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Good Afternoon, Portland! There's a story I got from a Frank O'Hara book where the poet would order a highball on his lunch breakā€”his recipe was: half something, half something else, and make it fastā€”but I can't remember what book it was in, or if it was just Lunch Poems. The Mercury's Highball week has way more on offer than something and something else. More than 30 bars and restaurants are serving up delicious, considered cocktails for just $8Ā  all week longā€”check it out! Now onto the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
ā€¢ Tomorrow, Portland City Council will vote on whether Portlanders should vote on the creation of a new city watchdog position. A Transparency Advocate would work to ensure the city follows public records laws, like posting meeting agendas and notes, and following best practices for government transparency. Portland's city auditor supports this idea, but government transparency is not exactly Oregon's style. Isabella Garcia has the story.

ā€¢ Biketown is raising its rates! Members of the electric bikeshare service will see their fares go from $0.10 a minute to $0.15ā€”and the rest of us are going from $0.20 to $0.30. Bike Portland has more.

ā€¢ There hasnā€™t been a Bumbershoot music festival in Seattle since 2019, and thatā€™s not just because of COVID. But this September, the weekend music fest will return to the Seattle Center under new production partner. The Stranger's Megan Selling has the details. Oh, there's wrestling now? Okay.

ā€¢ Will climate change eventually push Portlanders north? East? After spending significant time in post-disaster communities across the US, climate journalist Jake Bittle concluded that where we choose to live in the midst of ecological collapse is a question of belonging and economics. Itā€™s a ā€œfallacy,ā€ Bittle says, to think that people move from climate change-affected areas once the perceived risk is too high. Rather, they stay until itā€™s too economically difficult to do soā€”or until they donā€™t have a house, period. Bittle reads from The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration this Friday at Powell's. Learn more about his book in this review.

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
ā€¢ Today in bullshit, Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a long-delayed state-of-the-nation address today, to the country's lawmakers. His version of Russia's invasion of Ukraine sounded like a nine-year-old who has learned about sex for the first time and learned about it wrong. ā€œThe Ukrainian people have become hostages of the Kyiv regime and its Western masters,ā€ Putin said. Up until today, Russia had been ghosting inspectors from New STARTā€”a treaty intended to reduce the nuclear weapon arsenals of Russia and the US. Today Putin let them know he was ending things.

ā€¢Ā Today in "about fucking time," the EPA ordered Norfolk Southern Railway to pay for the cleanup of the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment that occurred three weeks ago, which likely poisoned the area's air and waterways. The EPA warned that failure to comply, would mean the agency would cleanup the surrounding environment and seek triple damages from the transportation company.

ā€¢ Much like the statue of RoboCop, in Detroit, the impending Cocaine Bear movie is going to disappoint us.

ā€¢ While I should be attaching today's Washington Post TikTok about misinformation, I am instead attaching today's Washington Post TikTok where Carmella Boykin just serves looks about environmental catastrophe.

@washingtonpost

A massive winter storm is set to impact much of the U.S. this week. In the East, temperatures are expected to be 25-30 degrees above average.

ā™¬ Worsaaaaa - āœØKae Da DonāœØ

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