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Good morning, Portland! You made it through another scorching weekend to be rewarded with some cooler temps in the 80s—and potential thunderstorms?! Also, here's your warning to being making space in your belly this week to fill with $8 burgers starting next Monday, when we're blessed with the annual spectacle that is the Mercury's Burger Week!

- Despite cancer scientists finding that the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup to be carcinogenic, the city of Portland continues to use it in its public parks system. Nichole Linehan, a city parks employee, shrugged the concern in an interview with the Oregonian, where she gave this cryptic statement: “Anything is a risk,” Linehan said. “Drinking too much water can be harmful to you. …Eating too much ice cream can be harmful. Taking too much aspirin can be harmful.”

- Here’s a sad sailor shanty of a story about old men who live in Oregon coastal towns who reminisce about  the time when roving packs of feral cats ruled the shores. 

- Sherry Hall is at it again, ya’ll. Clackamas County’s elections office—led by Hall—has to re-send voting pamphlets to nearly 4,000 Oregon City households after the initial pamphlets didn’t include any information about the coming special election for mayor. You may remember Hall from her past hits “I Took a Month to Tally Election Results—What of It?” and “Nope, I Won’t Conduct Same-Sex Marriage Ceremonies Even Though It Is My Job.” 

See last weekend’s Pickathon magic through photographer Mathieu Lewis-Rolland’s lens: 

- After weeks of  negotiations, the US Senate on Sunday passed a $750 billion health care, tax, and climate bill led by Senate Democrats. If passed by the House later this week, the bill—named the Inflation Reduction Act—would be the largest climate investment in US history. What’s more, it would give Medicare the ability to negotiate drug prices AND reduce the national deficit. Seems good? 

-Then men convicted for murdering Ahmaud Arbery in a Georgia neighborhood face a second round of criminal penalties Monday for federal hate crimes committed in the deadly pursuit of Arbery. This comes after all three men were sentenced to life behind bars in February. 

- Law enforcement suspects that the slaying of four Muslim men in New Mexico over an 8-month period may be connected. The horrific trend understandably has New Mexico Muslims on high alert—with many afraid to leave their homes.

- Israel and Palestinian militants agreed to a ceasefire Sunday on the heels of nearly three days of violence that killed dozens of Palestinians. The UN Security Council scheduled an emergency meeting Monday to address the recent violence, which was the worst seen in Gaza since 2021's 11-day war last year. 

- I leave you with this slightly uplifting read: