You may think that summer started last Monday, with temperatures soaring past 90 degrees (and roasting graduation celebrations at the University of Oregon) – but you are wrong. 

Astronomical summer – the summer solstice, marking the point in Earth’s orbit around the sun when the Northern Hemisphere leans closest to the sun – begins Sunday at 1:24 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. The meteorological summer – the one observed by climate scientists – began June 1, and lasts precisely three months, just like all the other meteorological months. You can count on The Associated Press to keep tabs on seasonal changes, and the venerable news service hasn’t let us down.

Speaking of last week’s weather, here’s hoping that you still have hydration handy: Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday could feel like summer reruns. 

The Corvallis City Council this week asked city staffers to continue investigating new taxes – possibly a payroll tax or a city income tax – to help close a budget gap that’s just going to get bigger. Corvallis, of course, isn’t the only Oregon city (or school district) grappling with expenses that are rising faster than revenue, thanks in part to Measures 5 and 50. (Springfield just approved a local payroll tax.) And I’m not aware of any city (or school district) that has come up with a long-term solution for this “structural deficit,” as officials like to call it. In Corvallis, the picture could be complicated if these new taxes are used in part to build a new City Hall or police headquarters. (You might be able to make the case that voters could support a new police headquarters, but my sense is that a new City Hall would be a tougher sell – and, frankly, a new county jail would be ahead of either of those on my list of priorities. But that’s just me.)

Meanwhile, the Trump administration’s war on science suffered a welcome setback this week: Congress – urged on by a bipartisan group of Oregon legislators – blocked the administration’s effort to dismantle an ocean-monitoring system that residents use for fishing, recreation, emergencies and, yes, science.  

After a dip in immigration detentions in Oregon at the start of the year, arrests by federal agents again appear to be on the rise, Yesenia Amaro reports for The Oregonian/OregonLive. 

Neither Oregon nor the United States has made much of a dent in our increasingly desperate need for new housing. But Vancouver, British Columbia – arguably the least affordable urban area in North America – may have stumbled upon a solution, Binyamin Appelbaum writes in The New York Times. 

Just in time for the 250th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Jesse Wegman has a new book out about James Wilson, a key player in the drafting of the Constitution – and one of just six men to sign both documents. In an excerpt from his book, Wegman writes that Wilson died in disgrace, hiding out from creditors. But this could be a prime time to give this forgotten member of the Founding Fathers his due. 

In perhaps a less-welcome way to celebrate America’s 250th birthday,  McDonald’s is bringing back its fried apple pie. 

Remember the tan suit that caused such a fuss when Barack Obama wore it in the summer of 2014? It’s back, but I have to say – Obama wore it better. 

If you’re like me, you may have little or no interest in the men’s World Cup soccer tournament (I hear the U.S. team is doing well thus far), but you still may be wondering how it is that a player from Paraguay got a red card, ejecting him from the game, for covering his mouth while saying something. This story from The Athletic attempts to explain why that happened.

I know I just wrote that I have little or no interest in the World Cup, but maybe my interest is increasing just a teensy bit after two fairly impressive U.S. wins. In the light of the team’s 2-0 record thus far in the tournament, The Athletic asked its soccer experts if the team could go all the way. The consensus (not to be blunt): No.  

Meanwhile, in the wacky world of college athletics, the saga of Brendan Sorsby – the Texas Tech quarterback who was slated to start for the Red Raiders even though he had admitted to betting on his own team at previous schools – ended with a bit of a whimper. You’ll recall that Texas Tech opted to punish Sorsby by suspending him for two games (including one against Oregon State) instead of the lifetime ban from college sports that was called for. A judge in Texas inexplicably (well, maybe not inexplicably, considering he was a judge in Texas) upheld the school’s decision after the NCAA filed suit. Then everyone in college sports got angry at Texas Tech. And then Sorsby decided that he would declare for the NFL’s supplemental draft, forgoing his remaining collegiate career. 

Case closed? Not quite. 

As Jon Wilner, the outstanding college sports writer, notes in this column, everyone is still angry at Texas Tech.  One small thing the Red Raiders could do would be to stand by their guarantee to continue to support Sorsby, who presumably is trying to kick a gambling addiction. There’s a way Sorsby could help his cause as well, and it doesn’t hinge on playing professional football: Because of his elite athletic talent, Sorsby has access to resources that other young men – also battling gambling addiction – do not. Maybe he (and, of course, Texas Tech) could develop a program to reach out to other young men battling this particular demon. And if that should suck away some money Tech was planning to use for NIL, well, that’s a shame.

A new working paper concludes that states with less access to local news have higher rates of loneliness. 

And here’s a story that I am struggling not to read as a metaphor: Efforts to kill the type of algae that was infesting the Reflecting Pool at the National Mall have created ideal conditions for another type of algae that scientists have nicknamed – I am not making this up – “Skinny Dead Mouse.”  

That’s it for this week. Let’s meet again next weekend to compare notes on American metaphors.