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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! 👋
Clouds and cooler temps return to the forecast this week, with partly sunny skies today and a high of 80, which will dip down to a chilly 65 with showers by Wednesday! Now let's dip into some chilly NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
* Portland Police have identified the officer who shot and injured a Portsmouth neighborhood man last month as Nicholas Morales, a five-year veteran of the force. This is the fourth officer-involved shooting for the bureau this year, two of which were fatal, and Morales was also involved in an odd 2021 incident which led to a lawsuit against the department which was later dismissed. Our Courtney Vaughn has the details!
* By most accounts, the way Portland hands out millions of dollars in nonprofit money is a mess -- with no real clear data to show where the money is going or how outcomes are measured. But now there's a new grant-making plan which has the potential of providing much more "consistency, accountability, transparency, and data." Our Taylor Griggs has the details!
* With the YUUUUGE number of candidates participating in this November's city election (118!), getting noticed by voters is a real problem for the campaigns. That's why several organizations including labor, progressive groups, and more are teaming up to promote their fave candidates. One noticeable absence: the Portland Business Alliance (whom I refuse to call the Portland Metro Chamber for the same reason I won't call Twitter by Elon's stupid chosen name) says they'll sit out of the mayor's race this time around since both of their fave candidates Commisioners Rene Gonzalez and Carmen Rubio are in the lead and both love cozying up to business interests. 😒
* In the latest goof-up by our sitting city council, the new 10-person homeless oversight board -- assigned to oversee budget and policy decisions for the region -- are two people short due to stringent restrictions put in place by the council. One such requirement is making sure a rich person who pays the Metro supportive housing services tax -- but doesn't live in Portland -- is on the board, as well as a behavioral health practitioner with an organization that doesn't have a contract with the city. Due to these verrrry particular rules, the MultCo staffers assigned to fill the board weren't able to find enough qualified candidates. (Our new expanded council cannot come soon enough.)
* Rapper-turned-country singer Jelly Roll performed a live concert at the Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem on Labor Day, delighting around 700 prisoners. The concert was reportedly the first live music event at the prison in 20 years, and according to one attendee, it was "the best day I've had in 30 years of incarceration."
* For those able to bear it, former prosecutor Kamala Harris will be debating a convicted felon in their first presidential debate tomorrow night (Tuesday) at 6 pm PST on the ABC network. Harris is expected to keep a calm head while explaining her policies and appearing like a normal person, while the felon will bluster and lie and veer off into wild, nonsensical tangents in a failed, laughable effort to appear presidential. And may god -- who doesn't exist, but for the purposes of this cliché is being used -- have mercy on our souls (which also doesn't exist, and makes me wonder why I used this phrase in the first place).
* Bad news for the tiny penis men who loooooove their monstrous trucks: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is proposing a new rule for auto makers that would put new performance and testing requirements on oversized trucks and SUVs that lead the industry in pedestrian deaths. The height of these vehicles cause dangerous blind spots for the driver, and according to experts "are about 45% more likely to cause deaths in pedestrian crashes than cars and other vehicles with a hood height of 30 inches or less and a sloping profile."
* Apple is unveiling their new iPhone 16 today, which promises new Skynet-like features, including AI which promises to spruce up their janky Siri function and create new emojis instantly -- which of course is the primary function of a phone.
* Here's some unsurprising bullshit: Beyoncé's new country album Cowboy Carter has been snubbed by the Country Music Award nominations committee, even though the single "Texas Hold 'Em" topped Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart after it was released in February. UMMM-HMMMM.
* And finally... for everyone who has suffered through an oil change at one of those chain places... THIS ONE IS FOR YOU.