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Good Morning, Portland! Weather time! High of 80, low of 60—no rain! Now let’s dew the news🏄
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Oregon’s police certification agency voted Thursday to strip Deschutes County Sheriff Kent van der Kamp of his certification, which would theoretically revoke his authority to serve as a police officer in Oregon. His certification remains in effect during appeals, and van der Kamp has said he’s resigning as of the end of July. This follows Deschutes County’s district attorney adding van der Kamp to a Brady list of “officers with questionable credibility” after van der Kamp falsely testified under oath on a number of occasions.
• Now that Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs has coined the expression “late night RQ posting,” I’m typing this white-knuckled, filled with assurances that I’m about to overuse that phrase way too much. The teaser here is that “Oregon Transportation Commission (OTC) just gave ODOT the green light to start initial work on the Rose Quarter plan,” but… there’s like no money now?
Late night RQ posting. Who up
— Taylor Griggs (@taylorgriggs.bsky.social) July 24, 2025 at 11:00 PM
• Good news, mid news? If you’ve been following rumors that the Fixin’ To might be sold, the answer is NO! If you’ve heard that it might stop having live music shows, the answer is unfortunately [jingle jangle pinball noises].
• A local graffiti artist who tags with handle “Bambi” received two years probation yesterday; she’d pleaded guilty to four counts of criminal mischief earlier in the month. A Multnomah County judge also ordered her to pay $10,000 in restitution. Bambi is one of a number of taggers recently caught up in busts by local law enforcement. Along with the announcement of her plea deal, Portland Police noted they’d identified another local graffiti writer, Monk6, who may be best known to the public for participating in a graffiti-themed episode of Vice News-like YouTube show Chaostown.
• The Oregonian‘s Michael Russell has been on the tail of whomever might be poking around the old Pok Pok space on SE Division, and there seems to be some delicious news heating up, thanks to Earl Ninsom, his business partner Eric Nelson, and Yaowarat chef-owner Sam Smith. For now, we will simply stalk the social media of OK Chicken and Khao Soi.
• Speaking of niche, wonderful interests, linocut printmaker Jane Pagliarulo knows how to drive a steamroller NOW, but she DIDN’T the first time she rented one to smash ink onto paper. Corbin Smith GETS INTO IT in this photo essay about the annual PDX Steamroller Print Fest.
• The Lloyd Center Barnes and Noble is becoming an outlet Barnes and Noble. It was apparently NOT an outlet Barnes and Noble before now!
• A lil’ last minute Project Pabst news:
Project Pabst hits Portland’s waterfront this weekend with a monolithic lineup: Iggy Pop, Devo, Death Cab. Sadly, ’70s punk icons the Damned had to cancel. Good thing these high-octane Cali garage skate punks heard the call.
— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.com) July 25, 2025 at 7:51 AM
• Texas band Waterparks must leave a trail of disappointed swimsuited children in their wake wherever they go. Get tickets to their Portland stop and other shows via EverOut’s handy list of Friday morning ticket drops!
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Former professional wrestler Terry Bollea, known best under the moniker of Hulk Hogan, has died at age 71. Bollea leaves behind a legacy of wanton racism and enthusiastic support of fascism. He was also a key player in the destruction of ’00s news blog Gawker. From Defector:
Bollea, backed financially by vampiric futurist freak Peter Thiel, sued Gawker’s parent company for $100 million. A hometown Florida jury ruled in Bollea’s favor. The fallout of this lawsuit led inexorably to the destruction of Gawker Media, the eventual rise of Jim Spanfeller as a cut-rate villain of the final chapter of the blog era, and, well, the establishment of this very website.
• Fucking finally! Time to put this corruption to bed, so you can stop doing all the corruptions to make this one happen, amirite?! Federal regulators approved Paramount’s $8 billion merger with Skydance on Thursday. Somewhat ironically, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said this partnership would be a good opportunity to RESTORE (?) the trust Americans have lost in legacy national news media.
• Today let’s stop giving a cruel and not lawful practice a silly name.
Deportation flights from Florida’s new state-run immigrant detention center, which officials have named “Alligator Alcatraz,” began departing this week, Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Friday. Read more: https://trib.al/hTimqy3
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) July 25, 2025 at 8:25 AM
• Steve Witkoff , President Trump’s envoy to the Gaza ceasefire talks in Qatar, has cut short the mediations, saying that Hamas’ latest response “shows a lack of desire” to reach a truce.
• In a mostly symbolic move, French President Emmanuel Macron announced Thursday that France will recognize Palestine as an independent state. France is now the largest Western power to recognize Palestine.
• Did not even know I needed a “Hares on the Mountain (Fast Version)” from Shirley Collins, but I accept. Collins recently released the single to celebrate her 90th birthday. Domino Recording Company notes that the track was “recorded as part of the sessions for Bridget Christie’s 2023 comedy series The Change.”
