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Good Morning, Portland! The way people have been reporting about the impending I-5 closure you'd think it was this weekend—it's two weekends from now.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Starting on July 1, Mayor Ted Wheeler will seize control of all city bureaus, in an attempt to smoothly transition city government into its new structure, OPB reports. The city's more than two dozen departments and offices will be managed by the newly-appointed interim City Administrator, who will also "be responsible for managing bureaus under that new format, dismantling the current leadership model that’s more than a century old."

• In local labor news: Janitors with SEIU are rallying for living wages and benefits. Taylor Griggs has more.

• A hot new Portland police Rapid Response Team dropped Thursday—there hasn't been one in three years because the team resigned as a unit after one of their members was charged with assaulting an activist during the 2020 protests. What will cause this new unit take their ball and go home remains to be seen.

Portland Police Bureau unveils new crowd-control unit, promises measured approach to protests https://t.co/WLzQTgqEfI

— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) June 13, 2024

• Now that Portland Pride is essentially TWO MONTHS long, there are soooo many parties pumping up every weekend. We have a couple different lists in our 2024 Queer Guide (on stands now!): a biiiiiig list of events from EverOut (which we'll keep adding too, so keep sending us your party info) and picks for something to do every weekend by nightlife-lover Andrew Jankowski. Unfortunately, one of our picks for this weekend, Black to Drag, was canceled at the last minute. THAT SUCKS, but at least the event's visiting headliner A'Keria C. Davenport's will still be performing for Portland fans—she's hitting the stage of Blow Pony on Saturday at the Den (116 SE Yamhill). Another Saturday dance rec—you can't go wrong with UwUtopia at Back2Earth.

• Speaking of hjkjillion parties, the Mercury is giving away a cool gbrillion tickets in our Free Ticket Thursday giveaway this week. SCOOP'm.

• AND it's also ticket drop Friday. Shows around the city go on sale at 10 am, and the EverOut calendar team has compiled a list of notables, which is like Lunchables but of potential interest. In my snack box: Mdou Moctar at Rev Hall, a THIRD Mike Birbiglia show at Newmark, and Black Lips at Aladdin. Not a bad Friday at all.

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• Associated Press reports that a new cease fire proposal has many sides of the brutal invasion in Gaza, and ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, cautiously hopeful.

• The US Supreme Court struck down a 2017 ban by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives on bump stocks this morning, with a vote that fell along ideological lines, according to the New York Times. Writing for the majority opinion Justice Clarence Thomas, stated that the bureau had overstepped its authority and a bump stock did not turn a semi-automatic rifle into "a machine gun." Bump stocks were outlawed following the massacre of 60 people—and injuring of hundreds—in Las Vegas, after a shooter fired upon an outdoor concert from the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, in 2017.

• The Senate Judiciary Committee says it has uncovered at least three additional trips that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas took as gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, AP reports. Thomas' undisclosed trips were a mega scandal when ProPublica revealed the extent of the largesse in 2023. It led the current court to adopt a Code of Conduct last fall, which remains self-policed with essentially no enforcement.

• This morning construction crews began to demolish the 1200 building of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. CNN reports the school district said it will be dismantled in pieces, starting from the top. It's been over six years since a gunman killed 17 people at the school on Valentines Day, in 2018, and the site remained while trials for the gunman (sentenced to life without parole in 2022) and a school resource officer accused of child endangerment for failing to try to stop the gunman (acquitted in 2023) and instead holding a position of cover.

• As one of my colleagues said yesterday, "cannot believe this is a real picture taken today."

.@realDonaldTrump blows out candles on his birthday cake that was given to him by Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., left, during a meeting with Senate GOP members at the National Republican Senatorial Committee. pic.twitter.com/YkEfy6Vtyb

— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) June 13, 2024

• Also not on my bingo card for 2024, Pope Francis warning the world's leaders about AI. “We would condemn humanity to a future without hope if we took away people’s ability to make decisions about themselves and their lives, by dooming them to depend on the choices of machines,” he said, according to AP. “We need to ensure and safeguard a space for proper human control over the choices made by artificial intelligence programs: Human dignity itself depends on it.”

• A new contender entered competition yesterday in the informal, ongoing running for A Piece So Stupid It Is Hateful of the Form / Why Would Your Editor Let You Do This / But I Guess It Got A Lot of Clicks. In what haute New York literary 20-sometimes are now calling a joke and "annie u absolutely bodied this," GQ contributor Annie Hamilton reviewed her friend Tavi Gevinson's recent zine about Taylor Swift. It's marked as culture, but I hope it's fiction because I spit on this piece's grave. 

• Hamilton's piece failed to be even the most dramatic and emotional sprawl of the day—that goes to Business Insider's inspired coverage of "floor time," which is what the cool definition innovators are calling laying on the floor to recover your will to live. I had no idea anyone else did this and feel incredibly seen.

• In conclusion, when your man wanna get buck-wild/ Just go back and hit 'em up Archaic Smile.

@lady_of_the_mercians A common feature of 6th century BCE statuary (and my nightmares) #arthistory ♬ original sound - 🪦 zombie bimbo 🪦