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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Hey, sun lovers! Get ready for a couple of gorgeous-to-mostly-gorgeous days with a high of 72 today and 78 (!) tomorrow! And now let's take a look at the 100 percent gorgeous NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

ā€¢ A jaw-dropping moment in yesterday's city council meeting: On Wednesday, commissioners unanimously voted to approve a Portland Police "emergency request" to purchase a million bucks-worth of additional less-lethal munitions (even though they currently have plenty in stock) to prepare for the upcoming November elections. (I know... there is a LOT to unpack thereā€”for example, cops always seem to be planning for escalation rather than de-escalation... but let's continue.) When Chris Olson, a city council candidate, noted that police refused to intervene when a driver dangerously sped his car into a PSU protest and pepper-sprayed demonstrators on May 2, Mayor Wheeler chastised the protesters instead for not dispersing, saying the following: "[Refusing to leave the area] is an act of defiance... and you shouldn't whine, complain, and cry when there are consequences for that act of defiance." (YIKES. Looks like the increasingly conservative Rene Gonzalez is rubbing off on him.) Our Courtney Vaughn has more.

ā€¢ Speaking of police abuse, two Portland State students are suing the school and city for using force and injuring them during a peaceful campus protest against Israel's continued genocide of the Palestinian people. While police claim that the group of students blocked a garage entrance which was slowing response to an officer medical emergency, the alleged abuse took place before the blockade. The city and school are being sued for $7,000ā€”since 2020, Portland Police have paid out nearly $2.85 million due to lawsuits stemming from violence committed against protesters.

ā€¢ Governor Tina Kotek is asking the Oregon Public Defense Commission to act with urgency to solve Oregon's critical lack of public defense attorneys, citing the fact that currently 3,200 defendants in the state are currently without representation. She is giving them until August 1 to present her with a plan to ā€œeliminate Oregonā€™s unrepresented client crisis."

ā€¢ Police shot a Northeast Portland man yesterday, claiming he was carrying a rifle while trying to evade authorities after the bureauā€™s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit attempted to serve a warrant. As per usual, the police are slow to get their stories straight to release details, but this is the third Portland Police shooting of 2024.

ā€¢ In labor news, nurses at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver have reached a tentative contract agreement with management which will award them a pay bump of up to 18.4 percent over two years, and making them among the highest paid nurses in the state.

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

ā€¢ The jury is back for their second day of deliberations in the criminal hush money trial of Donald Trump. It's expected they will re-familiarize themselves with testimony of Trump's schemes with the publisher of the National Enquirer, to ascertain what the former president did or did not know about the plan to bury stories about his many sexual dalliances (and payoffs) prior to the 2016 election.

ā€¢ To the surprise of no one, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told lawmakers yesterday that he has no intention of recusing himself from future January 6 trials, despite the fact that two extreme right-wing flags were flown on his property. Alitoā€”once again, no surpriseā€”is blaming his wife for the flags, saying that she's the one supporting insurrectionists... not him. UMMMM-HMMMM.Ā 

ā€¢ According to weapons experts, Israel used at least one US-made bomb in their horrific air strike on Gaza's southern city of Rafah, which killed at least 45 people (including women and children). This newest wave of deaths is apparently not enough to convince the Biden administration that Israel has crossed the "red line" which would lead them to pull their support of the country... however, I'm going to leave this sentence right here, so you can decide for yourself if a line has been crossed. "[Palestinian journalist Alam Sadeq] said he encountered horrific scenes in the aftermath of the strike, including charred corpses, blood-spattered bread and a man searching for his cousinā€™s head. He held a girlā€™s brain in one hand and a bag full of body parts in the other."

ā€¢ Meanwhile in "death from above" news from America: "Amazon gets FAA approval that allows it to expand drone deliveries for online orders."

ā€¢ And finally... when someone's trying to wake me up to write Good Morning, News.