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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! 👋
Morning fog turns to sunny skies today and a high of 72—which sounds like perfect weather to attend the HUMP! Film Festival Part Two (love that transition) featuring a whopping 25 brand new, filthy home-grown sex flicks made by lovable pervs just like YOU. But it's only playing this weekend and next, so snap up those tix, sexy pants! And now let's snap up some sexy pants NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• There are those who've been poop-talking Portland's groundbreaking Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) since the day it was born, but it looks like they'll soon have to eat their words. Due to the fund's massive overhaul, Portland City Council has approved PCEF’s recommended allocation of nearly $92 million in community grants, which means money will soon be rolling out to a whopping 71 cool projects, including energy efficiency upgrades in low-income housing complexes, an urban forestry internship program, and a plan to get more kids to walk to school. Our Taylor Griggs has the details.
Portland's recently-overhauled clean energy fund just received City Council approval to dole out $92 million in grants to local nonprofits. The funds will
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) September 12, 2024
support 71 local climate projects, from solar panel installation to a walking school bus program. https://t.co/a06CnZT2Sg
• Seven years ago, in response to climate activists pushing for homeowners to switch over from natural gas to electricity, NW Natural launched their "Less We Can" program which promised to produce so-called "renewable gas" from organic materials culled from landfills and dairy farms. They spent a million bucks in customer money to get the program off the ground, and yet? Today it sells little if any renewable gas, is fighting off lawsuits in court to keep producing natural gas, and according to this Propublica article, sells customers "as much fossil natural gas in an average year as it did before." Should we send them a towel to dry off after all that greenwashing?
• As for those poor souls who are grasping their pearls in horror—HORROR—over mayoral hopeful Carmen Rubio's surfeit of parking tickets, here's a question: Is she running for mayor or applying to be an Amazon driver? Personally I'm much more alarmed by a mayoral candidate who uses public tax dollars to clean up his Wikipedia page, take tents away from the homeless in the dead of winter, shows love to right wing extremists, calls 911 to report a Black woman brushing past him on the train, and remains weirdly obsessed with former Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty while wrongly calling her a voice for "anarchists," than say parking in a 15 minute zone for more than an hour. But maybe that's just me!
Dispatch from Portland’s first mayoral debate, a moment before sideways rain (somehow?!) began dumping on @shanedkavanaugh and I.
— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) September 12, 2024
Certainly set a tone for this election season: pic.twitter.com/xEX4ivS5XN
• Ninety-four percent, or 32,000 members, of Boeing's largest union have voted to go on on strike across the Pacific Northwest—and that includes 1,300 workers in the Portland area. Management failed to reach agreement with workers on a tentative contract, which asked for...*checks notes*... a living wage. "We have members still living in their cars at maxed-out pay because they cannot afford to live in this state and work at this company," says union steward Mike Corsetti.
• In the Mercury's absolute banger of a Fall Arts Guide (which can be found in print in more than 500 spots citywide, don'tchaknow), Joe Streckert has a review of A Fountain of Creativity: Oregon’s 20th Century Artists and the Legacy of Arlene Schnitzer which can currently be peeped at the Oregon Historical Society. What did Joe think? Well, it's a bit of a mixed bag—but not for the reasons you might think. Check it out.
Strap on your brains, it's time to play POP QUIZ PDX! This week's fun, local trivia quiz includes new pickleball establishments, hunky dreamboat actors, and (for those who are horny for religion) who is the hottest saint EVARRRR? 😇 See how well YOU score!https://t.co/QvEOBrjzUb
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) September 12, 2024
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• Veep Kamala Harris reportedly raised a whopping $47 million in campaign donations in the 24 hours following this week's debate against a certain orange convicted felon. (I wonder if he's starting to realize that his "humans eating dogs and cats" platform isn't working?) Meanwhile, he announced forcefully yesterday that he will NOT be debating Harris again—probably because he would need his ass returned to him first, before allowing it to be beaten and handed to him again.
SCOOP: ABC denied claims it gave Vice President @KamalaHarris the questions in advance, shooting down claims and insinuations made by right-wingers—chief among them Donald Trump—to excuse his debate performance on Tuesday. https://t.co/1LSwW2O32u
— Corbin Bolies (@CorbinBolies) September 13, 2024
• Meanwhile Trump's advisors are being to panic over his increasingly erratic behavior, which includes him palling around with far-right weirdo Laura Loomis, who is helping push absolutely ludicrous assertions including the one that immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are eating pets, and that 9/11 was "an inside job." This was especially troubling to his campaign since Loomis accompanied Trump to Wednesday's 9/11 memorial ceremony. 😬
• Today in "That sounds like a lot of water": "It took 50,000 gallons of water to put out Tesla Semi fire in California."
• Singer Justin Timberlake has apparently agreed to plead guilty to a charge of "driving while ability impaired"—which I suppose amounts to "drunk driving lite"—and carries a $300 to $500 fine and a 90-day license suspension in order for him to say "bye-bye-bye" to his recent arrest. (Heh. 😭 I'll see myself out.)
• And finally, who knew that Trump's weird obsession with eating cats and dogs would turn into the BANGER of the year?
@smoothjasmine Replying to @aiolidog @CasaDi was too quick with this mix 😂 #presidentialdebate ♬ Theyre eating the dogs Theyre eating the cats - CasaDi