I’ll bet Albany city officials were gnashing their teeth when they watched Lee Greenwood this week at the Republican National Convention introducing GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump. Back just a few weeks ago, at the July 4 “River Rhythms” concert in Albany, Greenwood — best-known for the song “God Bless the U.S.A.” — made news when he told attendees that undocumented immigrants were coming into the United States to kill them. This comment struck some of the concert attendees as hateful. Greenwood also took the opportunity to hawk his Trump-approved edition of the Bible, which I guess could count as concert swag. In the wake of the controversy, Albany city officials said they didn’t think Greenwood would be particularly controversial before they signed him to appear at River Rhythms, but that just tells you that they didn’t do their homework. It’s a self-inflicted wound for a city government that actually has been doing good things recently. Shayla Escudero of the Gazette-Times/Democrat-Herald did a nice job of wrapping up this mess.

But you know what? Tower of Power is coming to play River Rhythms this Thursday night, and “Doc” Kupka’s legendary rhythm-and-blues band should be able to apply some salve to that wound.

Speaking of Tower of Power, I’ve always thought the band’s song that should have been a hit but that didn’t get enough, if you’ll pardon me, credit, is “Credit.” Here’s a link to a hot live version of the song, performed in what appears to be a van. Maybe the van was purchased on credit; I don’t know.

You might not have noticed this yet over here in Western Oregon, but a good chunk of the eastern and southern parts of the state is ablaze: State officials said Friday that 24 fires larger than 100 acres were burning in Oregon. And that was Friday; with thunderstorms looming in the forecast, that number is sure to grow. The really aggravating thing about these recent fires is that most of them thus far have been caused by humans. Alex Baumhardt of the Oregon Capital Chronicle had this story about a Friday press conference with Gov. Tina Kotek and state fire officials.

Speaking of fire weather: Here’s a story that’s received some attention nationally, but still is worth your time: “Project 2025,” the 900-page volume of policy proposals from the Heritage Foundation that, for all intents and purposes, appears to be the blueprint for a second Donald Trump administration, calls for essentially dismantling the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which includes the National Weather Service. Weather forecasts from the Weather Service would be commercialized under the proposal, which could mean that free weather information from the service — such as, you know, the current temperature and whether an ice storm or tornadoes (or an ice tornado; it could happen) are headed your way — might no longer be free. If one was a cynical person, one could think that the suggestion is intended in part to hobble NOAA’s essential work to gather data on climate change. Oh, wait — you don’t need to be cynical at all about this, because the document does the work for you: “The preponderance of its climate-change research should be disbanded,” the document says. Zoe Schlanger had the story for The Atlantic.

You saw the news last week that Oregon State University baseball standout Travis Bazzana was the No. 1 pick in the Major League Baseball draft. Now, Bazzana has inked a contract reportedly worth nearly $9 million with the team that drafted him, the Cleveland Guardians. The Beavers’ previous No. 1 draft pick, catcher Adley Rutschman, turned out to be a key piece in the Orioles’ well-thought-out plan to build a contender. The Bazzana draft selection has something of the same feel to it, except that the Guardians (like the Orioles) currently are in first place in their division. (If you want some additional insight into the type of sheer work it takes to be a No. 1 draft choice, check out this outstanding story about Bazzana from The Athletic, The New York Times’ sports-news site. Sadly, Athletic stories as of yet are available only available to subscribers.)

You might recall that last week’s Weekend Reader featured a link to The New York Times’ Book Review’s picks for the best 100 books so far this century. (These lists are irresistible to me.) As you would expect, Times readers have responded with a list of their own top 100 books. You’ll do the same thing you did with last week’s list — you’ll go through to see how many of those books you’ve read. For me, the number is almost exactly the same as the number from the Times’ “official” list — 34.5. (The half book is because I’m just about exactly halfway through one of the books, “The Bee Sting” by Paul Murray.)

With one political convention out of the way, and another one coming up next month, this might be a good time to boost your defenses against misinformation. Here’s something that might be of help: A new study concludes that people are more likely to trust misinformation when it comes from someone they barely know than someone who’s close to them. It’s a logical extension of what sociologists call the “strength of weak ties” — and Joshua Benton of the Nieman Lab explains it all.

Meanwhile, the search continues for the business model that will save journalism. This probably ain’t it: A new vaping device features a touchscreen that allows the user to pick up news alerts.

That’s it for this edition. I wonder if I can pick up one of those vaping devices on credit. Stay hydrated, and we’ll meet here next weekend.