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Good Morning, Portland! The sigma weather app on my phone says we're looking at a high of 94 today, but literally every other weather source says it's going to be almost 100 (NWS says 97, AccuWeather says 98, and KOIN's Josh Cozart says 98). Who's right? Maybe a couple degrees doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things? I'M NOT DONE COMPLAINING—HERE'S THE NEWS!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• We're looking at "a hot one" today, Portlanders. And you all are just not built for it. I can say this because neither am I 🥀. Praying that you're at the river or in a basement. Steve says you can make a swamp cooler—I've tried that, and it works... to an extent! You can also revisit this treatise on Rob Thomas' "epoch-shattering collaboration with women's shoe designer Carlos Santana: 'Smooth,'" which I ponder annually for strength:
Seeing as it is “a hot one,” it is again time to celebrate this music blurb about Rob Thomas that lives rent free in my head. It was crafted by beloved critic Ned Lannamann.
— Suzette Smith (@suzettesmith.bsky.social) August 15, 2023 at 1:47 PM
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• Yesterday wasn't warm enough for Multnomah County to open cooling centers, and we haven't heard about their plans yet for today. If they do, the info can be found on the county's Help When It's Hot page. Along with updates and advice, you can also find an interactive map of libraries, community centers, and other places to keep cool among the resources listed.
• Another way to beat the heat: the Mercury's monthlong Summer of Slushies. Every year we get everyone into slushie mode. Then in August, we cruelly CUT OFF THE SLUSH. (Most of the bars still offer slushies—but... this is like the only time of year they might actually have the tumblers frozen).
• Today in straining credulity, a government attorney says that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is definitely NOT trying to speed the people the organization is disappearing across state lines before they can find attorneys and challenge being deprived of their civil rights and due process. Definitely not. Super duper that is what they are NOT doing. Two weeks ago, ICE agents arrested a 22-year-old Mexican citizen in Eugene for reasons they have not yet explained. Raquel E. Hecht, Ledesma Gonzalez has lived in the US since 2017, when he moved here with his mother. The Oregonian's Maxine Bernstein has more.
• Green Loop fans (and the Green Loop curious) will want to read the latest from Bike Portland on PBOT's glacier-like crawl towards realizing the project. There's a new site! And a survey and a community meeting!
With a state planning grant in hand, PBOT wants to put some meat on the bones of the Green Loop — 11 years after the concept was first introduced bikeportland.org/2025/07/16/g...
— BikePortland (@bikeportland.org) July 16, 2025 at 7:49 AM
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• Portland is on fire (jk) about the Fire. Want to read more about the franchise's history? Portland Monthly's Margaret Seiler takes us through it.
• Did anyone go to shark dissection last night? Too many of my friends were born in July, and I forgot to go. Please let me know about it.
• Brooding about missing that shark dissection? You're not the only one! You'll never miss the cool thing again as long as you read music editor Nolan Parker's Mercury Music Picks! To be fair, we blurbed shark dissection in Do This Do That, but you get the idea. In this week's MMP: Matmos, Golden Retriever, and Gyedu-Blay Ambolle!
• More in heat panicking planning:
Great work by the Human Access Project making Audrey McCall Beach (east end of Hawthorne Bridge) a real thing.
— David Binnig (@binnig.bsky.social) July 15, 2025 at 9:55 PM
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IN NATIONAL NEWS:
• In May, New York Times correspondent Katie J.M. Baker outlined Project Esther, a policy paper by Project 2025 authors the Heritage Foundation, which explained how one might destroy the US pro-Palestinian movement in a matter of 12-24 months. Baker's article flew under my radar, when it was originally published, but this morning's episode of the Daily gets into it and the continued targeting of private university leaders by Republican lawmakers falls lockstep within the plan.
• On Tuesday, Vice President JD Vance once again had to break a tie in the Senate, this time to (in the words of NYT) "ram the legislation through a pair of procedural votes" and "claw back $9 billion for foreign aid and public broadcasting" funding. The rescissions bill (it's not in a recession 🙃; it's a rescission!) has to go through another vote in the House before it takes effect.
• Also in more cool, profesh behavs from President Trump:
Breaking News: President Trump drafted a letter to fire Jerome Powell, the Fed chair, and asked Republicans if he should send it and indicated that he likely would.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) July 16, 2025 at 8:51 AM
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• The Supreme Court has repeatedly issued unsigned orders supporting President Trump's wants and desires. I did, in fact, have "shadow docket" on my 2025 bingo card:
News Analysis: In clearing the way for President Trump’s efforts to transform the U.S. government, the Supreme Court has issued a series of orders that often lacked a fundamental characteristic of most judicial work: an explanation of the court’s rationale.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) July 16, 2025 at 7:10 AM
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•Like the people in the comments, I too admire whatever is happening in this Zach Pinoa Vine TikTok skit.
@pionazacha ♬ nhạc nền - Piona
