Welcome to Independence Eve, folks! It's Thursday, July 3, 2025. Portland's weather is perfection: sunshine with highs of 77. Then 76 on the 4th of July—that's the spirit! A smidge warmer for the weekend, but not much. And we're into the 90s next week. Sunrise 5:27 AM, sunset 9:02 PM, twilight until 9:40.
With a House vote looming on the president's big tax-and-budget-slashing bill, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries' marathon jeremiad at the podium may be delaying the inevitable, as Donald Trump has made both threats and promises to win the votes he needs. Oregon's sole Republican representative, Cliff Bentz, is under intense heat from state Democrats to vote "no," which is highly unlikely. Governor Kotek, who knows him well from when they were both legislators, called him to say that passage would mean seriously negative consequences for his rural district. “I urged him, on behalf of his state, to vote no. We let him know we would all stand with him if he takes that vote.”
School's out—but Oregon's governor gave a summer assignment to the state's students: learn to live without your cell phone. Tina Kotek signed an executive order prohibiting the use of cell phones in classrooms across the state. Said the guv: “The research is clear: cell phone use can create a trifecta of consequences for our young people—mental health issues, safety in school, and distraction from learning. I signed this order to stand up for the promise of every student in every corner of the state.” But they don't have to go cold turkey—the order takes effect January 1.
Happy birthday to America's 43rd state! Lovely Idaho joined the Union in 1890. Fun fact: Idaho is a completely fabricated name. The lobbyist who proposed it initially claimed it was derived from the Shoshone and means "gem of the mountains." But Shoshones say umm... no... so the guy said, OK, I met a little girl named Ida... and that's apparently bogus, too. It's just a nice word, and a nice state. Ironically, Idaho was once part of the Oregon Territory, and now Oregon's reddest counties are trying to become part of Idaho. Guess they're okay with a 6% sales tax, plus a local option up to 9!
Happy 61st birthday to the voice of Lisa Simpson, Yeardley Smith, who gets $300K per episode. Nice work! Most fans know that the character of Lisa Simpson is—and forever will be—a vegetarian, the stipulation that Paul and Linda McCartney made for appearing in the 1995 episode "Lisa the Vegetarian." (In the episode, Lisa was introduced to the McCartneys by shopkeeper Apu—on the rooftop garden of the Kwik-E-Mart.)
Stuntman Tom Cruise is 63.
There's buzz in the astronomical community over an interstellar object discovered hurtling toward the solar system. It's about 12 feet wide and moving fast—150,000 MPH—but poses no threat to Earth, projected to pass 200 million miles away on the 17th of December.
"Back to the Future" came out 40 years ago today! Ironically, we’re a decade father into the “future” predicted in “Back to the Future Part II”—October 21, 2015, where we see hoverboards, flying cars, and self-lacing shoes.
And I'm back to the pool, where I might be whenever the House gets around to voting on the BBB. But I know there'll be updates in the comments on Facebook. Happy Thursday, friends!