the county's "culturally specific" services—including special apartments for the "BIPOC community"—violated the Fair Housing Act.
The county, which encompasses most of Portland, had previously agreed to remove questions about race and sexual orientation from a screening tool—first reported by the Washington Free Beacon—used to prioritize applicants for housing assistance. Wednesday's agreement covers a wider range of programs and requires the county to rescore pending applications for homeless services. It will also require all employees of the county's Homeless Services Department to complete four hours of fair housing training.
I wonder if, in light of the midterm results, Multnomah County (basically Portland) will rethink it's public revocation of their pledge to honor equal rights, rather than equity. I'm quite sure they never really intended to honor it.
For now, the fishing is good, with plenty of big stripers around to catch (and mostly, release). But a current of anxiety runs underneath the sport and the industry.
Captain Marco Lamothe, who runs Keeper Charters out of Saco, went on more than 100 fishing trips this year and caught plenty of larger, older striped bass, which can live to 30 years or more. But he worries about the fishery’s future because he’s not seeing as many smaller, younger fish. Of the hundreds of striped bass he caught this year, only one measured less than 28 inches.
That's bigger than the majority of the fish we catch here, where 22-25 inches seems to be the median size, at least where Pete has been fishing. But it makes sense that sea run fish are larger.
“The tourists were abundant, and the fish were cooperative, and we had a lot of really successful fishing trips,” Lamothe said. But, he added, “We’re just not seeing any small- to medium-sized fish. So it’s concerning.”
Zachary Whitener, a senior research associate at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute and a former charter boat captain himself, put it more strongly. “It’s terrifying,” he said. “Once those big fish are gone, there’s nobody to refill the population.”
The factors behind this decline are complex, Whitener said. But one major factor is rainfall in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Some striped bass spawn in the Kennebec River watershed here in Maine, but most stripers are born in the Chesapeake and migrate up and down the East Coast each year.
For nearly a decade, there haven’t been very many young stripers.
The latest survey from the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, released on Oct. 19, shows that striped bass recruitment was low for the eighth year in a row. Results from the Virginia Institute of Marine Science survey were better, showing average recruitment in the southern half of the bay this year. The scientists noted in their report, however, that “low recruitment in recent years remains a major concern.”
I don't know, but I've been told, that their is pretty decent crop of young stripers up in the northern end of the bay. Not the great masses we used to see all over but at least a smattering of undersized, but catchable fish. But I was a little concerned to see this:
Carrie Kennedy, acting associate director of the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ fishing and boating services, said she wonders if fisheries managers like herself need to adjust their expectations for striped bass as their environment changes. Kennedy oversees Maryland’s fish monitoring efforts, including the juvenile striped bass survey. “The likelihood of making that 2029 rebuilding seems less and less likely every additional year we have low recruitment,” Kennedy said.
Striped bass isn’t the only sea-run fish — fish that spawn in freshwater but live as adults in the ocean — struggling with recruitment, Kennedy pointed out. White perch and yellow perch show similar trends over the same time period. “I think it’s a pretty good indicator that fishing isn’t the problem,” she said.
Instead, Kennedy pointed to the large-scale ecosystem shifts currently underway due to climate change and other factors, such as development on land that affects streams, rivers, estuaries and ultimately the ocean, too. “It’s not the same Chesapeake Bay. It’s not the same planet that we had 20 years ago when we had really great recruitment,” she said.
She may be right, and I've had the same thought about oysters, but I hate to MDDNR turning their back on the possibility of restoring healthy striper populations.
Counterintuitively, Is This the Best Outcome for the US and Israel? "The US will stop the payment of military aid to Israel. It will, however, continue authorizing the sale of key US weapons systems to its ally." Mark Tapscott at Insty on US AID TO ISRAEL: "Now that President Donald Trump has announced the end of U.S. military aide to Israel, all kinds of conjecture is blowing up on Social Media on the backstory. But Richard Pollock’s is one of the few sane voices and he provides the needed context that points to the continued strong relationship between the U.S. and Israel."
I have a little more in the old digital fridge, but I'm going to stop here today, and look around. So what's going to happen in the next couple of years? My predictions: Senate Democrats will quickly nuke the filibuster, and start to legislate their agenda; try to pack the Supreme Court (I still say Trump should try it quickly, just to get Dems on record it's a bad idea), make Washington and Puerto Rico states, open the borders, abolish ICE, and begin hearings into any Republican who sticks his head up. Only Trump's veto is in the way to stop them. Will Republicans fight to uphold it? They haven't been all that trustworthy in the past. Also, media companies and big tech will be ready to start censoring conservative voices again, and educational institutions will being to bring back DEI.
At Ace, In No One Is Above the Law News, Democrat Operative and Flake John Bolton Learns No One Is Above the Law. "He has pled guilty to illegal retention of classified information. He will pay a $2.25 million fine, forfeit his federal pension, and could spend 60 months in prison. But, of course, a plea deal means prosecutors have agreed to recommend far less than that, and probably zero time at all." Sundance reports Activist Judge Dismisses Charges Against FBI Officials who Lied to Congress During Hunter Biden Laptop Review. "U.S. Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui dismissed the criminal complaint against former FBI officials Nikki Cole Floris and Bradley Benavides from the bench, sharply criticizing the government’s handling of the prosecution. “What has transpired here cannot be described as anything other than weaponization,” Faruqui said, describing the case as a “rush job” directed by President Donald Trump and FBI Director Kash Patel."
