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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! 👋

Oooh, summer is coming back with a vengeance, as temps will hop up to 93 today and as high as 97 by Saturday! (Note: I'm pretending to be upset by this, just to patronize you sun haters, but as for me? I love the HOT. Now... where was I? Oh, yeah....) Oh, isn't that terrible? Please bring back cloudy skies, boo-hoo-hoo! Now let's read some NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Welp, here's a dose of morning bullshit: Despite the fact that at least 30 pro-Palestine demonstrators have been arrested in Portland since Israel's mass murder campaign began, a man who drove his car into a group of protesters on the PSU campus and maced activists is facing ZERO charges. Why didn't PSU campus cops forward the case to the Multnomah County District Attorney's Office for prosecution? You're not going to like the answer, which you'll find in this infuriating, but illuminating, story from Kevin Foster.

• STRIKE ALERT! Thousands of Fred Meyer grocery workers are currently on strike, and intend to remain so through the Labor Day weekend. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 are claiming that the company is "refusing to provide essential information for current negotiations," and have filed several Unfair Labor Practice claims against Fred Meyer management. (So maybe buy your White Claws from somewhere else, or be declared a SCAB forever? Sounds like an easy choice to me.) Our Taylor Griggs has the details!

• One of the oldest alternative medicine schools in the country, the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine located downtown, is closing its doors forever this week, blaming the usual bugaboos for its downfall—post-pandemic rising costs, declining enrollment, and the central city's homeless population. HOWEVER, according to their students, college officials are failing to disclose years of mismanagement including extensive staff turnover and encouraging predatory loan practices, in which they persuaded students to take out hundreds of thousands in loans, while obscuring the fact that after graduation they'd be making less than the average high school graduate.

• As you may know, the Comedy in the Park series—in which local and national stand-ups perform in Laurelhurst Park all summer—is a certifiable and fun banger, where you can find up to 4,000 audience members! However, did you know about the upcoming all day Comedy in the Park festival? I would tell you all about it, but since I know how much you love to read, I'll allow writer/photographer Corbin Smith to explain in this excellent Mercury article.

• Good news for our neighbors to the west (and by association, the rest of us): Yesterday TriMet unveiled the new MAX Red Line extension into Hillsboro, which will include 10 stops ending at Portland International Airport. Officials say the $215 million expansion—roughly half of which was provided by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA)—should help reduce traffic in the Portland metro area.

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Trump and his bumbling campaign cannot help stepping on rakes—and yesterday was no different as they are getting smoked for breaking federal law and snapping politicized photos in a restricted area at Arlington National Cemetery. After being explicitly told to respect the rules, they acted like jackasses anyway and two of them reportedly shoved and verbally attacked a member of the cemetery staff. Democratic US Rep. Gerry Connolly is demanding more information on the incident, saying, “It’s sad but all too expected that Donald Trump would desecrate this hallowed ground and put campaign politics ahead of honoring our heroes," adding that “his behavior and that of his campaign is abhorrent and shameful.”

• Meanwhile, Veep Kamala Harris and running mate Tim "Ballz to the" Walz will sit down with CNN for their first in-depth interview with the press since their debut in the presidential race, which will air at 6 pm PST tonight. Harris has endured criticism—not the kind one might receive from desecrating the memory of military heroes, but still—for shying away from some of the tougher questions, such as her views on the continuing genocide of Palestinians, and this interview could give her the opportunity to gain more voters... or perhaps lose them. 

• Tough news for "brain worm" candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Even though he has left the presidential race to endorse a convicted felon (you know who), a few battleground states, including Michigan and Wisconisn, are refusing to take him off the ballot, which could take critical votes away from... you know who. Creepy Kennedy wanted it both ways—keeping his name on the ballot in solidly blue states, like Oregon, while hopping off the ballot in states that could swing Trump's way. (Damn it... I meant "you know who.")

• The CIA and other US intelligence agencies were reportedly instrumental in stopping an ISIS-inspired, well-planned suicide attack on an Austrian Taylor Swift concert, in which terrorists allegedly intended to murder “tens of thousands of people." Three teenage suspects have been arrested, and "a stockpile of chemicals, explosive devices, detonators, and  roughly $22,944 in counterfeit cash" was discovered in the home of the group's ringleader.

• And finally... pause for a moment.. and allow her to BLOW YOUR MIND.

@sneakz.streetz Weekend Thoughts 😋😎🤔 #random #thoughts #seriouslybruhlikewhy #angelvoice #what ♬ original sound  - Sneakz & Streetz