Good Morning, News: Slushies, SCOTUS Security, Sports Gossip, and Another Socialist Wins

• Oregon’s minimum wage increases today by 50 cents per hour. That brings the minimum rate in the Portland metro area to $16.80 an hour. An annual minimum wage increase sounds good, in theory, except recent data from MIT shows Oregon workers need to earn at least double the minimum wage if they want to get by. The Oregon Labor Federation called out the data in a recent post noting the conditions working families face in the state.

• The city of Pendleton has decided to dig its own legal grave, rather than accept a settlement and work on a solution to address the city’s public rest laws that the Oregon Law Center and Legal Aid Services claim have unfairly targeted unhoused residents with nowhere else to go. OPB reports the Pendleton City Council rejected a settlement offer, against the advice of the city’s legal counsel, after public pressure over the city’s handling of its homelessness policies. According to OPB, five unhoused plaintiffs filed a lawsuit against the city in which “they alleged that the rules around public sleeping were unfair, hard to follow and left them few places to sleep at night.” Instead of going to court, the city opted for a settlement process to amend its rules around sleeping in public. But instead of finalizing and codifying the terms of the settlement, the Council voted against it. Plaintiffs will now proceed with their legal case against the Central Oregon city.  

• Yesterday we reported that the city’s police oversight body is crying foul over a proposed budget ordinance that could try to tap funds in their office to pay for, well, cops. The proposal that spurred a warning letter from members of the police accountability group is a supplemental budget ordinance put forward last week from Councilors Loretta Smith, Elana Pirtle-Guiney, Steve Novick, and Council Vice President Olivia Clark, which aims to restore money for police training and save about 30 city jobs in the city’s parks and police bureaus, using contingency funds in some of the city’s general fund budgets. 

The councilors propose paying back the borrowed money during a spring budget adjustment process next year by using interest accrued in the city’s clean energy fund, as well as any unspent funds in the police accountability office, among other sources. It’s not the only budget-related move taking place. Another contingent of councilors introduced a similar budget ordinance the week prior, which also aims to save city jobs in the parks and police bureaus, while also preserving funds for a senior center project. That plan proposes tapping unallocated interest accrued in the Portland Clean Energy Fund, as well as non-general fund contingency money and funds already earmarked for the senior center.

Here’s a bit of extra context about both ordinances: With the latter ordinance—introduced by a group of the Council’s progressive members just hours after the budget adoption—councilors essentially said they’re trying to achieve what they couldn’t get done during the regular budget adoption process because the Council frequently found itself deadlocked in a tie vote, or unable to pass amendments because they couldn’t agree on the funding mechanisms to achieve the end results. It was an admission that they were using every tool to try to save jobs and targeted services before it’s too late. 

But last week, when Clark and the other councilors pitched their competing ordinance, they said it was spurred by “additional information regarding potential gaps in services” gleaned after the budget adoption process. We wondered, did they not know that cutting jobs would screw up operations in some city departments? Did they forget about the noisy crowds of union employees marching through City Hall, rallying against the budget cuts and denouncing the impacts it would have on services, and working families? The Mercury even reported on how some staff have highly specialized job functions, making them hard to replace if they’re laid off. Their ordinance also cites the city’s credit rating, which, again, was discussed during budget talks. The councilors behind the ordinance knew they didn’t approve of the cuts in Mayor Wilson’s budget. Some said they found them unacceptable, but didn’t want to delay the budget adoption, so they voted to pass a budget they didn’t like.

Exactly what additional information they learned post-budget adoption is unclear, but strains credulity, considering the issues raised were discussed at length during the budget meetings, and Clark led the charge to raid police accountability funds nearly a month before the budget was passed, with an amendment that sought to do many of the same things this new ordinance would. That amendment ultimately failed to garner enough votes. 

• Good news, summer babes. Today kicks off the first day of the Mercury’s month-long Summer of Slushies!! For just $10 a pop you can enjoy a boozy, icy concoction from one of two dozen locations around the city. To sweeten the deal, you can sign up for a Summer of Slushies pass and win fun Mercury swag. 

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Fresh off New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidates sweeping their races last week, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) stronghold of… wait… Denver, Colorado(?) is projected to elect DSA candidate Melat Kiros. Kiros will unseat a 15-term incumbent Dianna DeGette, in a sting to Democrats who remain radically moderate in the face of, well, everything. The 29-year-old Kiros, who was born in Ethiopia, ran on what appears to be increasingly popular ideas, like Medicare for all, ending wars and genocide, abolishing Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and support for universal child and elder care. She also promotes affordable housing policies, and wraparound services for people with mental health and addiction challenges. The catch is, she wants the wealthy to pay for it through taxes, the one thing moderate Democrats and Republicans appear happy to reach across the aisle to fight against. –JEREMIAH HAYDEN

• Are you done cussing and spitting at this shitpost take on the Blazers’ recent trades? Well shift gears for a minute because we have more basketball news to digest. Yesterday, NBA all-star and record setter LeBron James announced his departure from the LA Lakers. James is now a free agent, and fans are speculating about which city he might land at to finish out his career. James, the oldest player in the NBA, left the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Lakers eight years ago. He’s done two stints in Cleveland and Cavs fans are still holding out hope that the Akron, Ohio native might return to the team for one more go before he hangs up his jersey. Other teams that could be likely contenders, according to sports reporters with sportsy sources: the Golden State Warriors, Miami Heat, or even the Minnesota Timberwolves, but wouldn’t it just be wildly funny if James ended up a Blazer? Don’t get me wrong, I think he’s too much of a diva to fit in here and there’s no way Tom Dundon would fork over that kind of money, but the jokes about where the 41-year-old will land next are piling up.

• The Supreme Court has been heavy in the news this week for ruining the lives of trans athletes, and for not retiring (womp, womp). But Politico reports the court is also busy building up its own security detail. In recent years, the court has requested tens of millions of dollars from Congress to beef up security operations, but won’t disclose exactly how the money is being spent. One thing is clear: the justices might be bigger targets now than in prior decades, as ethics scandals have plagued the high court and it no longer appears to be the bastion of justice it once was. According to Politico, security guards now follow the court’s members around, in one case, intercepting a woman who planned to kill Brett Kavanaugh before taking her own life. What’s even less clear than the murky budget jump is why someone who’s angry with the court or conservative justices would want them gone while Trump is still in office, giving him the opportunity to appoint a replacement judge before he leaves office and further cement the court’s lopsided ideological makeup. 

Not gonna lie, learning to shoot before learning how to drive feels very on-brand for Oregon. That’s all for now. Be safe out there!