THE BIG STORY

Donald Trump’s Portland rhetoric doesn’t match the reality

If you’re watching right-wing media right now, you might see Portland portrayed as a city besieged by anarchist violence.

“These are anarchists. These are not protesters,” said President Donald Trump about the city’s nightly protests. He’s repeating a claim from his acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Chad Wolf, who called the protesters “violent anarchists.”

But many people in Portland feel they are not living in the same city they see on TV or online. They said that outside the downtown core where nightly protests take place, it’s business as usual. The protests themselves have, for the most part, remained peaceful.

Employees at DHS, for their part, are also watching Portland closely — they’re worried DHS actions are destroying their agency’s reputation. One staffer called the deployment “disturbing and demoralizing.”

A photographer on scene at Monday night's protests says he’s traumatized by what he captured: a striking image of a federal officer pointing their weapon directly at him.

Mathieu Lewis-Rolland

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Congress agrees on sending out more stimulus checks this summer

Congress is starting to negotiate a new aid bill and is deeply divided on practically every issue. But direct cash payments are a rare case where they agree.

US residents with a Social Security number received up to $1,200 in March when Congress passed its last major coronavirus bill, the CARES Act. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said, “We do envision direct checks again.”

Democrats are already on board with a second round of checks. Their starting proposal, the Heroes Act, includes $1,200 per US resident up to $6,000 per household.

The only debate now is around how big the checks will be. McConnell did not say whether his proposal would stick with the maximum of $1,200-per-person status quo or go with a new number.

SNAPSHOTS

Trump doesn’t want undocumented immigrants to count in deciding how many seats states get in Congress. The president signed a memo that would exclude millions of undocumented immigrants from being counted when congressional districts are revised following the 2020 Census. The move is expected to face legal challenges.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hit back after a GOP lawmaker called her a sexist slur. Rep. Ted Yoho's office has denied he called Rep. Ocasio-Cortez a “fucking bitch.” Ocasio-Cortez responded that she had never spoken with Yoho before he “decided to accost” her, and ended her tweet with “...But hey, ‘b*tches' get stuff done.”

The men’s rights activist suspected of killing a judge’s son was found dead with another woman judge’s photo. Roy Den Hollander was a misogynistic lawyer who ranted online against the judge whose son he is later suspected of killing. Authorities are investigating other possible targets.

Trump wished Jeffrey Epstein’s ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell “well” at his coronavirus briefing. “I wish her well, whatever it is,” Trump said of Maxwell, who has been charged with helping Epstein sexually exploit girls.

Khloé Kardashian was called out by a designer for selling a “loaned” dress online. Designer Christian Cowan hit back after what he says was a loaned runway sample appeared for sale on her family's second hand online clothing store, Kardashian Kloset.

AN EXCLUSIVE PARTY

Jason Derulo has become the king of TikTok, but not everyone is invited to the party

Before the pandemic, Jason Derulo was more likely to be trending for his censored semi bulge that apparently had to be edited out of Cats. But, in the pandemic period, Derulo has rapidly built up a new, younger audience, on TikTok. And that's because he is profoundly good at it.

This new popularity isn’t without consequence: as Derulo closes in on the most followed celebrity on TikTok title (he’s just behind Will Smith), it’s hard not to notice that he has chosen to collaborate with some of the platform’s most high-profile users, and in the process left out the Gen Z creators who have previously been marginalized by TikTok for being “ugly,” “poor,” or Black.

MEATBALL MIRACLE

A college student pleaded to retake her college exam after a meatball fell and logged her out early

Sam Lee, 20, is a junior at the University of Georgia. She probably didn’t anticipate going viral for something like this.

Lee became a hit on Twitter after she said her professor kindly gave her another shot to finish her economics exam… because a meatball sub incident logged her out prematurely, giving her a failing grade.

Lee was eating the sandwich while taking the test when a meatball fell onto her keyboard, and, in her words, “hit some sort of escape button and closed the entire browser.”

The professor granted the extension, and Twitter loved the tale.

I hope you're seen as you'd like to be seen today,

Elamin