Good morning, Portland! Let’s all try to stay safe, avoid breathing too much polluted air, and look out for each other. Today’s forecast is hot and toxic. There’s a heat advisory in effect now until Thursday night, with a high of 94 degrees and unhealthy air blanketing the region.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• A ballot initiative that sought to divert 25 percent of Portland’s Clean Energy Funds toward hiring more police officers has failed to garner enough valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, according to elections officials. Yesterday, amid accusations from the initiative’s chief petitioners that the city mishandled the verification process, the Portland Auditor’s Office confirmed that thousands of signatures had to be tossed, primarily because they were collected from people who weren’t registered to vote in Portland. Others were invalidated because they were found to be duplicates (people signed the petition more than once). The initiative’s backers, which includes the Portland Police Association, say they intend to appeal the determination and take legal action.
• District 4 City Councilor Mitch Green finds himself in a bit of hot water for recently violating a county-wide burn ban. Willamette Week reports the councilor lit a fire in his backyard on July 26 to dispose of yard debris, unaware of the burn ban in place. Wildfires were burning elsewhere in the state at the time. A neighbor reportedly saw flames coming from the yard of a nearby home and called 911. The fire department was dispatched and reported Green was already in the process of extinguishing the fire. It’s been a hot, dry summer and wildfires have been burning throughout the state for weeks. It’s unclear why the councilor didn’t just utilize a compost or yard debris bin.
• Portland City Council is scheduled to have its first public meeting today to consider approval of a non-binding term sheet for a long-term lease of the Moda Center by the Trail Blazers. The city and the NBA team have struggled to find any mutual agreement on the team’s lease of the arena, which the city now owns. Much of that is likely due to the Blazers, who, up until last week, seemed to be blowing the city off. KATU reports that’s not an illusion– internal emails show Blazers management was trying to evade city officials and the team’s management “debated whether to respond to the City of Portland’s questions for commitments on private investment, rent, labor agreements and other key pieces of a proposed Moda Center deal, with one executive saying the city’s requests felt like ‘a trap.'” You can catch today’s Council session here.
• And you don’t need a news round-up to tell you it’s smoky outside, but here’s an update: the smoke is expected to blow eastward on Thursday, meaning it should start to thin out across most of the Portland area starting tomorrow. For today, keep in mind that air quality in parts of Portland currently remains in the red zone and is rated as “unhealthy” for all groups, not just those who are sensitive to air pollutants.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• The US State Department got caught using AI to do its homework and the results are an international embarrassment. During an AIDS 2026 global conference in Brazil, the State Department (which is tasked with handling foreign policy and US diplomacy) presented a map of Africa that mislabeled each country shown and couldn’t even put the countries in the correct geographical areas of the continent. Reuters discovered the map was generated using OpenAI tools. The State Department later took responsibility for the screw-up once the internet found out.
• A man arrested in connection with one of three wildfires currently burning in Spokane was previously questioned by law enforcement last year during investigations into two other fires. Aaron F. Farinacci, of Spokane, was arrested Monday on suspicion of first-degree arson. Authorities believe Farinacci may have played a role in the Old Trails fire–the largest of three fires burning in that area of Washington that has driven tens of thousands of people from their homes and destroyed at least 700 buildings, the AP reports. Farinacci, 37, has denied setting the fire. He previously served a prison term in Arizona for killing his father. A man reported seeing Farinacci bent over in the brush near where the fire started about 10 minutes before the flames were spotted. He was later detained and found with a backpack and fanny pack containing waterproof matches, cigarettes, and a butane lighter. He was later released (authorities didn’t know he’d been questioned about other fires at the time) but after fire investigators ruled out other causes, investigators arrested him.
• Faced with extreme drought that is wreaking economic havoc, a European city has resorted to blowing up its riverbed. CNBC reports the Romanian city of Bucharest used underwater Naval blasts to improve water flow in the Danube River and divert more water toward the cooling systems of its nuclear power plant. With low water levels, Romania recently resorted to shutting down its sole nuclear reactor that’s cooled by the river. Low levels in the Danube have also threatened other parts of Europe that rely on nuclear plants.
• Abdul El-Sayed, the progressive Dem from Michigan, won the party’s Senate nomination last night, beating out US Rep. Haley Stevens. Now, Democrats will wait to see if El-Sayed can clinch a win over his Republican challenger in the November election that is key if Dems want to flip the Senate. El-Sayed is the latest in a string of progressive and democratic socialist wins that have upset more centrist and traditional Democrats.
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