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A couple hugs each other in front of a demolished storm. There are bricks scattered around and the building is leveled from the hurricane.
Big Chief Darryl Montana comforts Dianne Honroe after Hurricane Ida passed through and destroyed a neighborhood building on August 30, 2021 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Brandon Bell / Getty Images

In local news:

• Portland city employees are the latest workers who must get the COVID-19 vaccine or face termination. Predictably, not everyone is pleased with the Portland City Council’s vaccine mandate, with some anti-vax employees saying the enforcement is like “Communistic control.” City employees must provide proof that they are in the process of getting vaccinated by September 10 and be fully vaccinated by October 18, or have a legal exemption.

• This headline is a few days old, but I seriously cannot get over it: “Tillamook County asks for morgue truck as COVID fatalities rise”

• In the midst of fierce debates about critical race theory and education standards, Oregon just revamped its social science standards with the aim of being more inclusive and bolstering civics education throughout the state. Some curriculum reviewers are critical of the new requirements, claiming that they are far too vague and fall short of naming specifics, like racist laws. But, what some critics call vague, Oregon educators interpret as flexibility that allows them to mould the curriculum to the classroom.

• The families of the victims who died during the Heidi Manor apartment fire—the deadly Fourth of July fire started by a firework in a plastic dumpster located underneath an apartment carport—are suing the apartment owner, property manager, and garbage company for $86 million in damages, citing a pattern of negligence. The apartment owners were previously cited by Portland firefighters for leaving a dumpster too close to combustible walls and roof eaves in 2010.

In national and international news:

• More than one million homes and businesses in Louisiana and Mississippi are without power due to Hurricane Ida, which was downgraded to a "tropical depression" Monday evening. The damage is so extensive that officials believe it may take weeks to fully repair the power grid. In the mean time, people are climbing onto their roofs and posting their addresses on social media in hopes search-and-rescue teams can find them. As of this morning, four people have died from the storm.

• The US military officially pulled out of Afghanistan Monday, but there are still Americans in the country who want to evacuate. US officials said they have the capacity to evacuate 300 people—the estimated number of Americans who want to be evacuated—by the end of Tuesday.

• Jury selection begins today for the fraud trial of Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos who claimed the company could screen patients for hundreds of diseases using a single prick of blood. Theranos was valued at $9 billion before a Wall Street Journal reporter revealed in 2015 that Holmes was using typical blood-testing equipment that did not have the capabilities she claimed. Some Theranos clients were misdiagnosed with HIV and one person who was pregnant at the time of their test was incorrectly told they had a miscarriage.

• Accidental gun deaths by children handling a gun increased by 31 percent during 2020, according to new data reported by advocacy group Everytown For Gun Safety. So far, 2021 has also seen an additional increase in unintentional shooting by children. The report points to COVID-19 lockdowns, lack of child care, record gun sales in the US during the pandemic, and a surge in first-time gun owners as reasons for the increase.

Look, fun things!

• Hey Savage Love fans! Get your tix now to see Dan Savage live and in-person on October 2 for a reading of his newest book, Savage Love from A to Z, an illustrated collection of 26 never-before-published essays! (Plus, paid attendees get their own copy of the book!)

• Alert! We’ve combined three of our world-famous film festivals into one, big, sexy, stoney, scary, movie showcase called the Mercury Movie Mashup! It’s the best of the best from SPLIFF (our stoner film fest), SLAY (our horror film fest), and HUMP! (the little porn festival that started it all!), featuring all the blood, sex, and weed you can handle in a ONE NIGHT ONLY show at the Clinton Street Theater—go get those tix now!

• And wow, would you look at that—a fun, lighthearted story!