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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Hellooooooooo, SUMMER! ☀️😎💪👙🌴 It's the first day of the very best-est season of the year (fight me), and the clouds will soon be parting, the sun will be shining, and you can expect a balmy high today of 78 degrees (and 85 tomorrow)! Now get ready for some ☀️😎💪👙🌴 NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• In a story that should not surprise you—but if it does, please read the Mercury more often—the company that the city uses to conduct homeless sweeps, Rapid Response Bio Clean, has been ordered to pay a homeless person for her personal belongings that were carelessly thrown away by the company during a 2020 sweep. Don't be shocked if this is just the first of many such lawsuits spawned by these cruel and clearly inhumane sweeps. Our Courtney Vaughn has the story.

• Now that most of Oregon's runaway Republicans have decided to return to doing what taxpayers' pay them for, lawmakers are passing new bills at a furious pace—including one that would tighten up how much landlords can raise rents each year, as well as bills that would add a lot of money to the coffers for various needs such as disaster prep and response, food and child welfare assistance, raises for state employees and special ed teachers, funding gun background checks, community violence prevention programs, and a LOT more. (Oh and let's not forget about that $1 billion for the I-5 bridge replacement that critics are in an uproar about.)

• In other MONEY 🤑 NEWS: Portland City Council is considering giving a substantial raise to... city council—but it wouldn't start until 2025 when a new, 12-member council takes office. The intent is to pay city leaders a living wage so that we'll have a more diverse group of people in charge, and not just wealthy people who only care about the needs of their fellow wealthy people. (And a good morning to you, Commissioner Gonzalez!)

• If you're a fan of the very fun farming sim video game Stardew Valley, then you won't want to miss this interview with the creator, which among other things proves the game is set right here in the Pacific Northwest.

• Oh... and I mentioned earlier that it's now officially SUMMER, right?

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• As the search continues for the five missing people in a submersible that was touring the sunken Titanic, a Canadian military aircraft detected underwater sounds that could possibly be coming from the lost vessel—though authorities are rightly telling everyone to manage their expectations, as there is less than a day's worth of oxygen left on the submersible, which could be too deep to reach.

• And oh... then there's this....

• GREAT NEWS: A federal judge has permanently put the kibosh on Arkansas' cruel law that bans gender-affirming care for minors in that state. The judge rightly says it violates several sections of the US Constitution, which is going to make it very difficult for assholes in other states to try the same bullshit.

• In a first for the company, the Federal Trade Commission has sued Amazon for their alleged efforts to enroll customers in their Prime program without consent and then make it next to impossible for them to cancel. 

• Does this video remind you of a certain Betsy Johnson you might know?

• In corrupt Supreme Court news: Justice Samuel Alito has been caught accepting a luxury trip from a hedge fund billionaire, and failed to report it. Oh, and Alito also refused to recuse himself from a case when this very same hedge fund billionaire appeared before him in court. 

• Whoopsy-daisy headline of the day: "Trump calls for death penalty for drug dealers; Fox News reporter notes it would apply to woman he championed."

• And finally, once more for those in the back... DID I MENTION IT'S SUMMER??