A legal case concerning a family feud over the ownership of a southern Oregon winery has caught the attention of The New York Times – not necessarily because of the case itself, but because a judge has imposed more than $110,000 in fines against lawyers for submitting wildly off-base briefs that apparently were generated by AI. It’s believed to be the largest fine ever imposed for legal misuse of AI, and courts nationwide are awash in such legal documents. A Times reporter traveled to Ruch for the story, and if you don’t know where Ruch is, that’s OK – I had to look it up myself. (It’s in Jackson County.)

The Times also traveled to my home state of Montana – and spent time in my hometown, Great Falls, for a report on a bitterly contested Republican primary election. At stake in the election is whether the state stays on the right side of the road, politically speaking, or plows into the right-side ditch, as one more-moderate Republican put it. (Let me just add here that I rarely am seized with a desire to visit my hometown.) 

Alert Weekend Reader readers know that I’m a bit of a U.S. Supreme Court nerd, so I was sucked into this Times exclusive. It’s a story examining the case that launched what’s known as the court’s “shadow docket” – cases in which it issues what’s supposed to be a temporary opinion with little public notice and no arguments. The story, based on a series of memos between the justices over a five-day sprint in 2016, shows how Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. moved to scuttle the Obama administration’s Clean Power Act, which aimed to reduce the power sector’s reliance on coal. Roberts argued that the plan was so consequential that it required the court’s immediate intervention. The plan, of course, was quickly abandoned by the first Trump administration. But since that day, the shadow docket has been invoked by the high court numerous times – and, the Times argues, has become part of Roberts’ legacy.

The first debate between the four major Republican candidates for Oregon governor was held Thursday, with little in the way of fireworks or give-and-take between the hopefuls. But at least one thing is clear: In the November campaign, it will feel as if the Democratic nominee (almost certainly Gov. Tina Kotek) is running against Donald Trump. And the Republican nominee (and now I’m guessing it’ll either be Christine Drazan or Chris Dudley, but I don’t think you can rule out Ed Diehl just yet) will be running against Kotek. (In fact, the name “Donald Trump” was not uttered once during the Republican forum.)

Speaking of Kotek: Remember that item from last week’s Reader, about how she was considering a veto on a bill that sought to clarify Oregon public meeting law? Well, this week, she officially vetoed the bill, House Bill 4177. The bill sought to clarify when public officials legally could use so-called “serial communications” – texts, phone calls and other chain communications. But journalists and others argued that the bill would open the door to officials making decisions, one communication at a time, outside of public scrutiny. Expect this issue to arise again in the 2027 legislative session. 

For reasons that I think we all can understand, The Atlantic recently has moved away from its gloom-and-doom cover stories (The rise of fascism! The attempt to rewrite Jan. 6 history! Robert F. Kennedy Jr.! Something involving a nuclear bomb!) to focus on, shall we say, lighter topics. McKay Coppins’ recent tale, in which the magazine’s editors spotted him $10,000 and told him to spend the year wagering it on sports bets, was a fun read. Now, The Atlantic’s cover story for May is Caity Weaver’s quixotic quest to find the best free restaurant bread in the United States. It is a long read. You will learn lots about bread – and you will learn even more about Weaver’s apparent addiction to Diet Coke, which she should rethink. At the end, as she promises, you will learn what she believes to be the best free restaurant bread in America – and I’m not going to offer any spoilers. 

But it’s not as if The Atlantic has suddenly gone all soft on us: Here’s David Graham, who recently rewatched “The Sorrow and the Pity,” director Marcel Ophul’s 1979 masterful four-hour documentary (still among the greatest documentary films ever) about life in Nazi-occupied France. The film has disturbing things to say about our times, Graham writes – and lessons as well. (If you smile a bit as you think about “The Sorrow and the Pity,” that may be because you recall how Woody Alen used it as a running gag in “Annie Hall.”)

Speaking of gambling – as we were just a paragraph ago – the Nieman Lab at Harvard University is reporting that prediction markets, where you can bet on just about everything, have become such a hot commodity that some news outlets have assigned reporters to the beat. 

I know the Weekend Reader frequently has been harping on the threat that the Trump administration is posing to free and fair elections in the United States. And I’m going to continue to harp: ProPublica has just produced a detailed piece explaining the numerous steps the administration has taken to undermine elections. It’s a long list. (The Oregon Capital Chronicle posted the story.)

As for Trump Jesus, I don’t have anything to say to add to Jon Stewart’s sensational monologue on Monday’s episode of “The Daily Show.”  (We sometimes undervalue Stewart’s comic skills, I think, but this was a masterclass in timing – and, this, kids, is how you do a double- and triple-take.) You can catch snippets of the monologue everywhere on the web, but it’s worth catching the whole thing in a widescreen format, and you can do that here.

Cannon Beach is trying to figure out how to best handle the herds of Roosevelt elk that frequent the city. As is often the case, people making idiotic decisions – like the person who was seen feeding a burrito from inside their car to an elk – aren’t helping.

At times like these, it can be a good idea to head outside and gaze into the night sky just to regain a sense of perspective. And this weekend would be a good time to do that, with the Lyrid meteor shower already visible. (It will peak Tuesday night into Wednesday morning, but the cloud cover here likely will be thicker then, with rain in the forecast.)

That’s it for this weekend. Let’s gather next weekend and compare stargazing notes. After all, when you wish upon a star … you risk litigation from Disney attorneys.