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Good Morning, Portland! I have enjoyed screaming about weather with you. If you were doing full-on Goofy screams at the sky when it started raining last night, I believe we may be neighbors. Starting today, we’re looking at a series of mid-80s highs and low-60s lows days in a row. Hopefully some of that rain fell on the forest fires.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Mayor Keith Wilson cast his first-ever tie-breaking vote yesterday, shutting down an attempt by several councilors to reverse cuts to the city’s annual budget and restore several positions in parks and public safety. This weirdly led to two councilors referring to the mayor as “daddy” during one of those semi-regular let the decorum hit the floor arguments we’ve come to expect from the city’s governing body. Eventually, the council voted to fund 30 public safety positions. It’s more complicated than that, and we’ll have something that lays out the context more clearly to come.
• Speaking of the council, Councillor Tiffany Koyama Lane penned an opinion piece for the Mercury about proposed public funding for major renovations of the Moda Center. In Koyama Lane’s view, the situation presents “a major test of Portland’s newly overhauled government.”
• Remember when it was hot yesterday? No? I too agree. Now that it’s no longer hot, it will never be again. However, PGE says that thousands lost power yesterday, across Multnomah, Washington, and Yamhill counties, even as citywide temperatures reached the high-90s. The Fortune 1000 energy company estimated that power should have returned to most by Wednesday evening.
• Yes, every time Oregon Department of Emergency Management (OEM) sends out emails and press releases reminding Oregon residents to “be two weeks ready” for emergencies, like heat waves, power outages, and emergency evacuations, it does sort of sound like a scolding. HOWEVER, I’m partial to the approach because it’s a time when everyone is actually thinking about emergency preparedness.
• On Wednesday, a federal jury in Portland found in favor of a former Nike employee that sued the massive sports accessories company over discrimination. Despite most of the other members of the suit settling last year and despite Nike’s lawyers successfully barring any evidence about sexual harassment at trial, the jury awarded the sole, remaining plaintiff the maximum it could award her in economic damages and $7.5 million in punitive damages. The Oregonian‘s Matthew Kish has been following the case closely and has much more on the decision.
• Nonprofits always want you to write about their fundraisers, but did they do anything cool to deserve to be profiled? That’s my question. Well, the raffle for High Desert Museum—it’s over by Bend—comes with the opportunity this year to name the museum’s new juvenile porcupine! The fun does not stop there! Because the holy namer and up to eight of their friends get to meet the no-longer-anonymous juvenile porcupine! (And there’s an art auction. And there’s a gala.) Show me the baby (porcupine)!
IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• NPR reports that there’s a new deal on the books between the US and Saudi Arabia that would allow US companies to operate commercial nuclear power plants in the kingdom. Congress needs to review the agreement, before it goes ahead, but there are already concerns that it’s missing provisions to keep Saudi Arabia from enriching uranium and reprocessing nuclear fuel. Further complicating things, President Trump posted on social media that the deal would hinge on Saudia Arabia getting along with Israel now. So everyone is opening their eyes really wide in response, like you sure about that?
• Oil prices are surging (it’s Thursday!) following claims of an attack on two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea. The Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on Wednesday, the New York Times reports. The Iran-backed Houthis had previously announced a blockade aimed at Saudi ships, and Saudi Arabia’s transportation authority confirmed an attack a fire on one of the ships. However, the statement noted only that the crew was safe following said fire, did not mention an attack, and had no information on the other tanker the Houthis claimed to have struck.
• A member of US VP JD Vance’s secret service security detail has been placed on administrative leave for allegedly leaking information to the press about the vice president’s helicopter parenting. This appears to be related to a recent MS NOW story that sketched a portrait of frustration within Vance’s security detail, based on the overlarge demands he and his family were making on government resources—demands that included last-minute travel plans, like one to fly his son to a golf lesson via a Marine Corps helicopter (this was subsequently canceled and they ended up driving the kid). Sources told CNN that Vance’s personal and professional travel schedule has been a source of concern for a while, but that the proposed Marine Corps helicopter golf jaunt was a more egregious example than typical. The security staff investigation follows a promise from the Trump administration to stop internal leaks to the press, which they have tried before and which will probably never work as long as the administration’s people keep being super annoying.
• Sending you into Thursday looking for wives.
