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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! After suffering through yesterday’s cloudy, thunderstorm-y weather—well, I was suffering anyway, and… don’t my feelings matter?—you can expect sunnier skies, and more of the same throughout the weekend, with temperatures hitting 82 today and climbing to 89 on Sunday for the Portland Pride Parade. (Come and wave to the Mercury! We’ve been working on our impossibly sexy costumes all week!) And now? Here’s some impossibly sexy NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Yesterday we received a butt-load of Moda Center controversy news, so shall we go through them in order of appearance? Buckle up, babies… it’s gonna get bumpy!
• First, a group of business community members and coalitions calling themselves “We Are Rip City” have joined forces to try to strong-arm Portland’s City Council into rolling over and paying for extensive renovations for the Moda Center (at the request of billionaire Blazers owner Tom Dundon). The councilors have thus far been thankfully reluctant to throw $120 million of the cash-strapped city’s money into the project, because a) we don’t have that kind of cash lying around, b) so far, Dundon is bringing exactly ZERO dollars to the bargaining table to help fund the renovations, and c) the Blazers owners’ group is also currently refusing to say what they’ll even be using the money for, until we promise to pay them the full amount! (WHAT.) Now, with all due respect to the “We Are Rip City” coalition, this deal is absolutely BONKERS, and no one in their right mind should agree to any of this until the wealthy Blazers owners actually come to the negotiating table offering something… hell, ANYTHING to help make this deal happen. Portland has rarely seen this sort of blatant disrespect that Dundon and his crew are putting forth. (I value the Blazers for sure… I just value my self-respect more.) So if the people behind “We Are Rip City” are seriously saying we should accept this terrible deal, the Mercury would like to sell them one of Portland’s bridges. (Though we’re not going to say which bridge, until they hand over the money.)
• Secondly, it finally appeared yesterday that Mayor Wilson was starting to see the light and questioning the needlessly hardball, nonsensical deal Tom Dundon is presenting for renovating the Moda Center. After NBA Commissioner Adam Silver stuck his nose into the situation, wrongly assuming that the deal has “gone off track in various ways”—nobody asked you, dude!—Mayor Wilson snapped back, correctly noting in a statement that “the absence of essential details from the Blazers is slowing progress at a moment when urgency is required.” However, a spokesperson for the Blazers owners, Charles Boyle, rejected that assertion, claiming that “the city has more information than state leaders had during the legislative session.” OH, YES? Well, here’s what they’re not saying: They’re not saying they are willing to show our city and negotiators the respect we deserve by sharing the costs for their fancy, most likely unnecessary upgrades. UGH! Rich people… amirite?
• And then! Last night it was reported that city officials had delivered a draft term sheet to the Blazers owners—which is basically a non-binding list of demands that the city wants the Blazers ownership to comply with, before actual negotiations start. While we haven’t seen the full list, a few items in the term sheet include the Blazers playing all home games at the Moda for the next 20 years, a “labor harmony agreement” (setting up a possible unionization effort for employees), and that the Blazers would pay $3 million per year to make up for lost property taxes, and that money would be split up for the city, Multnomah County, and Portland Public Schools. The council is scheduled to vote on a final, revised term sheet on August 12. So YES, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, actually the Moda deal IS still on track, so why don’t you mind your own bees-wax, and go back to drinking chardonnay with the head of FIFA—or whatever it is you rich people do with your time.
• And thank god, FINALLY, here’s the last bit of Moda Center news (hopefully for the time being): Two Multnomah County Commissioners, Julia Brim-Edwards and Meghan Moyer, are now yelling “hold yer dang horses on this sketchy Moda deal!” (I’m paraphrasing, if you hadn’t guessed.) The county had previously stated they were ready to make an eventual $100 million contribution to convert the Moda into Tom Dundon’s dream palace, but because of the Blazers ownership’s ongoing sketchy behavior, these two commissioners are proposing that the county pump the brakes. “The County has no ownership stake in the Moda Center, nor does the County receive income or property tax revenue,” wrote Brim-Edwards and Moyer, basically asking, “how exactly does the county benefit from this deal?” Good question! The commissioners were scheduled to vote on their Moda contribution next week, but until the Blazers ownership comes clean with what’s exactly involved with their fancy refurbishments, that money could be in doubt. Okay. Everybody clear on this? Good! BECAUSE NOW I NEVER WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE MODA CENTER AGAIN!
• If you’ve never been to Pickathon, the four-day, genre-agnostic music festival, taking place this year from July 30 through August 2, can be daunting. Luckily, our Pickathon ambassador, Holly Hazelwood, is ready and eager to help you figure out your way through everything—the bands, the food, the camping—the festival has to offer. We just hope you’ll get to come back next year, ready to shepherd the next flock of first-timers through our piece of splendor in the woods!
• And it all comes down to this: In Abe Asher’s week five recap of the World Cup, he analyzes England’s crushing defeat at the hands of Argentina, makes his pick for who will win the entire thing, and as a fitting wrap-up of his excellent World Cup Diaries series, offers his choices of who would be on the Mercury‘s Ultimate Fantasy World Cup Team!
• In case you haven’t noticed, tons of famous movies have been filmed (or partially shot) in Oregon—but which of these is the most dog crap movie of them all? Let’s find out in this week’s super fun trivia game, POP QUIZ PDX! Also included: Mayoral narcs, new home horrors, and even more Moda Center billionaire shenanigans. See how well YOU score!
IN NATIONAL AND WORLD NEWS:
• True to form, President Trump gave a rambling, disjointed speech to the American people last night that was supposed to be about building confidence in our election system, but was in fact (SURPRISE!) all about undermining it. Realizing that Republicans are facing a wipe-out in the upcoming midterms, Trump is setting the stage to help the GOP steal the election by accusing the system of being broken and then “fixing it.” And so, in his speech, he made the false accusation (without providing evidence) that our election system is corrupt in a bid to gain the public’s support so he could continue applying pressure on congress to obstruct mail-in voting, provide documentary proof of citizenship, while forcing people to show photo identification to vote—all in the name of “democracy,” of course.
• Here’s your “grifter teaches new grifters how to grift” headline of the day: “White House teleprompter operator placed on leave after betting on Trump speeches.”
• David Brouillette, the ICE officer who shot a Colombian man in Maine this week, has been identified by close family members as having a history of severe and violent mental issues, and as such, should have never been given a gun and badge and placed in a position of power. Such scary incidents include a past of attacking women (including threatening to slit one woman’s throat). Thanks to Trump’s wide-sweeping hiring spree, Brouillette easily secured a job with ICE—though because of his past mental outbursts, his ex-wife refused to believe him after hearing the news. However, she sadly realized he was telling the truth after hearing on the news that he had shot and killed a Colombian man, Durán Guerrero, while sitting in his car this week. According to his family, Brouillette still doesn’t see himself as a killer.
• The CDC has identified lettuce from Mexico as the probable source of the explosive, diarrhea-causing Taco Bell cyclospora outbreak (AKA “the poo-poo bug”). Federal officials are warning residents in Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia to avoid eating shredded iceberg lettuce from the Taco Bells in these states—though the bug has shown its icky face in 30 states total, and the FDA says that other lettuce suppliers could be identified as well as the investigation continues.
• And finally… waitasecond… are you ducks talking behind my back?!?
