Welcome to August, Weekend Reader readers! Remember the relatively cool mornings and breezy evenings that we enjoyed in July (weather conditions that possibly kept wildfires at bay here, for the time being)? Well, enjoy a couple more of those this weekend, because 90-degree days will be back before you know it, After all, it is August.

Speaking of wildfires, a new study suggests that smoke from those blazes is now the primary pollutant affecting pregnancy. (We’re starting to learn a lot more about the long-term health impacts of wildfire smoke and – spoiler alert – none of it is good. Well, except for the sunsets. The sunsets are cool.)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did himself no favors by saving his diary – often, detailed recountings of his encounters with celebrities who loved him – onto government servers. Excerpts from the diaries were released this week, conveniently just before Fauci appeared before a congressional committee apparently called for the sole purpose of seeing whether he could be lured into committing some kind of perjury.  

But, as The Atlantic’s David Frum reminds us, this particular circus surrounding Fauci runs the risk of distracting us from the actions of the COVID-era officials who played a real role in the needless deaths of hundreds of thousands of Americans. Despite Fauci’s fatuous diary entries, he is not among those ranks.   

It looks like the November 2026 election for Corvallis mayor will include at least two familiar names: Incumbent Charles Maughan is running for a second term, and one of his 2022 opponents, former City Councilor Andrew Struthers, also is on the ballot. You might remember, however, that a third candidate was on the 2022 ballot, former Councilor Roen Hogg – and that the race turned out to be particularly interesting because it hinged on second-place votes on the ranked choice ballot. (I can explain this in more detail, but I’ve done so in previous editions of the Weekend Reader, and many readers begged me to stop.) 

If your heart doesn’t sing at the possibilities of a Maughan-Struthers rematch, you still have time to toss your hat in the ring: The deadline for nonincumbents to file is Aug. 25, although the city recommends that your necessary forms arrive by Aug. 20. 

Research shows that victims of domestic violence are often likely to face prosecution for crimes – even in cases when they were coerced by their abusers. States including New York and Oklahoma have passed laws allowing judges to reduce sentences based on the role coercion and domestic violence played in the crime – but attempts to do the same in Oregon have stalled. An interesting story from InvestigateWest (picked up by the Oregon Capital Chronicle) explains the reasons why. 

The first unionization effort in women’s college sports is happening at Oregon State University, where members of the women’s basketball team have filed a petition for union representation. James Crepea of The Oregonian/OregonLive has the story. Earlier this week, Stanford football players also moved toward unionization, as Ralph Russo reports for The Athletic. 

With so much stuff to worry about – wildfires, climate change, the Trump administration’s war against fair and free elections – this strikes me as a fair question: Are we worried enough about the chance that a random piece of space junk will crash into our houses while we sleep? This New York Times story suggests that the answer is “probably not.” Sweet dreams! 

President Donald Trump apparently has been worried that the United States doesn’t have enough ships big and powerful enough to cut through Arctic ice. (Apparently Trump really doesn’t believe in climate change.) So he struck a no-bid $7 billion deal with Finland to build 11 of the icebreakers. The problem – well, one problem – is that the U.S. Coast Guard, which manages the fleets, says 11 of the vessels are many more than needed. And, of course, no-bid contracts worked out so well for the work on the Reflecting Pool. 

We broadly understand the term “news desert” to mean an area that is not served by any reliable news source, such as a newspaper. But some journalism experts are arguing that it’s not enough to count newspapers, since some (not many) are still reasonably well-staffed while others try to scrape by with just one reporter. Writing for Poynter, Jennifer Nehrer takes a closer look at three California newspapers and talks to a local-news advocate who says a better way to determine news deserts might be through what he calls the “Local Journalism Index,” a way to measure the number of journalists per 100,000 residents covering an area. The number for Benton County for this year is 10.98 – above both the national and state averages – but that number seems high to me. 

Novels written by artificial intelligence models increasingly are flooding into bookstores and online retailers, the Times reports, and nobody seems to have a solid idea on how to deal with the deluge. Here’s one idea: Keep an eye out for novels that are packed with my – beloved – em dashes. 

The Atlantic has a lovely tribute to the Irish singer-songwriter Glen Hansard, who died suddenly this week at age 56. You likely know Hansard best from starring in the movie “Once.” He and his co-star, Markéta Irglová, won an Oscar for the song “Falling Slowly,” which was featured in the movie.

Seems like you might need some good news right about now, and I have some: Writing in The Atlantic, Vann R. Newkirk II reports that monarch butterfly populations, declining for years, are on the rebound. (I could add “for now,” but I don’t want to kill your buzz.)  

That’s going to wrap it up for this edition of the Reader. Let’s plan to gather back here next weekend. In the meantime, keep your hydration gear close at hand.