It’s the last official weekend of summer, and that always fills me with a tinge of melancholy – even though it does feel as if fall arrived here a couple of weeks early. (And that’s really a good thing, melancholy aside, because it put a damper on wildfire season.) Fall officially begins Tuesday at 5:05 p.m., and those good journalists at Gannett – those who still have jobs, at least – are all over the story. 

Weekend Reader readers who are close to me – that is, who actually live in the household – have told me that last week’s edition was unusually depressing. So this week, despite that seasonal melancholic twinge, I’m doubling down on efforts to find upbeat, positive stories. Typically, when I make this promise, it breaks down in just a few paragraphs, but let’s see how it goes this weekend.

I was surprised to learn this week that plans for a bicycle path between Corvallis and Albany are still progressing, decades after the idea was first hatched. The county Board of Commissioners approved the proposed alignment of a path connecting Corvallis with North Albany, which gives engineers the green light to start sketching out preliminary designs. (We tend to forget that North Albany actually is in Benton County, much to the irritation of many North Albany residents.) What the commissioners did not do was find the estimated $33 million that the project would cost – but what’s another couple of decades? (And please tell me that you think we’ll be able to build a jail first.) 

Railroad fans (and they are numerous) are looking forward to the debut of Amtrak’s sleek new “Airo” fleet. At first, the new trains will be running a daily round trip between Eugene and Seattle, with another running daily between Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. The new trains offer additional (and reportedly more comfortable) seating as well as improved Wi-Fi and other amenities. But the ride won’t be any faster: That corridor has a speed limit of 79 mph due to track conditions. 

I myself now have no particular fears about the advent of artificial intelligence, especially now that President Donald Trump has assured us that the only guardrail we need is a president with a “High IQ” – and we have that “in spades.” For the rest of you trying to figure out how to think about the debate around AI – savior of humanity or harbinger of doom? – Charlie Warzel, writing in The Atlantic, tries to stake out a middle ground.  

Americans always have been suckers for con artists selling highly questionable health remedies that we’re told produce medical miracles. In a fascinating story for The Associated Press, writer Jonathan Fahey explores our willingness to believe anything, and talks to experts who boil it down to one reason: Generally speaking, people would rather not die. 

The Weekend Reader’s cat desk has big news this week – and it’s actually news, not the usual litter that the cat desk often tries to pawn off as news: A previously unknown species of cat has been discovered living in a wildlife refuge in Bolivia. It’s the first time in a century that scientists have named and described a new living cat species. The cat is about the size of a kitten – that’s adorable! – and has equally adorable little leopard spots.  

Meanwhile, in a somewhat related story, big cities like Washington, D.C. are turning away from poisoning rats and instead are electing to place liquid contraceptives in bait boxes. The problem is that neither approach will allow us to claim final victory over the rodents, because – as one expert says – “We live in an infinite sea of rats.”

In yet another somewhat related story: Here’s a fascinating piece from the West Coast that I missed last week: Washington state is coping with an influx of European green crabs, one of the most destructive invasive species in the oceans. (And they look the part, too, as you will see in this story from The New York Times.) The bad news, as the story reports: “A full-on European green crab invasion has never been stopped.” But if you catch it in time, it can be managed – and that’s where Washington is now. 

Reporters from CNN, MS NOW and Politico were barred from the White House Saturday because President Trump didn’t care for some of the reporting from those outlets. It’s just the latest step in a far-reaching campaign by the Trump administration to curtail press freedom, as Jim Rutenberg and Maggie Haberman report for The New York Times.

I was intrigued by this long interview at the Nieman Lab website with Terry Parris Jr., who’s working to develop an idea he calls the “Library Newsroom Project.” In the broadest sense, the project involves gathering neighbors at a physical location – say, a library – where they “can look more closely at where they live and make something public from what they find” – which, of course, is what local journalism is supposed to do. But what about those places where local newsrooms are going away and not likely to come back? Parris thinks his project may be one answer.

While the “Library Newsroom Project” is percolating, there’s even more bad news about newspapers: McClatchy, the chain that owns the Sacramento Bee, the Idaho Statesman in Boise and other papers around the country, laid off at least 90 journalists last week. A memo from a McClatchy executive was blunt: “We cannot continue investing where subscriber interest does not support the investment,” he wrote in an email. McClatchy used to be among the nation’s best-regarded chains. This is all part of the reason why I remind myself every day how fortunate I am to still be working for a local news operation. See how I turned that around with a more upbeat finish? I’m really working hard on this. 

That’s all for this week. Join me this weekend in a farewell toast to another summer, and we’ll gather next week to open the annual keg of lovingly crafted beer that is fall – is that pumpkin spice I smell?