BLOGTOWN

An explosion of COVID cases across the nation—and Oregon could be next. Spencer Platt / Getty News

Here's your daily roundup of all the latest local and national news. (Like our coverage? Please consider making a recurring contribution to the Mercury to keep it comin'!)

• NOT GREAT NEWS ON THE COVID FRONT: According to the Oregon Health Authority, if things continue as they're going, the state can expect an "exponential" growth of infections, to the tune of 1,100 to 7,300 new cases per day by the end of July. YOU SHOULD PROBABLY READ THAT LAST SENTENCE AGAIN. Also not great: Hospitalizations could ramp up to 76 people per day by month's end, which could strain our medical facilities to the breaking point. Our Alex Zielinski has more on the story, but in short, it ain't no joke: WASH YA DAMN HANDS, WEAR YA DAMN MASK. (Over your mouth and nose. And stay away from people, for Chrissakes.)

COVID-19 is spreading in Oregon faster now than ever before. The latest projections show that if we don’t get this under control, hospital emergency rooms & ICUs will fill up quickly.

WEAR. A. FACE. COVERING. #MaskUpOR pic.twitter.com/r5FmLyemwa
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) July 10, 2020

• The OHA reported 275 new positive COVID cases today with two new deaths.

• Very much related: State regulators are fielding hundreds of complaints from customers and employees that many businesses are not complying with Gov. Brown's mandate to wear face masks in indoor public stores and spaces.

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TikTok teens troll Trump once again. Anatoliy Sizov / iStock / Getty

GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Do you know I made him leave? Do you know he begged to stay with me? He wasn't man enough for me. LET'S GO TO PRESS.

• Yesterday marked a new record for Oregon coronavirus cases, with a whopping 389 new cases statewide and an additional six deaths. Health officials say that the outbreak is largely due to community gatherings and through the workplace.

DHS is using this "Protecting American Communities Task Force" and Trump's monument protection order to send federal agents to Portland's streets. We've been trying to get someone to answer accountability questions since July 4. No luck yet. https://t.co/ilVXp5fq8e

— Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas) July 10, 2020

• There was a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Lents yesterday to show support for a Black man who said he was attacked by two white men with a baseball bat on July 3. The suspects were reportedly hurling racist slurs at the victim.

• Good news for renters: The Oregon Court of Appeals ruled to uphold Portland's renter relocation ordinance, which says Portland landlords must cover tenants' housing relocation fees if they've raised rent by at least 10 percent or issued a no-cause eviction. Our Alex Zielinski has more!

Portland Police say gassing an entire crowd for the actions of a few is "unavoidable." Alex Zielinski

Here's your daily roundup of all the latest local and national news. (Like our coverage? Please consider making a recurring contribution to the Mercury to keep it comin'!)

• The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported that the state gained a whopping 389 new cases since yesterday (another sad new record), with six additional deaths. In a further disturbing revelation, OHA released data that shows Oregon's Pacific Islanders have contracted the virus three times as much as other communities.

Oregon tries to avoid future coronavirus testing shortage as national demand for testing kits soars https://t.co/qHlPu4fuWl

— Aimee Green (@o_aimee) July 9, 2020

• Finally, some positive COVID news: The survival rates for Oregonians who have been hospitalized by the virus have significantly improved since March.

• In a press conference yesterday, Portland police said that, according to their own rules, they really don't have a choice about whether or not to fire tear gas indiscriminately into crowds of protesters. Our Alex Zielinski has the details on this clearly screwed-up situation.

• Meanwhile, the head of the Portland police union is upset that city leaders aren't doing enough to stop protests, even while cops refuse to make systemic changes that could stop these very same protests.

Sekou Sumaworo says he was racially profiled for driving to work near a downtown Portland protest.

Police smashed his car window and charged him with 4 crimes, he told me.

"There's nowhere I'm going to go in America, as a Black man, thinking I'm safe."https://t.co/Hva0OywDbc

— Zane Sparling (@PDXzane) July 9, 2020

We need your help. The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is threatening our ability to keep producing the quality reporting you've come to love. If you’re able, please consider making a monthly contribution to the Mercury.

The Supreme Court allows New York prosecutor to see Trump's (almost certainly shady) tax returns. Matt Anderson / iStock / Getty Images Plus

• In what must be a stunning defeat for our utterly corrupt president, the Supreme Court voted in a 7-2 decision that New York prosecutors can now look at Trump's tax returns for their continuing investigation into his wildly shady financial dealings. The not-so-good news: The Supremes also ruled that Congress and the public cannot see his returns until after the election.

"In our judicial system, 'the public has a right to 'everyman’s evidence.' Since the earliest days of the Republic, 'every man' has included the President of the United States," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
— NPR Politics (@nprpolitics) July 9, 2020

A careful reading of the Supreme Court rulings related to the President’s financial records is not good news for President Trump. The Court has reaffirmed the Congress’s authority to conduct oversight on behalf of the people, as it asks for further information from the Congress.
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 9, 2020

• During last night's mostly peaceful protests in Portland, Federal officers rushed into Terry Schrunk Plaza to tackle and arrest a demonstrator that was reportedly pointing a laser.

• Officer Daryl Turner, the head of the Portland Police union, announced a vote of "no confidence" in Portland's City Council, saying they have not done enough to stop the nightly protests.

