OMG it's gone LIVE. Further evidence: Portland Indymedia is currently down.

From Brian Schmautz at the police bureau:

"There is some police activity in the area of Northeast 11th and Multnomah. This activity is NOT part of TopOff. I am heading out to the area and will not have any information until I can determine that the Police Bureau is responsible for the investigation and can talk to command staff at the scene. Until I arrive I can only confirm that we are shutting down several streets in the area as well as MAX. I will return pages in about 20 minutes."

Oregonlive reporting it also. keep up the details.

There are so many agencies involved in this TOPOFF thing that I wonder if some agency (BATF?) has a car parked over there that at one point has actually been used to transport explosives, and so the dog is reacting to the old residue still in the car as opposed to an actual live explosive. Kind of how like with TWA 800 (plane blown up out of JFK in 1996) they detected explosive residue on the wreckage, only to learn that the plane had been used in a bomb detection drill several years prior.

KGW:

A suspicious vehicle that tipped off police to a bomb scare in Northeast Portland Thursday turned out to belong to a terror drill participant.

...

A possible explosive was detected in the car owned by the wife of an official involved in the anti-terror drill, he was being cooperative, police said.

But it was unclear whether that was the only car that the bomb-sniffing dogs were reacting to, so police continued to search.

see what happens when you disagree with the president? he fucks your shit up and blames terrorists.

ps: TERROR!

Teresa Teater just called in.

She says all the Federal Emergency Management people are staying in the DoubleTree, but that a sniffer dog found something in one of their cars in the parking garage, apparently.

There are a bunch of people standing on the corners of NE 11th and Holladay, and the Doubletree has been evacuated, she says.

All the blocks are sealed off for a 6-block radius and the MAX has been shut down.

TriMet just now sent out a separate service bulletin which says:

"Due to a police action, the entire Yellow Line has been shut down. Buses are shuttling riders along the entire alignment from Rose Quarter Transit Center to Expo Center."

The Yellow Line doesn't past the DoubleTree hotel area... is this an unrelated incident, a drill at the PIR exercise area, or something more directly related?

not suprisingly, this is turning into an expensive tautological exercise

Fear breeds fear. Panic! Hysteria! AHHHH!

Guess the authorities don't know the difference between fear and reality unless there's blood. Usually, they create the blood themselves. Gives 'em an excuse for having a job.

After all, if nobody was afraid, would there be a reason for a police force? Or a "Department of Homeland (In)Security"?

I bet it's Lars Larson. Distracted everyone with his Kulongoski thing so he could follow the orders of his Dark lord Master Cheney and bomb Portland back to the stoner age.

"There are a bunch of people standing on the corners of NE 11th and Holladay, and the Doubletree has been evacuated, she says."

The people working at the hotel are still answering the phones and they claim no one was evacuated...

So, the DHS chief, whose job is to keep the country safe, comes to Portland and we get a bomb threat...

Hmm... if I failed that badly at my job, I'd be fired on the spot.

One of the earlier news reports I read (either I cannot find the original article now, or the article has been updated to remove information about the DoubleTree) said that DoubleTree guests were not being specifically evacuated, but people leaving the hotel were being told they could not return until the area was deemed safe.

TriMet is now reporting that the Yellow Line has reopened (no word on if the closure was related in any way), but the Red/Blue lines are still closed in the Lloyd Center area.