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Good morning, Portland. It’ll be warm out today, but not as warm as yesterday. It’s still slushie month. I always forget whether it’s “slushie” or “slushy.” (It’s the former, which is good, because that looks way better.) Ok, onto the news.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• The signature-gathering campaign for the Safer Portland initiative, AKA the proposal to divert 25 percent of the Portland Clean Energy Fund to hiring cops, submitted more than 62,000 signatures to the city yesterday. That’s well over 40,000, which is the required amount to make it onto the ballot. But the city still needs to verify the signatures before it can officially qualify for the November ballot. Remember, this is the same campaign that is the subject of dozens of complaints to the Oregon Secretary of State’s office, with people alleging paid canvassers were trained to mislead voters about the initiative in order to get them to sign the petition. The Secretary of State has opened an investigation into the campaign, but the investigation timeline is unclear.
• Another initiative petition may also be on the Portland ballot this fall—one calling for “participatory budgeting.” This proposal which allow Portlanders to have a direct say in how the city spends a portion of its budget (at least 2 percent of annual discretionary funds). Other cities, like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, have adopted similar programs. Advocates say the proposed policy would help establish trust between the public and city government, as they could see their wishes directly reflected in city spending. Others say the public already participates in the budget process when they elect the leaders who make those calls. This petition will also need to have its signatures vetted before it officially qualifies for the November ballot, but with more than 78,000 signatures gathered, participatory budgeting supporters are enthusiastic about their prospects.
• Do you know anyone who has paid to take a guided mushroom trip? If not, it’s probably because psilocybin therapy—approved by Oregon voters in 2020—is prohibitively expensive for most people, with a typical session costing upwards of $850 a pop. That could pay for a LOT of mushrooms, as long as you know a guy. (At least, I imagine it could. This is all theoretical, of course.) But the point of psilocybin therapy isn’t just to trip out in the woods by yourself or with a friend. You’re paying a large premium for a trained guide to walk you through the process, and hopefully come out the other end a little healthier, mentally speaking. Anyway…Oregon regulators want to make legal mushroom trips even more expensive. The Oregon Health Authority is seeking to double license fees psilocybin service centers pay, which they’ll very likely pass on to the consumer. Oregon’s psilocybin therapy industry already appears close to death, with many service centers shuttering, and this will certainly not help. It’s unclear exactly why it costs so much to run the state’s psilocybin program—it probably doesn’t help that magic mushrooms are still federally illegal, and highly regulated. But it would be sad to see the experimental therapy, which has been shown to help people suffering from PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, and other mental health conditions, go away.
• As always, if you’re looking for stuff to do this week, the Mercury has you covered in Do This, Do That. On the roster this week: The Mercury‘s awesome (and delicious) food issue launch party tomorrow, a Portland Fire game Thursday, a bike tour of Hillsboro’s data centers Saturday AM. Click the link above for more!
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• Graham Platner, the Democratic candidate trying to unseat Republican Susan Collins in Maine, is facing major backlash and calls to step down following a serious allegation of sexual assault. The allegation comes from an ex-girlfriend, who said in 2021, he drunkenly entered her home and forced her to have sex despite her objections. Platner denies the allegation, but this is not the major issue uncovered about him since he entered the public eye last year. Last fall, it was discovered that Platner had a Nazi tattoo, though he said he didn’t know it was a Nazi tattoo. (Since it wasn’t THE Nazi tattoo, he apologized and believed him.) Platner’s old Reddit posts with racist and misogynistic messages were then uncovered, and he apologized for those too. Again, people gave him a pass, because he’s a white guy with a rugged look and at 41 years old, he’s pretty much still a kid, so how could he be expected to know better?
More allegations of bad behavior followed, and the excuses continued. Finally, this latest one, which is the most serious but also, honestly, not horribly surprising considering everything that has come before. For the record, this is mostly Platner’s fault. He should have known better before throwing himself into a major race like this, which could decide whether or not Democrats can take back control of the Senate. But this is also the fault of those who enabled him, including progressive Democrats like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who should’ve told him to drop out once the Nazi tattoo was revealed. He has until next Monday to drop out and be replaced with another candidate. Otherwise, Collins is going to destroy him in ads and debates until November. Drop out, Platner. And white guys…don’t think so highly of yourself. Maybe try your local dog catcher election before going for the US Senate seat. Oh, and stop sexually assaulting people.
One more thing: I’ve heard some people saying stuff like, “Why should Platner have to drop out when Trump is a rapist and nobody cared about that?” That’s an entry-level argument from people incapable of critical thought. Yeah, progressives are held to higher standards, and Democrats should consider adopting some more combative political tactics. But those of us on the left cannot become morally bankrupt and put up with sexual assault, misogyny, antisemitism, racism, etc, because it’s okay when Trump does it. It actually isn’t okay when Trump does it. You can’t let this shit slide, regardless of who it comes from. When you do, it makes people doubt your party’s commitment to standing up for the marginalized people they claim to care about.
• The US men’s national soccer team came pretty far in this year’s World Cup, but last night, they lost brutally to Belgium and are now out of the running. The game, held in Seattle, saw the US team losing 4-1—oof! It was a hard blow, but Belgium is a good team, and they had the upper hand even though Trump did some sketchy shit to try to give the US the advantage. Oh well. The World Cup continues now, with the US and Mexico both out. (The latter loss was a bigger blow, IMO.)
• Paging Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky senator who has been in the hospital for almost a month now, garnering speculation about whether or not he’s still alive. The 84-year-old Republican, who bears a lot of responsibly for the current state of our nation, is experiencing serious, but unspecified, health issues, and his team has only put out vague messages about his condition. The Senate returns to Washington next week…we’ll see if he’s there or not.
• LOL. Have a good week, everyone!
