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Good morning, Portland! Today is Tuesday, September 3. Hope you enjoyed Labor Day weekend. If you were bummed about yesterday’s gray, drizzly skies, don’t worry. Summer isn’t done with us yet. Today’s high temp will hover just below 80 with some lingering clouds, but by Wednesday, Portland is expected to hit the mid-90s. We could see 100+ degree days Thursday and Friday, so plan accordingly.

Pssst… wanna help prevent power outages? Avoid using power-hungry appliances like washing machines and dishwashers during peak heat. 

In Local News:

• The rollback of Measure 110 is officially here. House Bill 4002 took effect Sept. 1. The new law, which effectively recriminalizes small amounts of drugs that users could previously avoid jail time over if they agreed to undergo addiction treatment, aims to maintain the same off ramps. Multnomah County is currently working to open a “deflection center” for people who are willing to undergo drug treatment in lieu of jail. The linchpin in all this? Police. 

Portland Police Chief Bob Day told reporters on Friday that officers are now being given a script to follow when they observe someone with drugs. Essentially, they offer someone a chance to avoid jail if they agree to a “deflection” program. If the person agrees, police call a treatment coordinator to arrange intake. But if the coordinator doesn’t arrive at the scene within 30 minutes, officers will arrest and take the person to jail. After a weekend drug mission (sounds like high school, amirite?) PPB reports two people qualified for the diversion program, another four were arrested, and one person was cited. 

• Speaking of cops, two Portland officers were hit by an impaired driver over the weekend, while they were parked in their vehicles after responding to a call in North Portland. Police say a woman in a Chevrolet Tahoe sideswiped both police SUVs and was arrested on scene. The driver wasn’t injured, but one officer reportedly sustained a concussion and the other complained of shoulder pain. Both were taken to a hospital for evaluation. 

• In weird news (OK this was a Reddit post), an abandoned Everyday Music on Sandy Boulevard was apparently demolished with thousands of CDs and tapes still on the shelves. The store closed in 2022 and was scheduled to be demolished then, due to environmental contaminants lingering in the building from decades prior, when the site was used to manufacture swimwear. One Reddit user suggests the Everyday Music owners moved as much inventory as they could, but clearly didn’t get everything.

Abandoned retail store, Portland OR
byu/RangerPoundcake inabandoned

• For those of you waiting for the first leaf of fall to drop, check out this year’s corn maze, the MAiZe on Sauvie Island, which celebrates the 75th anniversary of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. Yes, the maze is cut in the shape of Snoopy, Charlie Brown, Lucy and the gang. For those of you under 25, Peanuts was a long-running comic strip that appeared in newspapers for 52 years until Schulz’s death in 2000. Sauvie Island is one of several corn mazes paying tribute to the beloved comic strip characters this year. After you’re done wandering through the field, check out a bevy of other events happening this month.

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by The MAiZE at The Pumpkin Patch (@portlandmaze)

Let’s cap off today’s local news roundup with a fun homage to Chappell Roan’s captivating hit “Hot to Go” filmed whilst trapped in train hell on Division Street.

@crocodile_tiers ifykyk 🙃💕 #pdx #portland #chappellroan #hottogo  @Destini Riley ♬ HOT TO GO! - Chappell Roan

In National/World News:

• This year’s Olympic games really left their mark on Paris, and the city’s mayor seems intent on keeping it. After the Olympics emblem was added to the Eiffel Tower to commemorate the events, Paris’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, recently said she’d like the rings to remain on the iconic tower. She told some press outlets that she decided the rings would stay, but critics note the decision may not be hers to make. Rightfully, cultural committee leaders and descendants of the tower’s designer say keeping a logo on a historic landmark is nothing short of tacky.

• Hundreds of thousands of protesters took to the streets of Israel over the weekend, to protest the lack of a cease-fire deal with Hamas, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s failure to bring Israeli hostages home. Protesters flooded streets in cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Caesarea, where Netanyahu has a home. Protesters gathered outside the prime minister’s residence there and lit fires, while others brought fake coffins to the site, to symbolize hostages who died in Hamas’s custody. The protests were coupled with a general strike that saw several businesses close for the day Monday.

• After an election that saw the country’s first far-right party win since World War II, Germany’s Social Democratic Party chancellor is pleading with the country’s mainstream political parties not to join forces with them. Olaf Scholz denounced the win of Alternative for Germany (AfD), a group characterized as anti-Islam and anti-immigrant that is being monitored for extremism by the country’s government, as reported by NBC.

• We know teens are particularly vulnerable to pressure and unrealistic beauty standards thanks to social media, but new reports suggest tweens are indulging in anti-aging skin care regimens and it’s damaging their pre-teen, sensitive skin. With the advent of beauty influencers flooding YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, girls as young as 10 are shopping at Sephora and using anti-aging products meant for women three to four times their age. The result is skin damage. Many of the products contain powerful, wrinkle-fighting ingredients formulated for adult skin. “‘I didn’t want to get wrinkles and look old,’ says Scarlett, who recently turned 11” is a quote that should horrify us.