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Good morning, Portland! The weather is going to be nice today, with temperatures projected to top out at around 80 degrees. But don't get too comfortable. By Friday, things will not be so pleasant, and we might hit 100 degrees on Saturday. I am, personally, not a fan. But there's not much I can do, is there? (Except try to get more people to give a shit about the climate crisis, which I am constantly attempting to do.)
Anyway, let's hear about some news.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Here's some good news ahead of the upcoming heat wave: The Willamette River is safe to swim in again. This update follows last week's advisory about a toxic algal bloom, issued first by local advocacy group Human Access Project and, after some lagging, the Oregon Health Authority. Apparently, last weekend's rain did its magic (as rain is wont to do...that glorious substance from the sky), helping break up the algal bloom. So, you are free to embrace our beautiful river without worry, at least for the time being. However, please don't bring your dogs to the river. Dogs are super sensitive to the toxic algae and exposure can be fatal. (I assume this is the case for cats, too. But if you're considering bringing your cat to go swimming in the Willamette River, you live a life I could never dream of understanding, and I frankly don't feel qualified to give you advice about anything.)
• The Portland Central City Task Force's tax advisory group, a 10-person committee convened by Governor Tina Kotek in 2023, wants Portland to overhaul its current taxes. The group, which includes representatives from the Portland Metro Chamber and semiconductor company Ampere, recently released a set of recommendations for city and county tax reforms. And, honestly? They made some pretty decent points.
I'm joking. While a couple of the suggestions are...okay, I guess (like a proposal to "improve fiscal transparency with forecasts, dashboards, and plain-language reporting"), most are very questionable, some are so ridiculous I think they might be pulling a prank on us all. An example from the latter group is the proposal to replace the 1 percent gross receipts tax that funds the Portland Clean Energy Community Benefits Fund (PCEF) with a "broader, consumption-based revenue tool," which the advisory group thinks is "more stable and economically neutral." Here's some plain-language reporting: They're talking about replacing a tax on big businesses (you're only required to pay the PCEF tax if you report an annual gross income of $1 billion or more) with a sales tax on consumers. Apparently, our city and state governments ought to show a little more respect for H&M and Target than they do for the people who live here.
The entire report of suggestions may be based on a false premise, which is that wealthy Portlanders are truly leaving the city due to high taxes. This idea has been taken for granted by many local politicians and unquestioning news reports, but it is far from a universally accepted truth. (Click here for more on that. Or here.) Please also keep in mind that Donald Trump and his worthless cronies in Congress recently passed a massive tax break for rich people nationwide, which is already set to gut many of the country's most important social programs. Also, take heed that the people who wrote the report said it contained "policy options—not prescriptions" for us to consider. We don't have to (and God willing, we won't) adopt any of these proposals. So—my rant aside—let's not give them more power than they actually have.
• About the upcoming special session in the Oregon Legislature:
Co-Vice Chair of Joint Interim Committee on Transportation Funding is Christine Drazan, the House GOP leader who thinks the Oregon Bike Bill should be repealed, doesn't think ODOT needs any more funding, and says that cycling, walking, and transit are not "core functions" of ODOT. Cool.
— Jonathan Maus (@jonathanmaus.bsky.social) August 18, 2025 at 4:08 PM
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• There looks to be a major media merger underway between two broadcasting big-timers, which happen to own two of Portland's TV new channels. Nexstar Media Group (which owns KOIN, among 200 other stations) is purchasing the slightly smaller Tegna, which owns Portland's KGW. Given the lax regulatory environment the Trump administration has created for media mergers (especially if you butter him up by firing Stephen Colbert, for example), Nexstar leaders seem optimistic about the sale. While Tegna and KGW may not treat its employees much better, I would be remiss not to mention that KOIN TV employees have long alleged truly outrageous union-busting tactics from their management at Nexstar. And the more news companies consolidate, the worse off we all are, as shown by the ongoing catastrophe at the Oregon publications owned by Pamplin and EO Media Group, reported on our Abe Asher earlier this week.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• Washington, DC's streets are empty—and not because people are scared of supposed criminal sprees. They're afraid of the federal cops and ICE agents currently patrolling the streets to terrorize the area's residents. And they're right to be scared. Almost 2,000 National Guard troops are now deployed in DC, including more than 1,000 recently sent from six Republican states, their governments apparently keen to kick off a second American Civil War. It's no wonder businesses are shutting down, especially those owned by people from Latin America, who are at higher risk of being targeted by immigration officials, often violently and cruelly. Trump is, of course, claiming the deployment has been a major success.
Even ostensibly skeptical reporting from AP News gives Trump's claims of reduced crime in DC far too much credit, allowing that "the number of crimes reported in DC did drop by about 8 percent this week as compared to the week before," though they allow that "a week is a small sample size." Yes, people are probably less likely to report crimes when 1) their local police agency has been forcibly taken over by the feds, who might deport them or their neighbors for calling the cops and 2) they're not going outside because extreme law enforcement presence has made their city hostile to exist in. Not to mention, crime reports fluctuate regularly, AND by all (trusted) accounts, crime rates were falling in Washington, DC before this whole disaster. Please, dear media colleagues, let's put on our thinking caps and stop giving fascists a millimeter.
The National Hurricane Center is urging beachgoers to stay out of the water. Parts of North Carolina's Outer Banks are under mandatory evacuation orders. n.pr/3UD9V0b
— NPR (@npr.org) August 20, 2025 at 8:55 AM
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• Ummm...people in 13 states may currently have radioactive shrimp in their freezer. Walmart recalled bags of raw, frozen shrimp after federal health officials found it may be contaminated with a radioactive chemical. Apparently, the radioactive substance (Cesium-137) is only a "potential health concern," and it would seemingly only pose a major problem if you were exposed to it for a long period of time. But there's something quite disturbing about radioactive shrimp. Oregon is not one of the 13 states currently on the recall list, so you'll probably be ok if you're still hungry for some frozen Walmart shrimp. (But...are you?)
• Trump wants to whitewash and change history (AKA purge the "wokeness") at museums across the country, starting with the Smithsonian in DC but potentially expanding to other institutions. Guys...I really don't like where we're headed with all of this..........😭😭😭😭😭😭
• We need baby animal videos now more than ever. Please watch this. And have a good day.
