Vote looms on Medicaid cuts, etc. And it's World UFO Day. The truth is up there!

News update on a big, beautiful Wednesday

It’s Wednesday, friends, July 2, 2025. Hi there! Portland takes a ten-degree step into the comfort zone, with a high of 79, down from yesterday’s 89. The coast stays cool, with Manzanita heading for a breezy 64. Sunrise 5:26 AM, sunset 9:02 PM, twilight until 9:40.

"We’re committed to reclaiming our public spaces. It is essential. We have to do better. And we will.” Those were the words of Portland Police Chief Bob Davis, after a man was shot to death on a sunny midafternoon near SW 10th and Yamhill. Officers chased down a suspect at 4th and Alder a short time later. No word on names or circumstances, but a broad-daylight homicide near Portland's main library does nothing to help downtown regain our trust as a safe and welcoming place.

Now that Trump’s big tax breaks and spending cuts bill has barely passed the Senate—with the VP breaking a 50-50 tie—the hot potato lands back in the laps of the House, where a vote is expected today. Oregon's congresspeople are weighing in:

--Democrat Suzanne Bonamici on BlueSky: "This bill will sabotage the economy and make China the leader in clean energy. I implore all my House colleagues to use common sense, think about how harmful this will be, and vote no."

--Republican Cliff Bentz, who's inactive on social media, told KOBI that failure to extend the Trump tax cuts "could mean a significant tax increase next year, could cost 6–7 million jobs, and possibly trigger a recession."

--Democrat Janelle Bynum on Facebook: "Over 180,000 people in my district could lose healthcare if Republicans have their way."

--Democrat Maxine Dexter on X: This bill would "Rip health care away from your neighbors, close hospitals & nursing homes in every community, cut food assistance for kids, raise energy costs. For what? To give tax breaks to billionaires. Trump calls this 'beautiful'—I call it a betrayal."

Political analysts call it heavy ammunition for Democrats in the midterms.

Today is the 100th anniversary of the birth of Medgar Evers, the WWII Army veteran who, dismayed by the segregation and inferior treatment endured by himself and other Black soldiers, came home to Mississippi and dedicated his life to the cause of racial equality. That life was cut short on June 12, 1963, when he was shot in the back by a Ku Klux Klansman. He was 37 when he was assassinated in his own driveway, where he was found by his wife, Myrlie. Years later, she moved to Bend, Oregon, but sold her home there in 2013.

Today I learned that Curry County, Oregon is not named for the delectable cuisine characterized by turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, chili, and/or garam masala. It’s named for George Law Curry, a Pennsylvania newspaperman who came west, founded the Oregon Free Press in Oregon City, was named governor of the Oregon Territory, and—on whose watch Oregon’s early Black exclusion laws were enacted—became yet another in a line of problematic 19th-century figures after whom multiple Oregon counties are named (secessionist Joseph Lane heads the list). He was born 205 years ago today.

It’s the 90th anniversary of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, begotten on this day in 1935 by Ashland English professor Angus Bowmer. Today the Festival travails on with its recovery from Covid’s pestilence, with ticket sales almost 50% above a year ago, though they experienced a snagged root in fortune’s rutted road this spring with the resignation of their executive director after just nine months on the job. Still, its leaders sound confident about the future. As the Bard wrote in Measure for Measure, “Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt.”

It’s World UFO Day. Have you ever seen something... weird, up there? One time, in 1971, while perched, as I often was, on my parents' roof in Denver, I saw some kind of craft zipping back and forth in the sky, and I called the big local rock station with a solid news department—KIMN—to ask what it was, and gave them an eyewitness account. The next week they hired me for the news team. That was unexpected! But I still don’t know what I saw in the sky.

That's the morning update... I'm off to get my car's AC repaired... by the way, I just saw numbers on Daily Drip readership... 4,205 people read yesterday's post on Facebook, and 754 saw it on Substack or BlueSky. Not bad for a holiday week! Thanks for reading this, and for checking in!