🌱 Local Animal Shelters At Capacity + Oath Keeper On Police Force

Happy Saturday, my friends! This is going to be a phenomenal weekend. Great weather, lots of fun to be had and, as I just learned, you're living in one of the best states in the nation (more on this in the notebook section). Here's what's going on today.

First, today's weather:

A few clouds move in, cooling us down and leaving us with a high of 78.

Here are the top five stories in Portland today:

1. Rising prices and global supply chain issues are putting pressure on pet owners. Local animal shelters say they’re seeing an increase in the number of people dropping off their pets and saying they can no longer afford to give their pets adequate care. Oregon Dog Rescue in Tualatin said it’s near capacity. Larry Weisgerber has owned a pet supply business in Cedar Mill for more than 25 years now. He said the current price increases are the worst he’s seen since he’s been in business. Typically, prices go up every couple of years but this year there have been significant price hikes just two months apart. (Fox 12 Oregon)
2. Good news for people looking for homes in the Portland area! There's more of them on the market. The number of house listings shot up from 2,782 in May to 4,109 in June, a rise that’s truly notable when you consider just how little inventory has been available in these parts for the past two years. So, what’s changed? If you said the Federal Reserve’s recent hike of interest rates, making it considerably more expensive to get a mortgage, you'd be right. What of prices? The median sale price in the metro area overall took a tiny but real dip in June from $575,000 the previous month to $570,000. (Portland Monthly)
3. Be on the look out, Portland! The Department of Human Services is looking for a four-year-old girl who went missing with her mother. Four-year-old Bianka Evenson and her mother, Monika Jones, were last seen in Portland on July 8. The Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS), Child Welfare Division believes that Bianka may be at risk. According to DHS, they are believed to be in Southeast Portland and they also spend time around the homeless camps at Laurelhurst Park and Sewallcreast Park. (KATU)
4. Hey, guess what, Portland? If you're a Portland police officer, it's okay to belong to an anti-government militia group. A Portland Police Bureau investigation concluded that one of its officers did not violate professional conduct directives when he joined the Oath Keepers in 2018. A monthlong internal affairs investigation that concluded in December confirmed Officer Joseph Webber joined the militia. “I heard they were pro-law enforcement,” Webber told investigator Stacey Rovinelli. “So, I looked at their website, nothing bad because I’m obviously, like, trying not to associate with anything bad. They looked okay. They were pro-Constitution and things like that.” (OPB)
5. If you get called up for jury duty in Multnomah County Circuit Court, make sure you go prepared. Two-day jury duty has returned. That’s the minimum amount of time potential jurors called to the jury pool should expect to serve in person starting this month. The change follows a seven-month experiment with one-day jury pools that officials hoped would help clear caseloads faster but that led to confusion among potential jurors about how many total days they might be expected to serve. (OregonLive)

Today in Portland:

• Show off that glorious facial hair, Portland! Honest Amish and Mad Viking Beard Co. present the Rose City Beard and Moustache Competition 7 at the Star Theater! There are categories for all sizes, shapes and created facial hair! There will be world-class judges, raffle prizes and more! Wax up that 'stache and throw your hat in the ring! Tickets are available online. Doors open at 5 p.m.
• Come to the Rose City Book Pub for The Great Word Regatta with Shawn Aveningo-Sanders, Michael Schein, Annie Lighthart and Matthew Brouwer. Come hear four restive writers bring life to hallowed Portland pub space through their wily and resplendent words. Opened by the briefest of open mics and followed by the pouring of libations. No cover, but please support your venue that so kindly hosts poets and other weirdos at no charge. The words start at 7 p.m.
• Well Well in North Portland presents a one-night event with bingo games and a chance to win art at the Oregon Contemporary courtyard. Come outside, grab a beer and join the artists of Well Well Projects for a relaxing evening of bingo with a twist: the prize for each game will be an artwork made by an artist in the greater Well Well Projects community. There will also be an artist talk by Andrea Alonge. The fun starts at 5 p.m.
• Want to go to a potentially unfunny comedy show? That what Groaners at the Funhouse Lounge is all about! Come see how the sausage was made. Not all jokes are created equal, these are the stories of the jokes left behind. Hosted by Chris Hudson and Cam Strong and featuring Pedro Andrade, Kyle Adams, Madeline Moore, Amanda Lynn Deal, Thomas Lundy and Anthony Robinson. Tickets are available online. The fun begins at 10 p.m.
• For some good food and beer, check out Fuji to Hood: Japan/Oregon collaboration beer festival at Culmination Brewing in NE Portland! Fuji to Hood is a beer and food festival among 40 like-minded breweries, cideries, and distilleries in the shadow of Oregon's Mt. Hood and Japan's Mt. Fuji. Portland, Oregon has nine sister cities and the relationship that has existed with Sapporo, Japan since 1959 is the longest standing. This all-ages friendly event presents a casual, fun environment, with custom drinkware, Taiko drummers, creative local Japanese food makers and one-off special beverages. Noon to 9 p.m.

