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Good Morning, Portland! It’s getting hot this weekend and into next week, with highs of 91 degrees on Sunday. Don’t forget to hydrate, water those plants, and check on your neighbors. Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• A Portland protestor who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in February was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison on Thursday. A judge sentenced Jacob Hoopes for a protestor-involved rock-throwing and a protestor-involved stop sign/battering ram at the local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility last June. Hoopes pleaded guilty after the feds used facial recognition technology to identify him, then arrest him at gunpoint in his home last July. Hoopes offered a brief comment on Bluesky Thursday, addressing the sentencing:
The Oregonian/Oregon Live has more on Hoopes’ sentencing here.
• Oregon has officially seceded from the union. A White House event called the Great American State Fair is expected to open on June 25, and will include UFC fights and, I’m guessing, a whole lot of lasers and logos. But Oregon pulled out of the event on Thursday, saying the cost of participating was too high, and it was shaping up to be a lot more partisan of an event than the White House initially proposed. Washington state also bailed on the semiquincentennial party, sealing the Pacific Northwest’s reputation as the coolest region in America. We’ll be over here doing our own thing, don’t worry about us, Mr. President. And yeah, your yard looks really cool.
• The interim director of Portland Parks and Recreation resigned this week, effective at the end of the month. Sonia Schmanski is the second Parks leader to leave in the past year, and she had stepped in as the interim when the previous director was placed on leave and later resigned. She is one of seven top city leaders to leave the city in the past year, and leaves amid a tense time for the parks bureau. Mayor Keith Wilson’s budget goes into effect July 1, the same day the new interim director, Art Pearce, will take over the bureau. If nothing changes, Parks is expected to lose dozens of positions and take significant funding cuts during a tough budget cycle. Earlier this week, City Council failed to reach a sufficient number of votes on proposals to save the jobs, and time is waning. Here’s more on Schmanski’s departure from the Mercury‘s Courtney Vaughn.
• It’s the weekend, and if you’re looking to get into something, the Mercury has you covered. Tonight, Kickstand Comedy presents Comedy in the Park at Laurelhurst (6 pm); on Saturday, the Portland Community College Music and Sonic Arts program wraps its third day of a student exhibition with live music (1-4 pm); and on Sunday, the Mercury celebrates the release of its Queer Issue with a drag brunch at Swan Dive (11 am). For more recommendations, check out Do This, Do That, here. And if you want to plan ahead, check out the June-July events in our Queer Issue, in print all over town or online here.
IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Elon Musk is likely to become the world’s first trillionaire today, after his company SpaceX debuted on the stock market at $1.77 trillion. This is good news for people named Elon Musk, but not great news for anyone who has to watch him rub it in their face for all of eternity. It’s also one sign of a healthy economy, and a healthy democracy, that one man can embarrass himself with riches while others can’t afford basic necessities. There is, however, always a tweet.
• President Donald Trump on Thursday stopped some planned attacks on Iran, saying the two countries are on the verge of a deal to stop the war. By Friday, Trump was saying Iranian state media incorrectly portrayed their deal, casting doubt on whether the agreement will be signed soon. And around and around we go. It is the 105th day of the US war on Iran, in which the US government appears to have committed a number of war crimes, including the demolition of civilian infrastructure. Read more on this and the US and Israel’s deadly military expansion in the region, here in Al Jazeera.
• The iconic British artist David Hockney has died at the age of 88. Hockney was most known for his paintings of pools that created a distinct California aesthetic, but also experimented with photo collage portraits, abstract landscapes, and 3D technology. Art scenesters reacted to the news on Friday, which you can read in the Guardian. Here are a few images of Hockney’s work:
• The Knicks and Spurs play Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday, back in San Antonio. The Spurs blew a 29-point lead in Game 4, allowing the Knicks the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history. The game starts at 5:30 pm Saturday, and it’s do-or-die for the Spurs. Read more here.
• And more sports news, here.
• Have a great weekend, and try not to overdo it:
