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A wildfire near The Dalles caused evacuations yesterday.
A wildfire near The Dalles caused evacuations yesterday. Oregon Office of State Fire Marshal

Good morning, Portland! We've got a little bit of heat relief this morning, but we're still looking at a high of 81 degrees today, so prepare accordingly.

And here are the headlines

• You may have heard rumblings about the awful drought causing tensions down in Southern Oregon, where some Klamath Basin farmers are threatening to break into a canal managed by the federal government in order to procure more water. Here's a helpful overview of the dynamics at play there from Jefferson Public Radio.

• More drought-related news: After a wildfire prompted evacuations in Wasco County yesterday, the fire is now under control, and residents are allowed to return to their homes.

• Read this excellent series on the hard work and minor gains of police reform in Portland over the last year:

• A coalition of left- and right-wing political parties in Israel have formed an alliance to oust current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and replace him with Naftali Bennett, the leader of one of Israel's right-wing parties. The coalition members don't agree on much other than the idea that Netanyahu needs to go, and they don't have shared values when it comes to the treatment of Palestinians.

• The sentencing trial of Derek Chauvin, the ex-cop who was found guilty of murdering George Floyd, is set to begin later this month. Prosecutors are seeking a 30-year sentence for Chauvin—but his legal team is requesting that Chauvin be released on time already served.

• Thanks to vaccinations, COVID-19 rates in the United States have fallen to levels not seen since March 2020, when the pandemic began in earnest here. Experts don't expect the country to see another summer surge like we had last year.

• It's train time, baby:

• As the Interstate-5 expansion project in Portland’s Rose Quarter lumbers forward, a question remains unanswered within the Black community: What does it mean for the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to address and repair the harm to the Black community caused by the original I-5 project?

• An independent report commissioned by the Oregon Legislature found that Rep. Mike Nearman "more likely than not intentionally assisted demonstrators" when he held the door open for armed right-wing protesters and let them into the Capitol building in Salem last year. (I wonder if the investigators for that report looked at Nearman's Facebook page?)

• And finally: Happy Pride month!