From my notebook:

• Portland Trail Blazers: "That’s gonna be a no from @greg.brown03, dawg" (Portland Trail Blazers via Instagram)
• Did you know that Portland Farmers Market has a newsletter? Well, you do now. It lists what produce is currently in season and the times and locations of several of the farmers markets around the city. Check it out! (PDX Food Press)
• If you've read my newsletter, you know my firm belief in Portland as a town that knows how to have a good time. Well, I'm not alone in that assessment. The platform truTV has a new series called “101 Places to Party Before You Die.” Guess where one of those places is. That's right, our very own hometown, Portland. Comic actors and friends Adam Pally (”Happy Endings”) and Jon Gabrus (”Game Over, Man!”) are the hosts who travel to assorted locales to explore what those places have to offer. Other cities to be explored will be Maui, Moab, Miami, Puerto Rico, Richmond, Atlanta and Denver. (The Oregonian)
• Forget the carpet. The folks who run Portland International Airport want passengers to start looking up, not down. To that end, installation began this week of a nine-acre wooden roof with mass timber components that will cover the airport’s expanded main terminal. Passengers won’t actually see the roof overhead until 2024, Simonds said. (The current stage of installation involves setting up giant support columns at the terminal.) Workers built the entire roof 13 feet off the ground on a corner of the airfield, with planes roaring overhead. They put in the wiring, the HVAC system, and the sprinklers. Next, they’ll “unzip” the roof, as Simonds put it — separating it into 20 sections that “Star Wars-like transporters” will begin moving across the airfield in September. (OPB)
• Could your next waiter be a robot? Two Top Burmese locations — N.W. 23rd Ave. and Beaverton — recently debuted a robot that features a person on a screen working from home. The employee can communicate with guests via a microphone or displayed text along with moving around the store to go from one table to another. The robots have built-in sensors and cameras to navigate safely throughout the restaurant. The robots, which were purchased from Double Robotics, cost about $6,000 each. The plan is to have the robots at all four Top Burmese restaurant locations, Myint said. Looking for a job as a remote server? They're hiring! (KOIN)
• Oh, stop it, I'm blushing. First, Time magazine names Portland one of the world's greatest places, now we've made the 10 best states to live in according to CNBC. CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business study has measured quality of life using this methodology. Their Life, Health and Inclusion category considers factors such as crime rates, environmental quality, and health care. For the first time in 2022, they also consider the availability of childcare, which the U.S. Chamber of Commerce found remains a major obstacle to parents seeking to reenter the workforce as the pandemic wanes. The number 1 state? Vermont. (CNBC)

More from our sponsors — thanks for supporting local news!

Featured businesses:

• JAK CBD — (Visit website)
• Sunset Heating & Cooling — (Visit Website)
• Add your business here

Events:

• Online Webinar with specialists for furnace repair in Portland (July 22)
• Add your event

Thanks for reading, Portland, and have a great weekend. Fun-wise, the city is going to give you all it's got. Live it up, my friends, and meet me back here next week so I can tell you more about this place we live.

— Dominic Anaya

About me: Doctor, educator and now a writer/artist, I'm just chillin' in Portland, OR with my wife, our ferrets, our chickens and our goats.

Have a news tip or suggestion for an upcoming Portland Daily? Contact me at portland@patch.com