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Good morning, Portland! Here's one reason to be grateful you live on the West Coast: This whole business was basically over by the time I woke up!
Jeff Bezos and crew safely land after traveling to space https://t.co/enNUiBqUbs pic.twitter.com/ZacqazDVMz
— CNN (@CNN) July 20, 2021
Anyway, here are the other headlines.
• Southern Oregon's massive Bootleg Fire has grown to cover 537 square miles, and fire officials in the state are watching as their resources wear thin. They're now requesting fire engines and other supplies from states outside the Pacific Northwest, including Nevada and Alaska.
• Meanwhile, residents of the Klamath Basin are seeing their wells run dry, as a devastating drought continues there. Some are forced to buy drinking water to care for their livestock, and shower and do laundry outside their homes in order to save water.
• Here in Portland, a local poll has found that 54 percent of respondents support the effort to recall Mayor Ted Wheeler. The poll, conducted by text message, found that younger respondents in their 20s and 30s were especially likely to answer "yes" about recalling Wheeler.
• And here's this:
Every summer afternoon atop Pacific Northwest mountains, inch-long black worms — billions of them — wriggle to the surface of the glaciers. No one knows why yet. https://t.co/mDvLSKdghk
— NPR (@NPR) July 19, 2021
• A new report released Tuesday estimates that India's official COIVD-19 death toll of 414,000 is likely failing to include hundreds of thousands of deaths—and that the country's real death toll could be over one million. The undercount was likely caused by chaotic conditions in hospitals during the deadly COVID surge in India earlier this year, the report found.
• In the United States, COVID vaccines have been heavily encouraged by the government. But most Americans haven't faced a mandate that forced them to get a shot for their work, school, or travel plans. That could change once the FDA grants full approval—rather than the current emergency use authorization—for the vaccines. Hopefully that means we'll see higher vaccination rates in the future.
• New COVID cases keep popping up at the Olympic Village in Tokyo, and there's worry that the games could become a superspreader event. Major sponsors are even dropping out of the opening ceremony, fearing it'd be a bad look. Olympic organizers continue to move full-steam ahead, as the Olympics are set to begin this weekend. But the event's organizing committee chief won't rule out a last-minute cancellation of the whole thing, if cases continue to spread.
• Don't buy Doritos right now:
I wrote about the Frito-Lay strike in Topeka, Kansas. many of the people employed there work 12-hour days, 7 days a week, and haven’t had a day off in months. they speak of divorces and suicides, fights and heart attacks. the company is killing them https://t.co/KLDE5g0uRT
— Alex Press (@alexnpress) July 19, 2021
• And finally, we'll end today with a little beer and mini-roadtrip recommendation. Have a good one!