The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!
Good Afternoon, Portland! How’s this sudden Tuesday treating you? Topping off at 77-78 degrees, this week will see a number of warm, sunny days—SO OF COURSE WE’RE VERY WORRIED ABOUT IT. Here’s the news!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Today, in stuff you’re just getting around to on Tuesday: Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan appeared on Think Out Loud to assure voters that Oregon’s voting system is trustworthy, and state Treasurer Tobias Read endorsed his former opponent Tina Kotek in her run for Oregon governor.
• Another employee of Oregon’s prisons has been accused of sexual abuse and harassment. OPB’s Conrad Wilson reports:
Ruben Benavidez, who was most recently a correctional officer at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem, is accused of coercing inmates into sexual acts that he would record on his cellphone. By @conradjwilson: https://t.co/GZNJttPXMF
— OPB (@OPB) May 28, 2022
• This week’s Savage Love column delves into the power imbalances of “Daddy and His Boy” vacations—and what a boy might do to keep the playing field equal, despite a significant income differences.
• Are you back from the three day weekend and looking to do more things? Well, the Mercury‘s Everout team has you covered:
It may be a short work week for some, but the events calendar has no shortage of fun things to do, from New Kids On The Block to Dinolandia and from Rent to the Starlight Parade. https://t.co/SAE3SrvIdo
— EverOut Portland (@EverOutPortland) May 31, 2022
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal the owners of Elvis’ “image and likeness,” Authentic Brands Group, sent out several cease-and-desist letters to Elvis-themed chapels in Nevada, insisting that they abandon the branded likeness of Elvis Presley. “What are they protecting by taking Elvis away from the public?” Kent Ripley, owner of Elvis Weddings, asked.
• President Biden explained parts of his administration’s plan to fight inflation today. The Hill reports that he proposes re-empowering the Federal Reserve, reforming the US tax code, and making goods more affordable for US residents by “cracking down on the exorbitant fees that foreign ocean freight companies charge to move products.”
• I’m not going to link to anything, but I want you to know that the embarrassment of coverage that has been the Depp v. Heard trial has reached jury deliberation and will potentially be over soon.
• SPEAKING OF SWEET JUSTICE:
A doctor in Southern California who sold “Covid-19 treatment packs” during the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic was sentenced late last week to prison, prosecutors said.https://t.co/iUPjvdvUuc
— The New York Times (@nytimes) May 30, 2022
• THE MONA LISA HAS BEEN CAKED. I repeat, the Mona Lisa has been caked. On Sunday, a visitor to the Louvre museum in Paris smuggled in a piece of cake and threw it at the world-famous Italian Renaissance portrait. A statement from the Museum described the incident: “While standing near the painting, this individual threw a pastry he had hidden in his personal belongings at the Mona Lisa’s glass case. This act had no effect on the painting.”
• And now for your moment of cat being a cat:
