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Good morning, Portland! It’s looking to be a hot one today with highs of 96 and a 35 percent chance of rain if these weather apps are correct. Don’t forget to drink water, stay in the shade, and check on your neighbors. The Mercury has some info on who is most at risk during severe hot weather here—it might not only be who you think it is—and what to do/where to go to stay cool.
Let’s get to the news. 📰
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• On Sunday, the New York Times published a story about the Portland Trail Blazers and the city of Portland’s challenges in reaching a deal on who should pay for upgrades to the Moda Center, and how far apart they are. The story leaned on two sources within the Blazers’ organization who were granted anonymity to speak freely. The Oregonian followed with an anonymously sourced story of its own on Monday, in which the sources trashed the draft term sheet from the city that the team is supposedly negotiating with. Politically, the year 2026 is raising some big questions, particularly around who exactly local public servants works for—from the federal to the local level. As the Blazers engage in an all out crusade to get the public’s money to pay for their billionaire owner’s wishlist, it may be in the public interest to know who is talking, and why. Either way, can we just get back to watching Damian Lillard own Russell Westbrook game after game again?
• Now, here’s a story for the people. A local renter sued his landlord for trying to bill him $287 for an electrical repair, and raise his rent $100 a month—and won. Portlander Jonah Spring took the lawsuit to trial, a risky move that could have landed him with $100,000 or more in legal fees, but instead walked away with a $32,000 award. The lawyers are also expected to ask that the landlord pay Spring’s legal fees, which total $225,000. Damn. Looks like that landlord might need to get a job after all. Read the full story in the Oregonian here.
• Portlanders broke the Guinness World Record on Sunday for the most e-bikes in a group ride, beating out Seattle’s previous record (sorry/not sorry to our friends at the Stranger) by more than double! Our Taylor Griggs has the full story and a bunch of photos here.
• More than 1,000 people across Oregon are under evacuation orders due to risk of wildfire. This comes as thunderstorms are expected across the state, particularly in Central Oregon. OPB reports that a dozen counties are under air quality warnings through at least Wednesday afternoon. State resources to fight hundreds of thousands of acres of existing wildfires, which thunderstorms sparked last week, are spread thin.
“One way to avoid sparking a wildfire… is by checking fire restrictions before camping or picnicking,” Oregon Department of Forestry spokesperson Jessica Neujahr told OPB. “Drivers should secure tow chains and avoid driving or parking in dry grass. Power tools, like lawn mowers and trimmers, can also spark fires.”
*taps the sign*
• Meanwhile, later this week the Portland City Council is taking up an ordinance that would transfer the Houston-based fossil fuel company Zenith Energy’s franchise agreement—a city contract that allows them to access city roads for business—to a Miami-based investment firm called I Squared Capital. Zenith has been in the city since 2014 when it took over an asphalt terminal and began transporting and storing crude oil and other liquid fuels. In 2017, the company inherited an old Chevron franchise agreement in order to do its business, and it may transfer again if the Council approves it. Environmental advocates say this is one rare opportunity for the city to put some other checks in place to ensure the new supplier doesn’t flout local and state laws the way Zenith has. If it sounds boring, just consider it in the context of climate change. Should Portland accommodate the expansion of infrastructure for carbon-emitting fuels in 2026?
IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• The Trump administration arrested a record number of immigrants in June, the Guardian reports. The reporting cites data released by the US government, which shows agents arrested 43,138 people that month. While the arrests are passing by a bit more quietly than when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was under Kristi Noem’s watch, that’s the highest number of arrests since Trump took office. Markwayne Mullin, the current DHS secretary, has changed the department’s approach, flying under the radar rather than intentionally creating a public spectacle and filming it for propaganda. The surge comes amid Trump, Mullin, and a bunch of other authoritarian acolytes have threatened states and election officials around the upcoming November election. Fear: a trick as old as time.
• A 19-year-old from Texas and a 25-year-old from Hawaii died after an Iranian strike on a military base this weekend, and another is missing. Nearly 100 US troops have been injured in recent weeks. Democrats are urging the Trump administration to stop the war, as American casualties continue to climb. Meanwhile, the US and Israel have killed thousands of people and injured tens of thousands more in Iran, Lebanon, Iraq, and other countries in the region. That comes on the heels of at least 75,000 people that the two inseparable countries killed in Gaza over the past 2.5 years.
• Trump says he’s hitting Canada with 50% tariffs on a bunch of goods, including hockey sticks, wine, and cement (sounds like my fun weekend just got a lot more expensive). Our neighbor to the north responded, saying it is ready to “intensify” talks with the US, meaning—I don’t know—that hot dogs, fake democracy, and long-eradicated illnesses will soon face new retaliatory tariffs? Tariffs are, by the way, are taxes paid to the government by companies that import goods, and tend to trickle to the consumer. Read more on the tariff wars in the BBC, here.
• It’s never a bad time to remind each other that the Tate brothers were arrested for sex trafficking this weekend.
