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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! And hey: in case you haven’t noticed, the Mercury is now offering audio versions of many of the stories you love—including Good Morning, News, which is especially entertaining when narrated by the Mercury’s resident robot, Debbie. (In an effort to reward you for listening to Debbie—click play on the audio article above—I’m asking her to tell you a joke or two. Oh, boy! This could be super awesome or incredibly bad… just the way I love it.) Check it out, and then let’s check out today’s NEWS.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Yesterday, billionaire Blazers owner Tom Dundon graced Portland with his presence at a $350-per-ticket pep rally designed to get the city to fork over $120 million to renovate the Moda Center. The event was hosted by the Portland Metro Chamber (formerly the Portland Business Alliance), and Dundon was interviewed by Chamber president Andrew Hoan. Like most Chamber events it was, by most accounts, dry as dirt and lacked surprises of any sort. Dundon reiterated his opinion that taxpayers should pay for the entirety of the Moda remodel, and no one dared asked if he would follow through with the implied threat of moving the Blazers if he doesn’t get his way. Sooooo… hope you didn’t spend your hard-earned $350 on this snooze-fest instead of Taylor Swift tickets!
Billionaire investor and Trail Blazers owner Tom Dundon made no concessions Wednesday on his call for Moda Center renovations. He told a crowd of business and political leaders he’s already done a lot to help the city by purchasing the team, and paying what he sees as high taxes and fees.
— OPB (@opb.org) 2026-06-25T14:30:17.523Z
• Meanwhile in a work session across town, Portland City Council was coincidentally (not at all) also discussing the lopsided Moda deal. The progressive councilors were having a tough time squaring why a billionaire was asking a cash-strapped city suffering from a lack of city services for help renovating the Moda Center, when he hasn’t offered to contribute a single penny. City Councilor Candace Avalos noted, “I am going to have a hard time agreeing to give public money if I’m not seeing a private investment,” with Councilor Angelita Morillo adding that the deal seemed “shaky at best and fiscally irresponsible at worst.”
• Whoopee, even MORE Moda drama! The day before Portland city councilors were slated to hold a work session to review results of public surveys and listening sessions regarding the Moda Center, Mayor Keith Wilson sent out a fiery newsletter, where he took jabs at a city councilor and ridiculed one of the most influential voices steering public opinion on the deal. The mayor used his city newsletter to refer to the founder of “Rip City Not Rip Off ” not by name, but as a “Brooklyn-based techbro” trying to coax the mayor into using specific lease terms in exchange for Council votes. The mayor calling a Blazers fan and stakeholder a “techbro” who doesn’t live here is OH-SO-RICH for many reasons—one of which is that Wilson can’t seem to stop kissing the ass of Tom Dundon, the Trail Blazers owner who lives in Texas. And while Dundon is pushing for a deal that would keep him from paying anything toward the arena renovation that will eventually line his pockets, the “techbros” Wilson chides are often employees of companies like Intel and Nike, whose high incomes Wilson needs to fill the city’s tax coffers and help pay for things like Preschool For All and Supportive Housing Services. As it turns out, Wilson heavily mischaracterized an email exchange with said “techbro”—but don’t worry, as she so often does, our Courtney Vaughn has the receipts.
• And the political drama continued this week, when “Save Lloyd” advocates spoke up in front of Portland City Council in a bid to stop the redevelopment of the long-running mall and its ice rink. In the first of what could be days of public testimony, 90 people were signed up to ask council to overturn the Portland Design Commission’s unanimous vote to turn the mall into a mixed-use development that would include housing, retail, parks, and a plaza. Conversely, about 50 people who signed up to speak at the meeting were in favor of the development. While testimony will continue over the coming days, Tom Kilbane, the managing director of Urban Renaissance Group, said that no matter what the council ultimately decides, the mall will be closing as scheduled on August 8.
