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  "path": "/newsblast/2026/03/29/48406034/your-sunday-reading-list-trump-crushes-curlers-dreams-extra-mad-march-madness-and-whats-happening-with-portlands-music-venues",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-29T14:30:00.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.portlandmercury.com",
  "tags": [
    "Newsblast!",
    "signing up for Mercury newsletters!",
    "A Portland Curler’s Fight For Her Right to Compete",
    "THE TRASH REPORT",
    "Local Homeless Service Provider Regroups After Fires",
    "Anatomy of a March Madness Upset",
    "Art Snack",
    "One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Portland's Music Venues",
    "Portland Center Stage and Portland Playhouse Team up To Serve Fat Ham",
    "Mercury Music Picks",
    "SAVAGE LOVE",
    "contributing to the Mercury"
  ],
  "textContent": "by Wm. Steven Humphrey\n\n**GOOD MORNING, SUNDAY!** It's the perfect time to catch up on some of the great reporting and stories the _Mercury_ churned out this week! (PRO TIP: If you despise being \"the last to know,\" then be one of the first to know by signing up for Mercury newsletters! All the latest stories shipped directly to your email's in-box... and then... YOUR HEAD.)\n\n• A Portland Curler’s Fight For Her Right to Compete \n\nSarah Maywalt had been curling at her local club in Beaverton for years. Then Trump took office for a second term. Now, she says the sport she grew to love turned its back on her, in response to federal mandates from the Trump admin that prohibit trans women and girls from competing in women's sports.\n\nDave Killen\n\n• THE TRASH REPORT\n\nThis week: Kash Patel's sad little FBI sneakers, Babs Streisand calls Robert Redford \"Bob,\" Chuck Norris and the Jessica Simpson connection, Mormon housewife Taylor Frankie Paul gets the Bachelorette boot, and Scrubs actor Zach Braff INSISTS he's not dating an AI chatbot.\n\nArturo Holmes / Getty Images\n\n• Local Homeless Service Provider Regroups After Fires\n\nA local nonprofit that helps homeless Portlanders access showers, survival supplies, and community care is trying to regroup after a series of fires left the location unable to operate. Hygiene for All operates under the Morrison Bridge in Southeast Portland. After a string of four fires since November—three since February—the organization is trying to recoup costs to get back to full service.\n\nHygiene4All\n\n• Anatomy of a March Madness Upset\n\nTwo days of Moda Center Madness inside the student section of High Point University, the school no one in Portland knew about.\n\nCameron Crowell\n\n• Art Snack\n\nYou already know and like the locals behind this new women’s sports documentary fest, Portland Panorama’s line-up is stacked, and a snack-sized review of _Project Hail Mary_. We are noshing on cultural bites, here in Art Snack!\n\nAdele Lindsay / Crescent Creative\n\n• One Step Forward, Two Steps Back for Portland's Music Venues\n\nAfter a flurry of venue closures and openings, we've got questions. What's going on? Why, if Portland is such a music city, is it so difficult for venues to stay open?  _Mercury_ writer Ryan Prado digs into the issue talking with City Council President Jamie Dunphy and the owners of several Portland music venues.\n\nJenna Haar\n\n• Portland Center Stage and Portland Playhouse Team up To Serve Fat Ham\n\nTwo prestigious Portland theater companies are teaming up to stage a Tony-nominated Broadway show, reimagining Shakespeare’s sulky prince of Denmark as a queer Black teen at a backyard cookout. His mom is still marrying his uncle (!), but after that, things diverge from the expected route.\n\nHarrison Freeman\n\n• Mercury Music Picks\n\nThere are a host of shows worth your time, money, energy, and hearing loss this week. The Bay Area Shortiez are in town to slam you down, Bend's Larry & His Flask are back at it after seven years, and you better believe there's some experimental bagpipes that need listening to!\n\nDaniel Gonzalez\n\n• SAVAGE LOVE\n\nShe's pregnant and feeling hypersexual (especially when it comes to a particular type of porn)—but can't get over being mad at her partner which is slamming the brakes on their sex life. So what to do? Dan Savage issues a ruling in this week's edition of SAVAGE LOVE!\n\nJoe Newton\n\n**WOW, THAT IS A LOT OF GOOD READIN'.** I hope you didn't have any other plans this weekend! Dig in, and remember: Producing all this hard work costs moolah—so please consider contributing to the Mercury to keep it all coming! Thanks!",
  "title": "YOUR SUNDAY READING LIST: Trump Crushes Curler's Dreams, Extra Mad March Madness, and What's Happening with Portland's Music Venues?"
}