The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

Good morning, Portland! It’s gonna get toasty today, with a high of 82 degrees and a low of 51. The sunshine should stick around through the week. 

In Local News: 

• Clean energy cash: There’s been a lot of chatter about the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF) lately. The fund–which uses a 1 percent sales tax on large retailers to pay for clean energy projects and climate-oriented programs–has raked in much more money than initially expected. For the second year in a row, city leaders are toying with the idea of dipping into PCEF money to use for unrelated purposes, to help close a gaping budget gap. 

The current City Council has mixed feelings about using PCEF funds for purposes other than what voters intended, but one councilor has emerged with a different solution: use PCEF to loan the city money for next year’s Portland Parks & Recreation budget. District 4 City Councilor Mitch Green is proposing the loan as a way to reduce cuts to the Parks Bureau without permanently taking funds away from PCEF. Taylor Griggs broke the story yesterday. 

Councilor Mitch Green is the latest Portland leader to suggest leveraging clean energy fund dollars for other budget woes. In a plan released today, Green proposed the city take out a short-term loan from unspent PCEF funds to pay for parks programs on the chopping block in next year’s budget.

[image or embed]

— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) May 5, 2025 at 3:33 PM

• Failure to merge: A long-awaited merger between OHSU and Legacy Health appears to have stalled. A move that would've seen OHSU essentially buy and absorb Legacy Health was called off Monday, with both parties saying they’d re-evaluated the circumstances and decided it’s best for both organizations to remain independent entities. The termination of the merger attempt comes after several setbacks, including the loss of grant funding for OHSU, Legacy nurses’ intent to join the Oregon Nurses Association union, the exit of the Knight Cancer Institute’s leading doctor, and most recently, a community review board’s vote to recommend the Oregon Health Authority reject the merger request. 

• Bad business: The School of Business at the University of Portland has stripped Robert B. Pamplin Jr’s name from its school. The university said in a recent statement that the association with Pamplin was “subject to an agreement that has concluded.” Whether the naming rights to the University of Portland’s business school were a temporary deal is unclear. News organizations have been quick to point out that the change comes after Pamplin Corp., the company that previously ran Pamplin Media Group until the company’s sale last year, copped to an illegal arrangement that compromised the pension account of the company’s retirees. Pamplin Corp. admitted to illegally trading assets in the pension account with low-value, troubled real estate holdings the company had.  

• Get out: Finally ready to exit your hibernation and embrace the onslaught of Portland events happening this week? EverOut has you covered. 

Looking for fun this week? Check out our top picks which includes events from Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds to the Oregon Humane Society's Doggie Dash and from Viet Thanh Nguyen to Masha Gessen. 🏃‍♀️

[image or embed]

— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) May 5, 2025 at 10:41 AM
@middleclassfancy Proper form ✅ #tupperware #throwing #kitchen #cabinet ♬ original sound - middleclassfancy

In National/World News:

• Get Real: If you’re a thrill-seeker who plans on traveling on a plane soon (testing your luck, eh?), you’re going to want to make sure you have either a current passport, or a Real ID. The national deadline for having compliant identification is May 7. But why have we been hearing about this boogeyman Real ID deadline for years, and why is each state’s Real ID card different? NPR explains why.

 

• No mirrors, please: Leading Democrats love to point out Trump's tanking approval ratings, but are conveniently ignoring their own dismal public polling numbers. Why? Semafor delves into the hypocrisy problem of Dems who can't learn how to be effective, accountable leaders during a period when it's crucial for them to win back Congressional seats.

 

•MAGA's war on movies: Trump's plan to tariff foreign film imports has Hollywood biting its nails. US-made films get the bulk of their revenue from international markets, meaning this ill-thought-out proposal to tariff the shit out of everything (because...'Merica!) could really hurt the American film industry. Axios has some interesting data. 

 

Finally, we present: wholesome content