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! Reminder: There's only one week left in July, meaning there's only one week left to enjoy boozy $5 slushies. Please act accordingly!!!
Here are the headlines.
• You'll want to read this story about powerful Portland businessmen trying to convince District Attorney Mike Schmidt to prosecute more protesters arrested on bullshit charges. It's frustrating as hell, but ultimately gratifying:
4 Portland power brokers recently treated DA Mike Schmidt to lunch—and an earful about protest-related prosecutions—at the Arlington Club.
— Shane D. Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) July 22, 2021
The men then made some extraordinary asks & followed up w Schmidt's office. @noellecrombie & I have the deets. https://t.co/T6xLdjJTMZ
• Here's another environmental phenomenon to worry about: Oregon is experiencing a "hypoxia season"—when oxygen levels drop to low levels in the ocean off the Oregon coast—that's much earlier than usual. That could mean trouble for both crabs and bottom-dwelling fish off the coast.
• Portland City Council unanimously approved a $600,000 settlement agreement Wednesday to the family of Terrell Johnson, a 24-year-old man killed by a Portland police officer in 2017. Johnson died on May 10, 2017, after being chased on foot by former PPB officer Samson Ajir from the SE Flavel MAX platform.
• A Portland police officer shot and wounded a member of the public Tuesday evening at a convenience store in Northwest Portland—the fourth shooting by PPB this year. New information is still coming out, but Alex Zielinski has more details on the shooting.
• With limited fire-fighting resources, some Oregonians are forced to take matters into their own hands:
“I know it’s stuff, but it was my stuff. You know? Stuff that I valued. Nobody else.”
— Maggie Vespa (@Maggie_Vespa) July 21, 2021
Dee McCarley & her husband lost all of their possessions in the #BootlegFire. Their son David lost his home.
Now, Tim spends his days putting out hotspots around their property near Bly. pic.twitter.com/ckxTY8jeNY
• Disturbing headline of the day, courtesy of NBC News: "As GOP supporters die of Covid, the party remains split in its vaccination message."
• NPR has a report out about a new trend with the United States Supreme Court: Last month, the Court twice ruled in favor of giving the President more power over federal regulatory agencies, such as the United States Patent and Trademark Office or the Federal Housing Finance Agency. This means that the agencies, which are meant to simply enforce the rules, could become more overtly political, depending on the whims of whoever happens to be President at the time.
• Looking forward to a few months from now, when I can sit back and let an AI bot write this column:
Breaking News: An artificial intelligence lab called DeepMind predicted the shapes of hundreds of thousands of proteins in hours — a task that takes scientists years. The technology could greatly accelerate medical and scientific research.https://t.co/L9ZBTamYh5
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 22, 2021
• Let's check in on the Tokyo Olympics, where everything is going great, the athletes are happy and healthy, and the world is coming together to enjoy some sports! Oh, what's that? The opening ceremony director was fired for making Holocaust jokes? Yeah, okay, sounds about right.
• And finally, let's all sit in awe of this fast-acting teen for a moment:
INCOMING!! 😱 A seagull flew straight into a teen’s face while she was on a ride at the Jersey Shore! Amazingly, the girl and the bird weren’t hurt. pic.twitter.com/uoTeVSZNkN
— njdotcom (@njdotcom) July 21, 2021