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Good morning, P-town! My apartment actually cooled down enough overnight to make me put on a light sweater this morning. Joy! Elation! Okay enough of that—onto the news.

In local news:

• The presumed statewide death toll from last week’s heatwave has climbed to at least 15 people. Seven of those deaths were recorded in Portland. Officials are not releasing names or additional details of where people were found until after an investigation is completed. Last year, most of the 69 heat-related deaths were renters in apartment buildings who lived alone.

• Salem restaurant Epilogue Kitchen has been subject to hundreds of hateful negative Yelp reviews, online harassment, and racist phone calls after a prominent anti-vaxxer made a stink about the restaurant’s indoor dining vaccine requirement in late June. Naomi Wolf, a writer whose gained attention for spreading COVID misinformation online, entered the Black-owned restaurant to complain about the policy, equating it to racial discrimination and segregation. “Every single day, people walk by,” said owner Jonathan Jones. “They flip us off, they yell ‘All Lives Matter.’”

"This was a bad choice," Judge Souede told Lewis at the sentencing hearing. "But it doesn't have to mean from here on out you make bad choices."https://t.co/3Ns1qhUPJM

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) August 1, 2022

• A fire at The Dalles Marina destroyed multiple houseboats and also briefly shuttered I-84 Monday night as fire fighters worked to control the flames. Wasco County fire fighters battled the fire for more than five hours before calling in additional resources from Portland to assist. The cause of the fire is currently unknown.

• During the official opening of Blumenauer Bridge—the new pedestrian and bike bridge over I-84 in Northeast Portland—on Sunday, bridge namesake and Congressman Earl Blumenauer called for a renewed investment in bike and pedestrian infrastructure to once again make Portland a national leader in cycling. Commuting by bike has declined in the city in recent years—even before the pandemic—despite Portland having more bike infrastructure than ever before. “Let’s commit to getting two million bicycles out of garages and attics,” Blumenauer said.

A growing number of people incarcerated at the Sheridan, Oregon, federal prison report beatings to attorneys, alleging retaliation for lawsuits over conditions. https://t.co/TCIU9PRQQ6

— OPB (@OPB) August 1, 2022

In national news:

• California became the third state to declare a state of emergency over Monkeypox Monday, following in New York and Illinois’s footsteps. The three states account for just under 50 percent of all 6,000 confirmed Monkeypox cases in the nation and are using the emergency declaration to hopefully increase access to the vaccine. Here’s our handy guide on everything you need to know about the virus as cases continue to pop up in Oregon.

• Banana Boat sunscreen is voluntarily recalling recent batches of its hair and scalp sunscreen spray after an internal review revealed that they contain trace levels of benzene. Benzene is a known carcinogen that can negatively impact a person’s bone marrow.

• In case you were wondering: “No, Choco Tacos were not ‘canceled’ by a ‘woke mob’”

"Justice has been delivered," says President Biden as he announced the killing of al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, adding, "If you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you." https://t.co/PpvC4cZhJq pic.twitter.com/m12FXFKG4R

— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 1, 2022

• Hours before polls opened for Missouri’s primary election, Donald Trump announced online that he was endorsing “ERIC” for US Senate. The catch: Both Republican candidates for US Senate are named Eric. Both candidates immediately took to social media to accept the former president’s endorsement and claimed that Trump personally called them.

• If you want to see the world’s tallest tree, you’re going to have to risk jail time and a $5,000 fine to do it. The Redwood National Park in California is urging people to stay away from Hyperion, the 380-foot-tall tree (taller than the Statue of Liberty), which has been damaged due to people hiking off trail to see it. Park employees have found trash and human waste at the closed site and are fearful of damage to the surrounding trees’ shallow root systems.

• Here’s to hoping we all get to see some new plants this week:

@chihuahuacedricofficial #tinydog #cutechihuahua #funnychihuahua #cutedogsoftiktok ♬ Love You So - The King Khan & BBQ Show