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Good Morning, Portland: The weather is being kind of normal this week: high of mid-80s, low around 60 degrees at night. But you can recall enough recent heat waves and smokey days to get fired up about the Mercury’s Climate Issue, now available at hundreds of locations around Portland.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Speaking of hot and hopeless, Portland City Council voted 8-4 to pledge up to $120 million of city funding towards a major major Moda Center renovation project. The total renovations, requested by the Trail Blazers as part of ongoing negotiations to stay in the city, could cost upwards of $600 million, and the council also promised an additional maintenance funding of $275 million to the project, to be doled out over the two decades. Debate as to who should pay for the arena’s updates has rolled hot and heavy down Oregon’s political concourses for much of this year, and with the funding, councilors also issued a number of promises to secure various public benefits in exchange, but all of those are still reliant on the whim of future negotiations. We’ll have more on this later today—you can bet your bonnet.
• Police say that they’ve taken a man into custody and called off a shelter-in-place order they set for Northwest Portland’s Slabtown area Wednesday afternoon. Their reason for public concern was the flight of a suspect, from a previous menacing and vandalism investigation. Two Portland Police officers saw someone they thought could be the suspect, and that guy was allegedly holding a big ol’ knife. This led to a manhunt of least 30 officers from Portland police and state police—who were diverted from a downtown drug enforcement mission, according to a Portland Police Bureau statement. The area’s shelter order was lifted at 4:44 pm.
• But back to the Climate Issue. It’s got climate grief. It’s got bike despair. It’s got Willamette River algae blooms. Get in here, or pick it up in print!
• Want to read something sweet and lovely this morning? Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness sat for an interview with our Trash Report columnist Elinor Jones, and the whole thing is just a little, cute delight to read. Van Ness’ Hot and Healed tour hits Rev Hall at the end of the month, and the conversation starts out about that before spiraling into celebrity wigs and red cap lights. (🙃) Yeah, I don’t know what those are either.
• Mercury music contributor Holly Hazelwood is a massive Hold Steady fan, calling them “the world’s best bar band.” She was in the audience at the Mississippi Studios show last week and wrote up a review for her fellow Hold Steady die-hards of a packed show jammed with deep cuts and hidden gems.
• Question: Do you enjoy seeing cute bunnies, dogs, ducks, and other adorable animals, while stuffing your face with fried food, and watching children getting thrown off the backs of rampaging sheep? Then the annual Clark County Fair may be for you! Photographer Corbin Smith filed this essay on the fair, chock full of stunning pictures, and reminding us of the importance of community-based nostalgia.
IN NATIONAL NEWS:
• It’s an election year, so folks are trying to make sweeping reads on our country’s massive political parties. For instance, in Wisconsin, democratic socialist Francesca Hong lost a primary election for governor to a more moderate democratic candidate, David Crowley. Does this mean that the entire democratic party is more moderate than was previously imagined? Does it mean that polling data is often imperfect? It’s the second one, but you’re gonna hear a lot about the first one.
• Following a report last month by the New York Times, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has come under fire for potentially allowing his personal lawyer to influence military promotion decisions. Hegseth has called Timothy Parlatore his “special adviser” at the Pentagon and Parlatore has represented both Mr. Hegseth and President Trump legally. Now, Colorado Representative Jason Crow is asking for clarification on Parlatore’s actual influence.
• This is a little humbly jumbly, but the Trump administration failed to do some legal stuff that our government would normally do, and now the National Firearms Act has lapsed. Considered a “Prohibition-era gun control measure,” the National Firearms Act limits the manufacture and availability of certain firearms, like machine guns. Does this mean machine guns are back on the menu? No. Machine guns are still regulated. But short-barrel guns and suppressors? Well, in the states that have explicitly banned them those are still banned… but the other ones? It’s a little hibbly pibbly.
• Sending you into Thursday with the hope that you got to drink coffee this morning. Now we’re dreaming of tomorrow’s coffee because it’s the only time we’re capable of being optimistic.
