The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!
Good morning, Portland! As summer wanes and autumn approaches, we’re still looking at comfortable, sunny temps over the next few days and into the weekend. Today, we can expect sunshine, clear skies, and a high of 82. 😎
In other things that are heating up, here’s a snapshot of what we’re following.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• The chair of the Washington County Board of Commissioners has issued a public apology after she gave the middle finger to one of her fellow board members during a recent meeting. Washington County Chair Kathryn Harrington was seen during a recently recorded meeting asking a colleague, Nafisa Fai, to adjust her position at the table because she was blocking Harrington’s “line of sight” of Commissioner Jason Snider, who was speaking. Fai appeared to adjust her chair and lean forward, at which point Harrington rolled her chair away and slammed her hands on the table, giving Fai a middle finger that went unaddressed until Fai interrupted and stopped the meeting. “Could you pause for a second? Did anybody see the finger?” Fai asked her other colleagues at the table. “No? Ok, go ahead,” she told Snider. Harrington, who is not running for reelection, told the Oregonian she “should not have behaved in such a hurtful manner.” Fai is currently running for Washington County chair against fellow Commissioner, Pam Treece. Treece spoke out, condemning Harrington’s behavior, and saying she’d returned a $10,000 campaign donation from Harrington.
• Billionaires Phil and Penny Knight recently announced a $1.1 billion commitment to Providence St. Vincent and Providence Heart Institute to create Oregon’s first hospital devoted to women’s health, as well as substantially advancing cardiovascular treatment. Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, have been giving away tons of money lately. It makes sense. Phil is 88 and likely running out of things to spend it on, but mostly, he gets to leave a legacy all over Portland while also dodging a huge tax bill. When you’re rich, you can either give your money to charity or give it to the government. While it’s hard to celebrate a man whose tenure at Nike includes child labor scandals and who continues to use his wealth to prop up candidates with anti-abortion and anti-trans agendas, I guess we should take the wins where we can get them.
• Speaking of sports people, even NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants Blazers majority owner Tom Dundon to do the right thing. Silver says if the Blazers were to leave Portland, he’d consider it a “failure,” noting Rip City has some of the most loyal fans. He says he wants to see the temperature come down on the negotiations between the city of Portland and the Blazers regarding the Moda Center lease deal.
• The November election may seem far away, but with a crowded field of local candidates and ranked choice voting, it’s time to start familiarizing yourself with who’s running in your district. The Mercury compiled a comprehensive list of who’s who in the City Council races. Find out which candidate wants to shake up the property tax structures, which one wants to equip police with dart guns, which ones are likely to be fierce advocates for programs like Portland Street Response, and which ones seem drunk on Fox News and OANN, or just get their information from Facebook, probably.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky introduced articles of impeachment against Secretary of War Pete Hegseth yesterday, not just because Hegseth is a gross poster boy for racism, misogyny, homophobia, and toxic masculinity (does it count if he can’t even do basic strength training properly?) but because he’s initiated a war with Iran without Congressional approval and lied to the American people about it, repeatedly. Massie is unliked by Trump and many of his fellow Republicans. He’s leaving office after losing his primary to a Trump-backed opponent. The US House is supposed to act on Massie’s call for impeachment by Thursday.
• After the closure of Marineland of Canada aquarium, several whales and dolphins were relocated to other aquariums and sanctuaries, but the transfer proved what many cetacean researchers and advocates have known all along: these animals don’t belong in captivity and in fact, they often can’t survive in such conditions. According to reporting in Vox, following the closure of Marineland, “four dolphins and two of the beluga whales went to an aquarium in Spain, while the other belugas were transferred to two SeaWorld locations — theme parks that are similar to Marineland — and two famous US aquariums: Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta, which received two, and Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, which received 10.” After just eight days in their new environment in late August and early September, two belugas named Peekachu and Rain who’d recently been moved to Shedd Aquarium, along with another beluga named Beethoven, who had been at the aquarium for decades, all died. The whales’ cause of death has yet to be determined.
Marineland closed a few years after 20 belugas died at the park since 2019. Meanwhile, parts of Canada enacted legislation banning whale captivity, but they carved out exceptions for Marineland. Some of the deaths, park employees said, were a result of legislation that required male and female belugas to be separated to prevent breeding in captivity. The whales are highly social creatures who thrive in pods with stimulation and typically swim several miles a day in the wild—a far cry from the conditions at most aquariums. Park owners stopped letting press in for several years to come, before eventually, the entire facility closed after the death of the aquarium and theme park’s owner, along with declining attendance and financial struggles.
• It appears Ed Sheeran’s tour is unraveling. Sheeran claims his tour promoter booted Seattle-based rapper Macklemore from the tour after facing pressure from arena owner Robert Kraft to ditch Macklemore for the rapper’s pro-Palestine messages during his opening performances. Now, other opening acts on Sheeran’s tour have dropped off, as well as Sheeran’s backing band. WHOOPS! Turns out most people recognize what genocide is and nobody wants to be on the wrong side of history. Sheeran says it wasn’t his decision to force Macklemore off the tour, but the fallout has been swift, and even though Macklemore didn’t get to play many shows, one could argue his message probably got more traction due to all this.
And finally, someone described how we all feel…
