First of all, I'm taking over Matt Davis's slot on the KPOJ Morning Show, so you can now hear a condensed audio version of the Mercury news section every Thursday morning at 8 AM on the radio. Today's show is already up online, where you can listen to me discuss pie and drunken sailors in my gruff morning voice.

Anyway, here are this week's headlines:

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  • jack pollock
Sinking Ship: Prisons Try to Improve Mental Health Services; They Cut Them Instead. Oh, the Irony.

Heat Week: The Rose Festival isn't all family fun and funnel cake. Crime spikes thanks, in part, to drunken sailors.

In the Shadows: Bike Patrol! Hit the streets with the parole officers who bike around Portland's unsavory areas and cheap hotels, looking for guys who have skipped out on parole.

A Handful of Tickets: A lawyer weighs in on why the TriMet driver who accidentally killed two pedestrians will be receiving only traffic tickets.

Hall Monitor: Respectful Silence. My first City Hall column details times when it's better just to shut up (like when the mayor, thank God, refrained from tweeting during a funeral).