Let me start this edition of the Weekend Reader by touting a story from my employer, the online local news outlet Lookout Eugene-Springfield. Last Sunday, Lookout featured a story, “A Dad Detained. A Family Fractured,” in which reporter Grace Chinowsky and photographer Isaac Wasserman told the story of a Eugene family whose father had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The father eventually was deported to Mexico, and other members of the family followed, while his daughter and new grandson, both U.S. citizens, remained in Eugene. 

It’s a powerful story, and Grace and Isaac spent time with the family in Mexico. It’s also a long story (although Grace, a remarkable young journalist, was merciless in trimming down earlier drafts), but I think you’ll agree it’s worth your time. Lookout has placed the story outside our paywall (although I no longer have any apologies to make about paywalls), so it’s free to everyone.  

I was much more interested than I thought I would be in this Oregon Capital Chronicle story about how a handful of other states are paying for their transportation infrastructure. (Yet another Oregon workgroup is studying how to pay for that here, especially since voters have roundly rejected a series of tax and fee increases.) It turns out that many states use sales taxes to help pay for highways and bridges and the like. But before you think (with reason) that’s a nonstarter in Oregon, consider that Oregon already has a sales tax on the sale of new vehicles to help pay for rebates on electric vehicles. Colorado has an idea that might be worth considering: a retail delivery surcharge that taxes people each time they make an order that requires a motor delivery. (If that means that we have to hop into our own vehicles and buy stuff locally – well, gosh, that would be terrible.) Colorado also slaps a $3 daily fee on rental vehicles, which we should be doing as well because who would notice? Utah, because it’s Utah, puts an emphasis on accountability, and so each year publishes a report highlighting efficiencies and innovation in its transportation department. You’ll hear more about that idea when the 2027 Legislature meets, and mostly from Republicans, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea. 

Two minor Oregon political parties – the Constitution Party and the We the People Party – no longer have enough members to nominate candidates to appear on the November ballot, the Oregon Capital Chronicle reports. It’s another sign about how difficult it is for a minor party to gain traction on the political landscape – and yet, the largest bloc of voters in Oregon is those who are not affiliated with any political party. You would think that, at some point, something has to give. 

Right-leaning legal activists (along with Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company) are challenging what has been a foundation of environmental-law enforcement in the United States: the right of private citizens, groups and local governments to sue over violations of the law. As The Associated Press reports, the U.S. Supreme Court seems as if it would be friendly toward rolling back this particular right. 

Speaking of Musk, you might recall a Weekend Reader item from months ago about his effort to create Grokipedia, an “anti-woke” version of Wikipedia. It looks now as if Musk might have lost interest in the initiative: Grokipedia hasn’t been updated since April.

A scientific analysis by something called FloridaRentals (I’m going to go on a limb here and guess it’s a website that allows people to rent vacation homes in Florida) has unveiled what it calls the best spots in the contiguous United States for viewing a sunset. Here’s the surprise: Not one spot on the Oregon Coast made the list. Jamie Hale, writing in The Oregonian/OregonLive, reports that the only Oregon spot listed was the Owyhee Reservoir in eastern Oregon. I’ve spent some time in northeastern Oregon (Wallowa County, in particular, is flat-out spectacular), but I haven’t been to the Owyhee Canyonlands, even though I hear great things about the area. 

I enjoyed reading (but often did not agree with) New York Times columnist Ross Douthat, who found himself in the perhaps unenviable position of being pigeonholed as one of the Times’ “conservative” columnists. So I was intrigued recently by the news that he’ll be leaving the Times to join “60 Minutes” as a correspondent – but probably not intrigued enough to start watching “60 Minutes” again. Nevertheless, here’s Douthat’s final column for the Times, which expresses a gratifying amount of uncertainty – but I can’t say I was encouraged by the photo the Times chose to accompany the piece, which appears to show a line of wildfire racing across a landscape. I could be wrong about that, though. 

Lee Enterprises, the owner of the Gazette-Times and Democrat-Herald, announced Thursday that it turned a profit during the year’s second quarter. The reported $5 million profit represents the company’s best quarter since 2022 and the first time it has been in the black since the first quarter of 2024. The company credited a big drop in interest rates – mostly due to Florida billionaire David Hoffmann purchasing a majority share in the company – as a big reason for the profitable quarter. Here’s a link to Poynter’s story about Lee, but you need to go to the bottom of the item. 

James Crepea, who covers Oregon State University athletics for The Oregonian/OregonLive, reports that OSU is in “conversations” about adding a sponsored patch to its uniforms. Of course it is! OSU’s new athletic director, Kevin Griffin, was heavily involved in a similar deal at the other OSU – The Ohio State University – in which J.P. Morgan forked over $17 million for a sponsored patch. No one expects anyone to pay that kind of dough to buy a spot on Beavers uniforms, but in an era where the only college athletics statistic that matters is how much revenue your athletic department can generate, this feels inevitable. But what company, preferably with Oregon ties, would be willing to buy into this deal with Oregon State? I mean, Nike has no need to put any more “Swooshes” on uniforms.  

The U.S. Senate failed to pass the so-called “Protect College Sports Act” before it headed off for its August recess. The bill is on the calendar for Senate consideration in September, but it still faces a skeptical House of Representatives. So this is a good time to review what’s actually in the bill, and The Athletic’s Chris Vannini obliges with this recap. Among other things, the bill would slow (for the time being) conference realignment, in part by limiting the Power 4 conferences to 19 teams each. That still would allow one of those big conferences to poach another college or two, and there are two potentially tempting targets in the reconstituted Pac-12: Boise State and San Diego State. Matt Baker, writing in The Athletic, lays out a scenario in which those schools could land with the Big 12.

By the way, current estimates are that if you want your college football team to compete at the highest level, it needs to have a payroll of $40 million to $50 million.

Goodness! I didn’t expect to go so far down the college athletics rabbit hole in this edition. But I find all of this fascinating. In the words of Jerry Brewer, another member of The Athletic staff, who is writing in defense of the Protect College Sports Act:

“To love college sports right now is to accept that it cannot love you back. The institution is a cluster of warring factions clinging to self-interest, an environment that has made villains of universities, boosters, corporations, judges, lawyers, agents, athletes and families, none of whom have shown appropriate concern for the damage they’ve done to the average fan.”

Finally, this week: Why has so much color seeped out of our lives? Why are our houses and our cars parading by in an endless stream of gray or silver or white – or “Universal Khaki,” a color otherwise known as “greige?” Why is the Pantone color of the year “Cloud Dancer,” which is – you guessed it – white? Writing in The Atlantic, Amogh Dimri explains the reasons behind the color recession – and explains how the culprits include homeowners’ associations.  

That’s it for this weekend. Try to do something colorful this weekend that will irritate your HOA, and we’ll compare notes next week.