If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution to the Mercury, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!
Good morning, Portland! After a hot, smoky day yesterday, we’re in for a much cooler rest of the week. Expect cloudy skies and temperatures in the low 70s today, and the blessed return of RAIN tomorrow!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Last week, Trump’s Department of Justice announced it will sue Oregon, Washington, and two other states for their laws allowing undocumented immigrants to benefit from in-state college tuition. Now, Oregon and Washington’s attorneys general have both promised to protect the state laws, which give some undocumented students access to less expensive college tuition so long as they meet certain requirements. In Oregon, those benefitting from the tuition equity law must attend an in-state high school for at least three years and demonstrate an intent to become a US citizen or permanent resident. The Trump administration’s decision to sue over this is pure xenophobia and racism. As far as I’m concerned, if you live in Oregon for three years, you’re an Oregonian. Hell, you can claim the title after a couple weeks, for all I care. Either way, it would be entirely unethical to require undocumented Oregonians to pay the shockingly high out-of-state tuition rates at the University of Oregon, so it’s good the states are fighting back. Oregon Department of Justice spokesperson Jenny Hansson said the state’s tuition equity law “represents Oregon’s values and priorities, and we look forward to defending it against attacks from the federal administration’s hateful agenda.” That’s my DOJ.
• Soon, Oregonians may be able to use the direct power of an ocean wave to turn on the lights in their home. Researchers at Oregon State University have been working for years on a project to harness ocean waves for energy, and the university’s wave energy testing facility, PacWave, has officially begun operations after a lengthy permitting and construction process. PacWave’s two wave devices are located about seven miles off Oregon’s central coast, transferring their power to a facility in Newport. The project is among just a few wave energy testing sites in the US, and it’s the first in Oregon. Let this be a reminder that the ocean is a magical place that’s to be respected, and its vast potential is unknown to man!
• If you didn’t read the Mercury‘s story about the new, conservative-backed political action committee called “Go Portland Go,” you can watch our Jeremiah Hayden explain it to you in video form (but I still recommend you read the story).
• What’s going on in Portland this week?! Well, as always, you can read the Mercury‘s Do This, Do That to find out. Here’s a sneak peek of this week’s calendar: a Blood Orange album listening party on Wednesday at Mono Space, ClownFest 2026 on Thursday, an Australian Indigenous art exhibit at the Portland Art Museum, and Bikini Kill at Crystal Ballroom Sunday. (That last one is sold out, but maybe you can scrounge for tickets.) MORE EVENTS HERE.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• Oh, great. The compromised US Supreme Court has OK’d Trump’s ridiculous, $400 million White House ballroom construction project. The ballroom was the subject of multiple lawsuits from people claiming Trump’s decision to spend so much taxpayer money on a pet project is illegal because it hasn’t been approved by Congress. The Supreme Court didn’t actually decide the legality of the ballroom construction project, sending the lawsuits back to lower court, but Trump is free to proceed at this point. Chief Justice John Roberts, showing backbone for once in his life, was one of four justices to dissent on the opinion.
• After 30 years, someone has been convicted in the murder of rap legend Tupac Shakur, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas in 1996. The shooting shook the music world, but nobody was held responsible for Shakur’s death for years. Now, a man named Duane Davis has been found guilty of orchestrating the killing. A jury unanimously made the decision to convict him after a weekslong trial in Las Vegas, where prosecutors made their case against Davis. They argued that though Davis may not have actually shot Shakur, he called for the shooting—and as a powerful gang leader, his words had an impact. The conviction could result in a life sentence.
• A United States Postal Service whistleblower has warned the agency’s cooperation with Trump’s attempts to restrict mail-in voting may “derail” the midterm elections. There’s a legal fight playing out over Trump’s executive order restricting mail-in voting, but USPS has been trying to comply with the order anyway. The agency has been working on an online portal for absentee voting that would apparently heed Trump’s demands, but the whistleblower says the portal has major issues and may lead to eligible absentee voters failing to receive their ballots on time. Of course, this chaos is exactly what Trump wanted.
• Wendell Berry, the Kentucky-born writer and environmentalist, has died at 92. Berry was a really excellent writer and intellectual, following in the footsteps of naturalist philosophers like Henry David Thoreau. Berry was keenly aware of the destruction industrial society has caused our planet, and advocated a more agrarian way of living. But he wasn’t completely old-fashioned. I read his collection of essays Our Only World a few years ago and made copious notes in the margins. Here’s a section that spoke to me, from his essay “Local Economies to Save the Land and the People”: “…we must not speak or think of the land alone or of the people alone, but always and only of both together. If we want to save the alba, we must save the people who belong to the land. If we want to save the people we must save the land the people belong to.” Rest in peace, Wendell Berry.
• Okay, with this, happy Tuesday. XOXO
