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Good Morning, Portland! What’s that weather doing today? SUNNY today (high of 81), A LIL CLOUDY tomorrow (high of 85), and then it’s TOO HOT on Sunday and Monday (hovering just below 100, your urban heat map may vary). BUT WHAT ABOUT THAT NEWS?
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• As we await a medical examiner’s report for more details about the death of Damon Lamarr Johnson, a North Portland resident and a Black man who died in police custody in June, the community has questions about why police didn’t request Project Respond to help that night, and why the city hasn’t expanded Portland Street Response. Portland Police claims they want another another agency to take over calls involving behavioral health. News editor Courtney Vaughn points out the region already has one that police rarely use.
• Today in oh you City Council you:
Ironically, the Portland city council’s agenda item on returning to weekly mtgs — since biweekly mtgs have gone too long, forcing votes/discussions to be cut short — was cut from the end of yesterday’s mtg because… the council mtg went too long.
— Alex Zielinski (@alexzee.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 7:06 AM
• The Trump administration has shown an obvious lack of interest in fraud prevention—we’ll let your loudest uncle shout about why that is—so if you’re searching for the summer’s hottest scams, look no further than this cheat sheet from Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office. [Now delivered with Stefon voice] THE SUMMER’S HOTTEST SCAMS ARE 1) Scammers pose as law enforcement agencies and claim you missed jury duty 🚨 2) Scammers post vacation rentals online at enticing prices 🥵 and even 3) Scammers post job opportunities that promise high pay for minimal effort 💦. Many scams can be avoided by remembering that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Still, it’s not the scammed who are at fault—let’s keep the blame heartily upon the scammers.
• I don’t know if you noticed that no one local writes for Eater PDX anymore:
But with these layoffs, with this shift in strategy, I fear the place I knew, the place where I learned to be an editor, is functionally dead. So many talented people lost their jobs yesterday—serious journalists, editors, James Beard Award winners. I am so sad for them, for us, for our industry.
— Brooke Jackson-Glidden (@jacksonglidden.bsky.social) August 8, 2025 at 8:36 AM
• Are you a fan of second run movie screenings? Lindsay Costello has some recommendations for August shows, including a reminder about Clinton Street Theater’s third annual Hanabi Film Festival (August 18–31) and a solid slate at Portland State University’s student-run 5th Avenue Cinema.
• It feels like ages ago, that I was reading a morning newsblast by The Stranger‘s Charles Mudede where he quoted a song lyric from Jeff Buckley’s “So Real.” Browsed for it; turned out to be a solid banger. This week Mudede reviewed a new documentary by Amy Berg (Deliver Us from Evil) that captures Buckley’s vivid youth cut short. It opens today.
• Friday morning tickets are about to drop—and Ira Glass is going to visit Portland(!), just in time to rev up our Spring workaholism. Get tickets to that and other Portland shows via EverOut’s handy list of Friday morning ticket drops!
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Israel’s security cabinet has decided to support a plan from the country’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which calls for Israeli military forces to “prepare to take control of Gaza City.” Hard to say if New York Times analysts are just in full negotiating-with-narcissist-dad mode, but it’s a little wild to hear the projected negative outcomes of expanding military action in Gaza as “risks ending in familiar deadlock… [repeating] a strategy that has failed in the past.” And not, like, the likelihood of a tremendous loss of life.
• In response to this and ongoing reports of devastating starvation in Gaza, Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany announced “the German government will not authorize any exports of military equipment that could be used in the Gaza Strip until further notice.”
• LA Times reports that the number of people arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dropped significantly, since federal courts blocked ICE agents from arresting those that they believe to be immigrants without documentation. Also wonder if this is related to the self-created problem of greatly decreasing traffic across the US southern border. June feels like ancient history now, but there was some interesting analysis on The Daily about the lack of people coming into the US making it much more difficult for ICE to keep it’s deportation numbers up, as those people were a large part of those numbers before.
• Today in OH I’M SORRY—WHAT—YOUR CIVIL RIGHTS?
BREAKING: The Justice Department subpoenas New York Attorney General Letitia James as it investigates whether she violated Trump’s civil rights, AP sources say. Follow live updates.
— The Associated Press (@apnews.com) August 8, 2025 at 8:43 AM
• When I hear about the White House Rose Garden, I think oh sure, the place where Olivia Pope and her boyfriend President of the United States Fitzgerald Grant III declared their love for one another. I have no real connection to the place. But it still feels a little on the nose that President Trump literally paved over paradise, and made it look like a white power parking lot.
