If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendars, our fun and sometimes spicy news roundups, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. 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! Prepare to stay sweaty all week. A heat advisory is in effect, and today’s high is 98 degrees with a low of 64. 

Let us shower you with current events. 

In Local News:

  • Prominent Portland-based chef and restaurateur Naomi Pomeroy drowned last weekend while tubing the Willamette River near Corvallis. Pomeroy, 49, was a James Beard award-winning chef who recently opened Cornet Custard shop with co-owner Mika Paredes. The Benton County Sheriff’s Office says deputies were dispatched to the river around 8 pm Saturday, July 13, after Pomeroy’s inner tube got stuck and she went under water, but never resurfaced. Pomeroy was with a group, including her husband. The group had tethered three inner tubes together before Pomeroy got separated. By late Monday, search teams hadn’t recovered her body. Pomeroy was best-known for Beast—a tiny, yet upscale, communal-style restaurant that dazzled patrons with a multi-course prix fixe menu. Beast closed in 2020, but Pomeroy opened Ripe Cooperative in its place. She reportedly had another restaurant project in the works. Food critic Andrea Damewood remembers "the foundation, then the matriarch, of Portland’s incredibly influential food scene" in this thoughtful essay.
  • People often complain that politicians don’t do anything, or aren’t addressing problems in their states, cities, or districts. Here ya go. Enjoy this photo of Gov. Tina Kotek helping remove graffiti on I-84 over the weekend, while the freeway was briefly closed for the cleaning. I'm not trying to do any PR for the governor, but I find it oddly satisfying to see elected officials actually roll up their sleeves and do some hard, unglamorous work. Oregon Rep. Travis Nelson did the same thing last month, thanking ODOT for addressing the eyesores and litter along the freeway. It kind of beats those corny fake shovel and construction hat photos at construction ground-breaking ceremonies.
  • The new superintendent of Portland Public Schools, Kimberlee Armstrong, has tapped former Multnomah County Chair Deborah Kafoury to be her new chief of staff. Kafoury served as chair of the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners before current chair Jessica Vega Pederson was elected. Before her tenure leading the county, Kafoury served in the Oregon Legislature. During her time with the county, there was well-documented tension among Kafoury and her fellow board members, as well as with other local government officials. She often clashed with Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler over homelessness solutions and in 2017, she snapped at fellow county commissioner Loretta Smith, calling Smith a “bitch” but later apologizing. Kafoury takes on the chief of staff role at a time when PPS faces deep budget cuts and new leadership  (Armstrong was just named superintendent in June, after serving as chief academic officer.) “With her enhanced experience in education and government, she will provide transformational leadership for our philanthropic initiatives, Climate Justice objectives, and strategic partnerships across private and public sectors,” Armstrong stated in an announcement about Kafoury’s hire. 
  • The current American political landscape is a dumpster fire, but improvement starts at the local level. This November, Portlanders will elect an entirely new city council and mayor. While it’s possible we could see a current city commissioner or two springboard over to the new council, it’s probably best you start familiarizing yourself with the candidates in your council district. The Mercury’s Taylor Griggs recently chatted with City Cast about the candidates vying to represent District 2. Give it a listen and check out our candidate tracker for more background info.
     
     
     
     
     
    View this post on Instagram
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    A post shared by Themuffreport (@themuffreport)

  • This is hardly a news story, but worth an honorable mention: Portlanders still know how to keep it weird once in a while. Visitors to Fernhill Park in Northeast Portland found unofficial, makeshift signs prohibiting Ouija boards in the park "due to recent events." The letter-sized notice, slipped conspicuously in a plastic sleeve, even has the city of Portland’s official seal printed on it, but not the correct name of the city’s parks department (there is no Multnomah County Parks Department.) Ouija boards are traditionally used by curious teens and ‘tweens to communicate with spirits or ghosts. Fake or not, let’s all do our part to keep Portland’s parks ghost-free!

Speaking of spirits…🥁 if you do encounter a ghost, buy them an icy, boozy slushy during our month-long Summer of Slushies. 

In National/World News:

  • Former reality TV show host Donald Trump announced US Senator J.D. Vance (R–Ohio) as his running mate and pick for vice president. After getting the tip of his ear nicked in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally Saturday, Trump returned to the campaign trail Monday at the Republican National Convention. Vance, or as one former Ohioan called him, a “disingenuous douche bag” previously said he hated Trump in 2016. Vance’s wife reportedly called Trump a “racist” and a fascist, but apparently Vance, who's serving his first term in Congress after publishing "Hillbilly Elegy" in 2016, put that aside at some point and jumped on the Trump train a few years into Trump’s presidency.
  • Everyone knows road trips have an essential checklist for the mini mart or gas station stop: 

✔️snacks

✔️Big Gulp

✔️fuel (or battery charge)

✔️lotto ticket

✔️heroin

We told you about park ghosts, but are you familiar with gas station heroin? Tianeptine is an unregulated opioid sold in gas stations and online. It’s prescribed for conditions like depression in several countries. It’s an addictive opioid that isn’t legal in the United States, but isn’t on the list of federally controlled substances. NPR reports poison control centers in the US have seen a spike in incidents involving tianeptine, which isn’t regulated by the FDA.

 
 
 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A post shared by memes and movies account (@netflixnmovies)

  • The end of Tenacious D? Maybe. Jack Black promptly canceled the duo's tour after his bandmate, Kyle Gass, made a joke on stage following Saturday's deadly shooting at a Trump rally. Black sang happy birthday to Gass, then told him to make a wish. Gass replied: "don't miss Trump next time" to audience applause. Black says he would "never condone hate speech or encourage political violence in any form" and signaled uncertainty about whether he'd work with Gass again.Â