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Happy Friday my fellow goblins, ghouls, and ghosts! Let’s get into some downright scary headlines.

In local news:

• It’s Scooby-Doo meets Saw at the Funhouse Lounge! Murder Mystery Machine, the venue’s latest improv pop culture spoof series, allows audiences to control the gang’s surroundings as they try and uncover their latest mystery. Andrew Jankowski has a preview of the hilarity, and the show runs through November 6.

• October is like a family reunion for Portland’s local scarers who delight in unnerving haunted house goers. Thanks to easing COVID-19 restrictions, that creepy family is back to jump-scaring people in person this year! Blair Stenvick spoke to some haunted house pros about what keeps them returning year after year:

“It’s a funny thing—a lot of people love to be terrorized. We’re in a world that’s already pretty terrifying, but... there’s an end to this terror.”

We spoke with Portland haunted house actors about why they love the gig, new COVID protocols, and more.https://t.co/Z7ZscZ2mEF
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) October 29, 2021

• Unions representing nearly 32,000 state employees filed labor complains against Oregon’s executive branch this week in response to a state employee inadvertently releasing detailed vaccination statuses of all state employees to the Oregonian and Salem Statesman Journal. The complaints claim the state failed to protect sensitive employee information.

Portland is the first in the nation to allow public employees to take paid time off after an abortion.

https://t.co/qjDJhkh63T
— Portland Tribune (@ThePortlandTrib) October 29, 2021

In national news:

• The US Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for children 5 to 11 years old Friday, paving the way for about 28 million children to receive immunization. The youth vaccine is one-third of the adult dose, with two injections three weeks apart. If the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sign off on the decision as expected, children could start receiving shots as early as Wednesday.

• Global leaders are meeting in Glasgow, Scotland, for the UN climate summit and they have a lot of work to do if we want to avoid more extreme climate change-related natural disasters in the coming years. The world is not on track to severely curb greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, as recommended by scientists, thanks to wealthy countries like the US and China. Nothing like impending doom to get you in the Halloween spirit!

• In creepy, crawly news:

Though native to East Asia, these large spiders can be found all over north Georgia. They can measure three inches across when their legs are fully extended and they spin golden, wheel-shaped webs. https://t.co/NEBitvXc6E
— WABE News (@wabenews) October 29, 2021

• Here’s a headline (and good explainer for the status of Biden's Build Back Better): “Big, messy, complicated: Biden’s plan churns in Congress”

• PLUS: Get ready for the fun fright of your life with SLAY—the Mercury’s short HORROR film fest which is streaming online THIS WEEKEND from Oct 29-31, and showing LIVE and IN-PERSON at the Clinton Street Theater on Oct 29 & 30! GET THOSE TICKETS NOW.

• And finally, get your spooky weekend started right: