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 MORNING, PORTLAND! Today will be temperate and dry, but there's a weather shakeup in our future, or so say some meteorologists: heads up for rain later this weekend and early next week. I am personally hoping for some torrential downpours to keep wildfire season at bay (and because I'm too lazy to water my plants) but we'll see. 

ALSO: order our "SAY NICE THINGS ABOUT PORTLAND" shirts! Anyone who's anyone will be donning one of them this summer, and you don't want to miss out on that, do you??! I didn't think so.

Onto the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

 Measure 113, the ballot measure aimed at stopping Oregon legislative walkouts has...not really done what it was supposed to, considering the ongoing Republican walkout threatening to ruin Oregon's entire legislative agenda. So Oregon Democrats want to go straight to the source: changing the quorum rules entirely, thus preventing walkouts from being an effective protest tactic. Abe Asher has the story

• Get yer tickets for Portland Drag-a-Thon, the Wildfang and Darcelle XV Showplace-hosted upcoming 48-hour drag performance. If "48-hour drag performance" isn't enough to entice you, take a look at the celebrity roster for the event. We've got Peppermint from RuPaul's Drag Race, Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen, Busy Phillips, Cheryl Strayed...and many more. Check out Suzette Smith's latest update on the drag event of the summer. 

• Like I said, wet weather alert!

• New plans for the I-5 bridge replacement/freeway expansion project show how bridge construction might impact Vancouver homes, and some 'Couv residents are, as expected, pissed. This is just the latest debacle for the Interstate Bridge Replacement team, who have an uncanny ability to rack up haters from across the ideological spectrum. 

A Beaverton teenager has been arrested for a string of armed robberies in north Portland. The authorities were apparently able to easily identify him because of his profane face tattoo. Dude! You need to choose between the face tattoo and the crimes—you can't have it both ways. You're making the entire face tattoo community look bad. 

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

 New 2024 GOP candidate just dropped: this time, it's Miami Mayor Francis Suarez. I don't know anything about the guy, but considering Donald Trump was indicted this week in his city and the governor of Florida is also running for prez, perhaps this will add some extra zest to the race. Great, just what we need! Things were getting boring. 

• A new Gallup poll shows that the majority of Americans continue to oppose the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade last year. But too bad: an unelected group of nine people (at least two of whom are known sex creeps) with basically unfettered power and no term limits actually know better than the American populace. We live in an awesome society! 

• However, the Supreme Court did vote 7-2 to uphold the Indian Child Welfare Act, keeping in place the system that aims to keep Native American kids in foster care with other Native families. This is a good thing, but keeping beneficial programs like this in place is kinda the bare minimum these people should be doing. 

MARINE LIFE UPDATE: There's been a rare orca sighting in New England, where killer whales have apparently been seen far from their native habitat commingling with dolphins and other whale species. This has led some Twitter users to speculate perhaps there is some interspecies organizing going on. All the better to attack yachts! 

• Finally, forget blue light blocking glasses...the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources might be cooking here...