More uncertainty around Terminal 1, the 14.5-acre city-owned plot in Northwest Portland that Commissioner Dan Saltzman wants to turn into a temporary 400-bed homeless shelter (and potentially much more): Now the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is warning that the land hasn't been approved for human habitation. The big question: Whether or not the city's housing state of emergency would let officials ignore that and set up a shelter anyway.
You just knew the resignation of the state's elections director last month—as we tick off the days toward a monster general election—was more than common employee turnover. Turns out Jim Williams was quite gossipy, and perhaps even completely inappropriate, with a pair of female subordinates, earning him two internal investigations.
Nope, the Portland Public Schools lead thing hasn't gone away. Newly released emails show how schools officials waffled over putting warning labels on sinks back in 2012, worried people would panic over the presence of a potent neurotoxin in water readily accessible to schoolchildren. So they just didn't! Oh, and they also bungled the job of putting adequate filters in school drinking fountains.
Hey! Donald Trump's unveiling his economic policies to distract everyone from his speeding train wreck of a campaign. How's it look? "Mr. Trump called for 'a conversation about how to make America great again for everyone, and especially those who have the very least.' But the economic agenda Mr. Trump described included many traditionally Republican policies that offer little to no direct benefit to working-class Americans, while giving a considerable financial boost to the wealthiest."
And it's working just fine! For instance, only 50 Republican national security experts renounced Trump's candidacy yesterday. Could have been more. And I suppose Republican Sen. Susan Collins might have been more effusive in laying out why she's not supporting her party's nominee in the Washington Post? (Also: There are rumors Trump might not show for all three scheduled presidential debates, Politico says.)
How are the Olympics going? Swell (though the men's gymnastics team didn't perform as hoped).
Remember how County Commissioner Loretta Smith told the Mercury a while back that a tax lien filed against her was a big misunderstanding? She's apparently now even more certain of that, and has filed an amended tax return to fix what she believes is a mistake on the part of the IRS.
Bizarre and foreboding: Portland cops in the East Precinct had spotted a guy watching them from his SUV since April . They stopped him several times, and eventually, on Sunday, found him hauling around an arsenal. The suspect, Eric Crowell, is also apparently a "self-proclaimed Constitutionalist"—presumably in line with the Bundy clan and their ilk, though I haven't spoken with Cowell about his political philosophies.
There was a big mess in Gladstone last night, after a police officer tried to stop a man on a bicycle. The man apparently had a warrant, and wound up shooting the officer (in his bullet-proof vest), and taking a hostage in a nearby Subway. The suspect, of Klamath Falls, is not doing his part to represent the egregious-face-tattoo community.
Tragic news out of Kansas City, where a 10-year-old boy died on a theme park's monstrous, raft-based waterslide. Hard not to wonder what former gubernatorial candidate Dave Stauffer thinks of that news. You know, because of this.
Don't watch this if you haven't finished Stranger Things. Otherwise: Not great, but I get the sentiment.
Let your blistering, sun-drunk skin take respite in these clouds while it can.