At a sprawling press conference yesterday, Portland police said nightly face-offs with protesters were unsustainable. When asked how the bureau plans to resolve those tensions, Deputy Chief Chris Davis said it's up to the community. https://t.co/satC0zYgyU
— Ryan Haas (@ryanjhaas) July 9, 2020

The Oregon Appeals Court affirmed that Jones David Hollister, center, should be allowed to change their legal gender designation to nonbinary on Wednesday. Doug Brown / ACLU OF OREGON

The decision, announced Wednesday morning, reverses a 2019 ruling from Lane County Circuit Court Judge Charles D. Carlson. Carlson had denied a petition from Jones David Hollister, a nonbinary Lane County resident, to change their legal designation to match their gender identity—and thus make them seen as a nonbinary person in the eyes of the law. The Oregon Appeals Court’s decision overturns that denial, and sets a precedent so that other nonbinary Oregonians won’t face the same hurdle when changing their legal gender designations.

“I am so thrilled,” Hollister said in a press release from the ACLU of Oregon and Basic Rights Oregon, which filed a legal brief in support of their case. “I'm thrilled for not just myself but for all nonbinary Oregonians. When I saw that the Court of Appeals had reversed the decision to refuse me a nonbinary marker, I honestly cried.”

We need your help. The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is threatening our ability to keep producing the quality reporting you've come to love. If you’re able, please consider making a monthly contribution to the Mercury.

Tat'âna Maramygina / EyeEm / Getty images

Good morning, Portland! Here, I brought some breakfast purritos:

Who wants a purrito 😍#CatsOfTwitter #cats pic.twitter.com/REbjEedvMT

— missenell (@missenell) July 2, 2020

Okay, here are the headlines.

• One year after the body of Titi Gulley—a Black, homeless trans woman—was found hanging from a tree in Portland, her family is still haunted by uncertainty about the cause of her death. And the death of George Floyd is bringing renewed attention to Titi's case. I recently spoke with Gulley's mother, and received the police report through a public records request.

• The Portland metro area has now all been in Phase 1 of Gov. Kate Brown's reopening plan for a couple weeks—but don't expect us to move into Phase 2 anytime soon. Public health officials want to at least wait and see what kind of affect the Fourth of July had on case counts before moving forward.

Titi Gulley, left, with her mother, Kenya Robinson. Photo courtesy of Kenya Robinson.

When Minneapolis police officers killed George Floyd in May, video footage of the murder set off a global wave of protests against police brutality and racism—protests that are still continuing in many cities, including Portland. In addition to demanding justice for Floyd, the protests have also brought renewed attention to other instances in which police officers have appeared to not value Black lives.

That includes the story of Portlander Titi Gulley. Gulley (whose name has also been spelled “TeTe”) was a homeless Black trangender woman whose body was found hanging from a tree in Rocky Butte Park on May 27, 2019. After examining Gulley’s body and interviewing two people from the homeless camp where Gulley was living, Portland Police Bureau (PPB) quickly determined Gulley’s death was a suicide.

But Gulley’s family disagreed with PPB’s conclusion. They heard from Gulley’s friends and acquaintances that there were rumors of foul play swirling in the Portland homeless community, and that possible video evidence existed of Gulley’s death. Many of the rumors centered on the theory that Gulley was killed by a man she’d had a sexual relationship with, who killed her because he wanted to keep his relationship with a trans woman secret. (Gay men and trans women are often killed by their romantic partners for this reason, a practice that is called “gay panic” or “trans panic.”) This man is named in the police report as the person who found Gulley’s body.

Gulley’s mother and two siblings told the Mercury last year that they felt Gulley’s identity as a trans, Black, homeless person prompted PPB to not apply a high level of scrutiny to its investigation.

“You know they treat a lot of homeless people like they don’t mean nothing to this earth, right?” said Richard Bryant, Gulley’s brother, in an interview with the Mercury last year. “So in the homeless community, other people are willing to do hurt to more people, because they know their voices won’t be heard. They’re just homeless.”

We need your help. The economic fallout of the coronavirus crisis is threatening our ability to keep producing the quality reporting you've come to love. If you’re able, please consider donating to the Mercury.

Brandon Bell / Stringer

Closed Borders Down Under: Australia is taking the drastic step to close the borders of Victoria, one of the country's most populous states, to prevent the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak in the state capital, Melbourne. Military officers and police with "line the border," to enforce the rule.

Xenophobia for All: The cruel leaders of US immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have ordered all international students attending university in the US to return home if their school will be online-only the next semester. If these people who have committed no crime don't leave the US, ICE warns, the students will be deported.

Victory for Standing Rock (For Now): A federal judge has ordered that the Dakota Access Pipeline must be drained while the Army Corps of Engineers produces an environmental review. The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which lives downstream from the pipeline, sued the Corps in 2016 for an incomplete and illegal review of the massive project. "It took four long years, but today justice has been served at Standing Rock," said the lawyer who represents the tribe, in a statement.

Welp:

Breaking News: President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has tested positive for the coronavirus after months of dismissing its seriousness. More than 65,000 Brazilians have died. https://t.co/oNfTNd79SH
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 7, 2020

"She Suffered": The family of Breonna Taylor—the Black woman killed in a Louisville police raid in March—has sued the City of Louisville, claiming that police officers declined to offer medical aid to Taylor as she lay dying in her apartment. “In the six minutes that elapsed from the time Breonna was shot, to the time she died, we have no evidence suggesting that any officer made entry in an attempt to check and assist her,” said the family’s lawyer in an interview with the New York Times. “She suffered."