What’s shaking today in the scandal den that is Newberg? Oh, nothing but the City Manager resigning under a cloud! And she’s taking almost $100,000 of your tax dollars with her as severance, Newberg.

Oregon now has three “major” political parties, but will the ascension of the Independent Party (you know that claiming “independent” when the DMV asked didn’t just mean you preferred to be unaffiliated with any party, right?) into the big leagues have any meaningful effect on the two-party system? Almost certainly not.

The whole state’s on fire, and we’re not alone. Northern California? The Rockies? Also on fire. Which creates some interesting (in a bad way) scenarios for the folks who have to decide which areas of the country are most deserving of being rescued from a fate as kindling. The governor’s suspended certain rules because of the conflagrations, meaning the folks trucking in fuel for firefighting aircraft can drive more than 12 hours a day if need be.

Also: Seem hazy to you? That’s because plumes of smoke are billowing over much of Oregon.

Mayor Charlie Hales is known to Portland voters, of course. State Treasurer (and former Multnomah County Chair) Ted Wheeler? Probably less so. But according to one poll, the two men are tied in the minds of the public, if Wheeler decides to make a run at City Hall next year.

Republicans still hate Planned Parenthood, and they’re working to make the states they control just a bit worse by attempting to defund the organization state by state. It’s all the states you’re used to see pulling this type of thing… and then New Hampshire?

“I don’t know much about tiger logistics, but we were told to be this huge blue tarp monster with the weedwhacker and try to be scary and make loud noises. That just made him angry. You could say he got tiger rage, so we retreated.” Loose tiger in Detroit.

The Army is about to graduate the first-ever women from its grueling Ranger school. That’s because this is the first year women have even been allowed to attend.

Remember how that cadre of swinging, swimming, and kayak-paddling activists blocked a Shell Oil vessel from leaving Portland late last month, calling stridently on President Obama to deny the company permission to drill in the Arctic? Didn’t work. Obama’s okayed the drilling.

What’s the president doing, then, to curb the climate change he says presents such an immediate threat? Well his next move is going to be limiting methane emissions that come from oil and gas wells. It’s not as prevalent as CO2, but it’s better at killing the ozone layer. No word on the president’s take on belching cows.

Which brings us to… another day of hellish temps! Portland’s going to have more days cracking 90 degrees this year than any on record.

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I'm a news reporter for the Mercury. I've spent a lot of the last decade in journalism — covering tragedy and chicanery in the hills of southwest Missouri, politics in Washington, D.C., and other matters...

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