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Did you hear? The White House has a whistleblower.
Did you hear? The White House has a whistleblower. ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES

Good morning, Portland! And good morning especially to the University of Oregon women's basketball team, who are heading to Tampa, Florida today to compete in the Final Four. Traveling to Florida—I guess that's why they call it March Madness, huh?

Here are the headlines.

Access Not Denied: A White House whistleblower reports that the Trump administration overturned 25 security clearance denials. Finally, that burning question that's been in the back of your mind for years now—How was Omarosa allowed in the White House?—has been answered.

Equal Under the Law: The House Judiciary Committee is holding a historic hearing on the Equality Act, which would grant full legal protections to LGBTQ Americans under federal law, today. It's the first hearing the bill has gotten—but it isn't likely to pass the Republican-dominated Senate.

Not So Fast, ODOT: The public comment period for a major freeway widening project in the Rose Quarter ended yesterday with a bang: after the Albina Vision Trust brought up concerns Friday, Metro put out a strong statement calling ODOT's research "misleading."

Moving Forward: The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on a bill that would place strong limits on the death penalty yesterday. “I think it has a lot of support,” one senator said about the bill.

Thought-Provoking Thread:

Heroes Get Remembered, But Old White Politicians Never Die: Joe Biden is still planning to run for president, despite recent allegations of inappropriate contact and general creepiness.

"Not Acceptable": New from OPB: A faulty data tracking system has failed to reflect the rising death tolls in Northwest prisons. “If we were seeing the numbers published of how many people are dying on a county-by-county basis, many more people would stand up and say it’s not acceptable,” one expert says.

ICYMI: From our latest print issue: A bill in the Oregon House aims to punish high-level drug distributors whose products lead to overdose deaths. But in reality, it would probably be used to punish vulnerable people who themselves are addicted to drugs.

Who's Afraid of CBS? CBS used its cozy relationship with the Washington Post to stifle reports of sexual harassment within the network last year. A former Post reporter is calling bullshit in this must-read tell-all.

It Was the 90s!