• A couple of ding-dong congressional Republicans—Reps. Jim Jordan and Tom McClintock—did their best to channel their dark lord and master Trump by sending an impotently stern letter to three local government leaders on Tuesday, challenging our morally correct sanctuary policies. The letter was sent to Multnomah County District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell, and Department of Corrections Director Mike Reese, accusing them of endangering “American communities through their refusal to cooperate with federal immigration officials and their prioritization of illegal and criminal aliens over American citizens.” Wait… are they threatening us with a good time? Let’s keep reading their racist screed. “Under your office’s pro-crime, pro-illegal immigration policies, illegal alien criminals are allowed to freely operate, terrorize local communities, and reoffend without consequences.” Okay, enough with the blatant lies, drama queenz! The letter goes on and on, but frankly, it’s far too boring and disgusting to bore you with here. The long and the short of it is that the GOP boot-lickers are demanding that all three offices produce records of local immigration practices, and the officials had better give them up by July 7… OR ELSE! Or else they’ll continue boring us to death? Thank you and NEXT!
• Ooh, and here’s your daily reminder that the Mercury’s NACHO WEEK is filling up bellies all over town RIGHT NOW, and continues through Sunday, June 28. Picture it: delicious, cheesy helpings of creatively constructed nachos, built by the cleverest chefs in town… and each plate is only $10 each. So what are you waiting for? Plant your face into a heaping plate of ‘chos, babies!
IN NATIONAL AND WORLD NEWS:
• Back-to-back earthquakes hit Venezuela Wednesday night, killing at least 164 people and injuring 971 more. The 7.2-magnitude quake followed by another 7.5 shaker were reportedly the strongest in decades, and toppled buildings while also knocking out communications in the city of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. But the hardest hit area was the coastal state of La Guaira, where the country’s major airport is located, and where dozens of buildings collapsed. The fatality rate is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue.
Another day, another extreme heat endurance test for Europe as multiple countries are braced for triple digit temperatures Thursday, potentially breaking national records for the second straight day. https://cnn.it/4gzGsAs
— CNN (@cnn.com) 2026-06-25T14:00:33.397925842Z
• Because they are feckless cowards, Senate Republicans who previously supported a resolution to force the president to stop the war in Iran have now rejected the idea, after Trump got all red in the face and screamed at them during a meeting yesterday on Capitol Hill. The declining octogenarian reportedly spewed a little extra vitriol at Republican Rep. Bill Cassidy, who vocally joined Democrats in pushing for the resolution. The power move shows that lame duck Trump still has the power to intimidate the GOP into doing his evil deeds—but to be honest, Republicans never had much of a spine in the first place.
• The Supreme Court went on a Trump-appeasing spree today, releasing multiple rulings that the president will love. Not only did the Supremes slap down a Hawaii law that would’ve stopped people from carrying guns on private property without permission, they also restricted folks who have been harmed by deadly pesticides—such as RoundUp—from suing the companies who make them. But the disgusting icing on this cake is the Court ruling that the government can turn back people seeking asylum—before they even enter the country.
The Supreme Court’s conservative super majority on Thursday sided with the Trump administration in a 6-3 ruling, and in a sharp dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor described the consequences of turning away asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border.
— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-06-25T15:05:28Z
• Could Taylor Swift be marrying her beefy beau, Travis Kelce, at Madison Square Garden on July 3? The rumor has been swirling for months, but the evidence keeps piling up, as the New York Times reported that permits have been pulled to close the streets outside the Garden on the third, and a New York official confirmed that wedding celebrations will be held there that day. HOWEVER! Wouldn’t that be just like the sneaky Swift to host a huge afterparty in the arena, while holding a small ceremony elsewhere? (Ooooh, maybe SHE can pay for the Moda Center renovations and hold the wedding there! And then she can buy the Blazers while she’s at it! I CAN DREAM CAN’T I?)
• And finally… look, I’ll admit it. This video makes me feel funny in my swimsuit area. STOP JUDGING MEEEEEEEE!