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Goooooood morning, Portland! If you’re feeling thirsty on this lovely Thursday, may I suggest grabbing a $6 boozy slushie from one of the bars participating in the Mercury’s Summer of Slushies, happening now through the 14th? Food for thought. Now, onto some news for thought.

In local news:

• Before school sports restart this fall, all athletic directors and coaches at Oregon schools must take a new training to help stop racist and discriminatory incidents. The training, created by the Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA), follows an increase in racist incidents at OSAA events last school year.

• Fact check: A recent campaign ad from Republican Gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan claims fellow candidates Tina Kotek and Betsy Johnson “helped Kate Brown push through a massive sales tax when we could least afford it.” Oregon famously does not have a sales tax, so what Drazan is actually referring to is the 2019 Fund for Student Success bill. The bill collects $250 plus a 0.57% tax on all gross receipts from businesses with more than $1 million in sales. According to KGW, the tax generates about $1 billion per year for Oregon’s public education system. Drazan and other critics believe that businesses pass the cost of the tax onto customers.

• Making use of old home movies and crisp HD videos, Sam Now is a painful and poetic investigation into the titular character’s missing mother and her troubled family. Check out Chase Hutchinson’s preview of the documentary, showing at the Portland Art Museum this Friday.

• Like many other places in the US, Oregon is going through a bit of a housing shortage, with some experts estimating that the state is short about 111,000 housing units (yikes). Our next Governor—whoever she may be—will play a critical role in whether Oregon bops or flops when in comes to addressing the shortage in the next four years. Here’s what each gubernatorial candidate thinks the state should do to respond to the shortage.

In national news:

• Jurors in the Parkland shooting trial will walk through the school building today where a gunman massacred 14 students on February 14, 2018. The building has been preserved for the past four years as a court exhibit, meaning jurors will be able to see all of the bullet holes, blood smears, and rotten flowers from Valentines Day celebrations still in the building. Jurors are tasked with deciding whether the gunman receives a death sentence or life without parole.

• According to a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday, a suburban Boston police officer pursuing a white suspect pinned a young Black man on the ground—placing his knee on the man’s neck—despite having no evidence that he was involved in the crime. The man was walking home from work in February 2021 when the officer ran towards him, drew his gun, and pinned him to the ground, the lawsuit claims. He was released by police only after the actual suspect and the victim of the crime confirmed that they did not know him.

• The NFL is calling for a more significant punishment for Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, who was suspended for six games after two dozen women accused him of sexual misconduct. Watson’s six game suspension was determined by the NFL’s disciplinary officer on Monday, but the league appealed the decision Wednesday, requesting Watson undergo mandatory “treatment,” pay an $8 million fine, and receive a 12-game suspension.

• Breaking: A Russian judge sentenced American WNBA player Brittney Griner to nine years in prison for drug possession and smuggling Thursday morning. 

• I will be buying a watermelon at the store today, consider me influenced.