Look your best (and support local journalism) by purchasing a new Mercury T-shirt! Check out this monthās hot designs here!
Happy Monday, Portland! Iāve been out of the office for a week, so I am in dire need of a hearty news roundup this morning. Let's dive in.
Pssst ā If you donāt have time, hereās the SparkNotes:
Every headline now is either āWhy everyone under 40 will boil aliveā or āGuy who wore shirt saying I Will Never Die of Covid dies of covidā
ā Jess Dweck (@TheDweck) August 30, 2021
- Portland police have identified 30-year-old Alexander Tadros as the man fatally shot by PPB officers Joshua Howery and Jake Ramsey Friday morning in North Portland, after Tadros fired a gun at the officers. Portland police were summoned to the scene by DEA agents, who were in the process of serving Tadros with a warrant when he threatened them with a firearm.
- The city of Portland denied a crucial permit to Zenith Energy on Friday, labeling the oil transport facilityās operations in conflict with the city's climate goals. The denial could force the controversial Zenith facility to shut down completely.
- Calls to Oregonās poison control center regarding the ingestion of ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug for farm animals, have increased threefold this monthāthanks to the publicās blind trust of nonscientific social media threads posted by anti-vaxxers. The state politely refers to this #tidepodchallenge-meets-libertarian trend as the āintentional misuseā of the veterinary drug.
Revenge is delicious. ššŖ #RCTID pic.twitter.com/1JDJYuZOpa
ā Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) August 30, 2021
- Oregonās Tillamook and Josephine counties have both requested refrigerated trucks to hold dead bodies as the COVID-19 death toll has surpassed the capacity of county morgues.
- A headline no one wants to envision: āDelta-Fueled Infections Are Moving Through Rural, Southern Oregon 'Like A Buzzsaw'ā
- On Friday, a jury found David Bogdanov guilty of murdering Vancouver teen Nikki Kuhnhausen in 2019. Bogdanov had met up with Kuhnhausen for a date, but killed her after learning that she was transgender. Bogdanov was found guilty on both counts against him: second-degree murder and malicious harassment, which is considered a hate crime in Washington.
- On the heels of last weekās ISIS terror attack on the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul that killed more than 170 people, the US bombed a car carrying ISIS members allegedly involved in the airport attack. At least three children were also killed in the US drone attack.
- A conservative Florida radio host who called himself "Mr Anti-Vax" has died of COVID. According to Politico, Marc Bernier is the third conservative radio host and vaccine skeptic to die of the virus in recent months.
- Hurricane Ida has hit southern Louisiana with extreme winds, flash flooding, and major power outages, deeming it one of the strongest storms in US history. The human impact of the storm comes as a challenge to the state's hospital systems, which are already crowded with COVID-19 patients.
- In other climate-change-is-destroying-civilization news: California's Caldor Fire forced evacuations along Lake Tahoe Sunday. The state's growing wildfires have prompted officials to call in US army soldiers to help battle the flames.
Here's an apocalyptic look at the Chaparral Fire in Southern Californiaās San Diego County:
In California, fire conditions are so intense that they are once again spawning firenadoes. This is from the Chaparral Fire burning just west of Temecula pic.twitter.com/a1ML4BCg6O
ā Brian Kahn (@blkahn) August 29, 2021