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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND!👋

Get ready for two days of hot, sunny weather here in Portland, with highs topping out at 90 today and tomorrow, before....KRRRRR-ASSSHING down to 75 and cloudy weather on Wednesday. (This up & down weather is really making me question my thong decisions!) And now, let us put on a thong of NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• It's not the first time, and it won't be the last, but the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office is getting sued AGAIN—this time for civil rights violations after deputies forced two Muslim women to remove their hijabs and then photographed them without their head coverings. The incident took place in 2024 when the two women were arrested at a peaceful pro-Palestine demonstration, and then forced to remove their hijabs. It's considered inappropriate for Muslim women to be seen without their hijab by men, and their request for a woman deputy was refused. While the MCSO admitted they goofed at the time, they refuse to reveal if the officers were disciplined for their actions. Our Courtney Vaughn has more!

Two Muslim women attending a protest in 2024 were arrested and later forced to remove their hijabs at the Multnomah County Jail. A new lawsuit alleges jail deputies violated the women's civil rights. The Sheriff’s Office has protocols for hijab removals that don't appear to have been followed.

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) July 7, 2025 at 8:17 AM

• Despite fireworks being banned in Portland since 2022... surprise!... thoughtless dingdongs blew them up anyway over the long weekend, resulting in a whopping 4,000 calls to the Portland Police's new fireworks reporting system. And that was just on Saturday, as roughly 1,000 reports were made on Friday, and 500 on Thursday. The cops say they will use the reports to determine "hotspots," so they can decide where to send extra patrols next year.

• The former workers of SE Portland's Shoofly Bakery have reportedly signed a lease on a new space after their attempts to purchase the bakery from their former boss disintegrated. The Shoofly staff had walked out on May 2 after allegations about late paychecks—a claim the employer denies. In any case, Shoofly stands empty and the employees are moving on to (hopefully) greener pastures—AKA their very own bakery on NE Halsey. Our Courtney Vaughn has the details. 

• The number of times federal ICE agents have requested help from Oregon law enforcement agencies has risen dramatically—and I mean, really dramatically—over the past year, to the tune of 265 percent. As you know, Oregon is a sanctuary state and is therefore not allowed to assist ICE in their evil plans, and reportedly only helped them in two cases... one that turned out to not be related to immigration, and another related to supplying information that was already public knowledge. 

Inspired by Dante's Inferno, Portland Experimental Theatre Ensemble's new play is a tour of... Divine Comedy.

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) July 4, 2025 at 10:58 AM

• The wealthy denizens of Lake Oswego were up to their old, classist tricks last week when they once again tried to ban non-residents from enjoying their namesake lake during the week of July 4. They had been previously ordered by the court to open up the lake to non-millionaires, and were obviously trying to skirt around the issue by closing the only entry point the general public has to access the body of water. After threats of even more legal action, the Lake O snoots agreed to reopen the lake for eight hours on July 4. (Will you please get a load of these guys! 🙄)

Since there are so many amazing Pride events happening around town, we've highlighted fierce fetes like Dollapalooza: Dolls4Ever and The Sports Bra's Pride Block Party so you can lock in your plans. Check out our top Pride picks!

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) July 5, 2025 at 3:30 PM

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• In unbelievably tragic news, officials at Camp Mystic—a children's camp in Texas—are saying that 27 young girls and staff were killed during the massive flash flood that left at least 80 dead. Ten girls and at least one staff member remain missing. The overall number of missing people in the area remains unclear. Local officials are getting ripped for not doing more to warn the public before the flood occurred, and even Homeland Security Chief Kristi Noem (AKA "ICE Barbie") was on the scene to assure Texans that Trump would prioritize more funding for the National Weather Service to develop a better warning system—the same national agency that was recently gutted by Trump's DOGE lackeys.

• Today in "No Shit, Sherlock":

Crucial roles were vacant at local National Weather Service offices as severe rainfall hit parts of Central Texas on Friday morning. Some experts question whether it hurt coordination with emergency officials.

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— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) July 6, 2025 at 9:35 AM

• Most of America aren't the only ones who HAAAAATE Trump's new "big, beautiful" law that will kick millions off their insurance and provide hefty tax breaks to the wealthy—Elon Musk despises it too, and vows to start a new political party, grossly called the "American Party." Look, Musk needs to get the memo that it's the "Democratic Socialist Party" or GTFO. However, there is some good news here: After Musk made his most recent announcement, Tesla shares tanked once again, hee-hee-hee!

• King Fool announced a new round of tariffs today—and is already delaying them? After his last failed tariff plans blew up in his face and sent stock prices tumbling, Trump is apparently trying again, sending tariff threats to around 100 small countries (who we don't trade with anyway), but delaying them until August in a bald-faced attempt to bring them to the negotiation table and secure a desperately needed tariff win. My god, what a loser.

An astonishing figure in this piece: 

Last year, the U.S. budgeted $12.8B for new affordable housing.

This country is now poised to spend $45B on immigrant detention centers.

That's nearly *four times* as much on cages as on homes—in the middle of a devastating housing and homelessness crisis.

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— Brian Goldstone (@brian-goldstone.bsky.social) July 7, 2025 at 6:31 AM

• Welp, I hope those anti-vaxxers are happy: Measles cases in the US have reached a new 33-year high, with outbreaks killing three and hospitalizing 155. But unfortunately, that's not the worst of it. According to leading pediatrician Eric Ball, “Once we see a resurgence of measles, we know that other diseases are going to come behind it.” 😬

• And finally... here is your Monday-morning-after-a-holiday-weekend vibe.

@mika_nara_safi My little old lady crackhead 😙  #rescuedog #dogsoftiktok #fypシ #fyp #pets #petsoftiktok #dog #crazy #energy #old #fypp ♬ original sound - Cody Winklederp