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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! We’re back to gorgeous summer weather this week after last week’s deadly heat wave, but I'm convinced we’re still in the upside down. If you need evidence, look no further than what’s happening in Southern California, where flash floods closed highways and shut down life for thousands of Coachella Valley residents as tropical storm Hilary wreaked havoc. Be thankful for today’s high of 77 in Portland.
In Local News:
- Portland’s Independent District Commission has chosen geographic boundaries for the new City Council districts. The four new districts are largely drawn to keep residents in each of the city’s four main quadrants together, though one district lumps residents in the Reed and Westmoreland neighborhoods in with a west side voting district, to the chagrin of Southeast Portlanders. Next step: watch as people start coming out of the woodwork to run for a council seat in 2024.
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The Portland Timbers fired head coach Giovanni Savarese on Monday, after a miserable 5-0 loss in Texas the day prior. What led to Savarese’s exit and what does it mean for the future of the Timbers? Abe Asher unpacks it all here.
The Portland Timbers fire their head coach, Giovanni Savarese—but the decision raises more questions about the Timbers’ future than it does about their longest-tenured MLS manager. @abe_asher has the analysis.https://t.co/AeOSc6rw3N
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) August 22, 2023 -
Rapid Response Bio Clean, the company Portland contracts with to clean up and remove homeless encampments, among other things, will pay the full amount requested in a recent lawsuit against the company over its failure to follow storage protocols during a 2020 sweep. The settlement comes just a few short months after the same company was ordered to pay for damages in a separate lawsuit stemming from the same sweep.
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Listen, everything is expensive now. Grapes are $10 a bunch. A loaf of bread is like, $300. Lucky for you, it’s Burger Week! Go grab yourself a mound of deliciousness for just $8.
Let the bells ring and confetti fall... the Mercury's BURGER WEEK has arrived and will delight your tummy all damn week long! 🎉😍🍔https://t.co/iK5tMInHlr
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) August 21, 2023In National/World News:
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As mentioned earlier, Southern California is recovering from a tropical storm, which is something I never thought I’d type. Nothing sums up the weird tragedy of climate change better than this clip of someone floating down a road in the Coachella Valley.
@isidromejia2592 #huricane #hurracan #hilary #god #parati #fyp #blessed #tiktok #2023 #fypシ #rain #funny #viral ♬ The Rain - Oran "Juice" Jones -
The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, a right-wing sheriff’s group that teaches elected sheriffs to “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government,” is gaining traction across the country. The group advises sheriffs not to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or "unjust." In that case, shall we all go be cops in states with abortion bans and laws against gender affirming care?
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In what many are calling a historic move and an environmental win, Ecuador passed a referendum on drilling oil from a protected area of the Amazon rainforest. Voters overwhelmingly banned oil drilling in the Yasuni National Park.
Voters in Ecuador have passed a referendum to prohibit oil drilling in a protected area of the Amazon rainforest, a move hailed as “historic” by environmental activists ⤵️ https://t.co/w8DedupTXF
— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 22, 2023 -
Calling all monster hunters! A group of researchers and hunters will convene on the Scottish Highlands this weekend to collectively look for the elusive, perhaps mythical, Loch Ness Monster. The search is likely to be the largest in 50 years for a creature that was long believed to have been photographed in the 1930s, before it was revealed decades later as a hoax. If you can’t make it in person, the hunt will be livestreamed.
Loch Ness monster enthusiasts gear up for biggest search in 50 years https://t.co/R8wBd3TLuj
— The Guardian (@guardian) August 21, 2023