Matt Vespa at TownHall thinks Ilhan Omar's Marriage Certificate Is a Trainwreck. "A certified copy from the Hennepin County, Minn., government shows that the Democratic congresswoman’s surname was initially written as Omar, before being crossed out and replaced with Elmi. A final edit reverted it back to Omar."
Maryland sanctuary politicians released a gang member who was accused of attempted murder and sexual assault of a child.
According to a Department of Homeland Security press release, the Maryland wokies were trying to protect the MS-13 member accused of raping a child from being taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). In Democrat-controlled cities, counties, and states, officials and judges will often release the most dangerous and vile illegal alien criminals after ICE files detainer requests for them. Their ideology is so perverse that they find it more important to undermine ICE than to ensure that illegal alien criminals face justice and are incapable of harming more Americans.
On December 16, 2025, ICE lodged a detainer against Allan Adonay Contreras-Vasquez, an illegal alien from Honduras and MS-13 member, while he was in the custody of the Prince George’s County Detention Center in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. He had been arrested following an assault in Hyattsville, Maryland, allegedly carried out by Contreras-Vasquez and five other suspects, in which the victim was stalked after getting off a bus before being stabbed multiple times.
Prince George’s County officials refused to respect the detainer request and hand Contreras-Vasquez over to ICE. Instead, they released Contreras-Vasquez. Last February, however, he faced charges of attempted first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, attempted second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, first-degree assault, conspiracy to commit first-degree assault, second-degree assault, and dangerous weapon with intent to injure.
In the time that elapsed between Contreras-Vasquez’s release and the announcement of the charges, he allegedly committed another horrific crime. A witness testified that he raped a 13-year-old girl in January 2026. Prince George’s County finally got around to arresting Contreras-Vasquez again in May 2026, but had already released him again by June. DHS also stated that he originally entered the country in 2023 under the Biden administration, which released him into our country. Contreras-Vasquez is a Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) affiliate, and the Trump administration has designated the gang as a global terrorist organization.
ICE is still trying to track Contreras-Vasquez down, hence the new press release, as the agency seeks assistance and information, since Maryland authorities will not offer any.
We have a chance to fix some of this tomorrow, but I'm not hopeful.
Dave Rubin@RubinReport, "This is the guy Democrats want to destroy. Sheer insanity." Quote Elon Musk @elonmusk, "Our second product is called Blindsight and it will, as the name suggests, enable even those who are completely blind or have never seen to see. It is ready from an engineering standpoint. Just waiting on regulatory approval." The Great Victor Davis Hanson at Am Great answers the question Why Do They Despise Musk?, "Elon Musk’s shift to the right, support for Trump, and defense of free speech have turned a former liberal darling into a target of the Left’s growing hostility toward billionaires." He didn't shift right; they shifted far-left.
Eric at Security & Cigars hears Common Use Comes to December. "It isn’t about common use. It’s about what the Bill of Rights put beyond government’s reach."
🚨 A 15-year-old girl in Baltimore had to fight off her attacker with a fire extinguisher.
She escaped naked and bleeding, with a collapsed lung.
Police say Abubakarr Barrie, 23, picked her up in his unlicensed cab, took her to his basement, and stabbed her at least five times.
Baltimore's local news left out one detail.
DHS says Barrie is an illegal alien from Sierra Leone. Border Patrol caught him in Arizona in December 2023, and the Biden administration released him.
In July, the NYPD arrested him for possessing a forged instrument. DHS says ICE asked New York to hold him, and New York let him walk.
Three months later, a 15-year-old girl nearly died.
His public defender told the judge he has "no criminal history." That's what sanctuary policy buys you.
ICE lodged a new detainer. Maryland better honor this one.
https://t.co/Q20Va3ZfYU
Despite a low tide, wading was necessary in a few spots because a lot of sand is still missing in some places along the beach. I'm not worried. It'll wash back in over time.
A pretty nice start to November, about 58 F, not windy and clear. I got a late start, and the sun behind the cliffs for most of the walk.
Maybe that's why I only found 5 teeth, but a least one them was this 1 3/8 inch Snaggletooth upper. It's one small chip short of perfect, but, hey, sharks gotta eat.
From Shooting NewsWeek, Anti-Gunner Vandalizes 9/11 Memorial To Spread His Hatred for Guns. "Jonathan Andrew Tijerina, 31, was arrested at the 9/11 Memorial he defaced Monday night. He was charged with criminal mischief, making graffiti and possession of graffiti instruments. Tijerina painted the URL of his anti-gun website onto the marble stonework surrounding the North Tower of the reflecting pool. He then boasted of his insane criminal act on his website."
Young women are dressing up as Sophie Cunningham for Halloween and RECREATING her famous finger point..
The left called her hateful for protecting girls' sports. Now she has over 9 MILLION followers across all platforms combined, and she’s become a role model for young girls across the country.. 🔥🔥
