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Multnomah County election workers process ballots earlier this year.
Multnomah County election workers process ballots earlier this year. MOTOYA NAKAMURA / MULTNOMAH COUNTY

Good morning, Portland! After reading these headlines, you might need a drink—and you won’t want to miss the Mercury’s “Shot & Beer” week, featuring creative, one-of-a-kind pairings of shots and beers from your fave local drinkeries. It all goes down from November 8 through 14, and you can get a taste of all the offerings here!

Here are the headlines.

• The city of Portland and Multnomah County are pooling their excess budget dollars to address the region's homelessness crisis. On Monday, the jurisdictions unveiled a $38 million funding package to create more shelter beds, fund homeless outreach workers, and increase behavioral health services for people living outside—all great stuff! This funding will also allow the city to increase homeless camp sweeps "fivefold"—not so great!

• As of October 25, traffic crashes have claimed 62 lives in Multnomah County this year; 48 of those deaths were in Portland. According to county officials, the region is on track to meet or exceed last year’s high of 84 traffic deaths. So the county is investing in a new public health analysis framework to try and curb those traffic fatalities.

• Wishing a healing and reflective Día de los Muertos to all who celebrate.

• The Portland Thorns announced early Monday morning that it has hired its former goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc as the club’s second-ever general manager as the the team prepares for a pivotal offseason. LeBlanc is replacing Gavin Wilkinson, the goon who turned a blind eye to a former Thorns coach's sexual misconduct. Welcome back, Karina!

• It's Election Day—but not much is on the ballot here in Oregon. In fact, most Multnomah County residents aren't being asked to vote on anything. That said, residents of Fairview, Lake Oswego, and the Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue District in MultCo do have issues to vote on. Here's more info on where and how to cast your ballot by 8 pm tonight!

• But while Election Day is pretty quiet in the Pacific Northwest, other states are seeing big races today. That includes gubernatorial campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey, a mayoral race in New York City, and a chance for Minneapolis voters to replace their police department with a public safety department.

• Yep, this tracks:

• It appears that a majority of the nine mysterious, robed lifetime appointees who control nearly every aspect of American life may take pity on the residents of Texas and consider overturning SB8, the draconian six-week abortion ban that allows randos to sue people they suspect of having had abortions. In other words, during Supreme Court arguments yesterday, enough justices seemed to cast doubt on the constitutionality of the law, meaning they could eventually strike it down—after allowing it to go into effect in the first place.

• The Biden administration announced today that it plans to introduce tough new regulations on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling. The move is part of a broader climate effort from Biden as he attends the United Nations Climate Change Conference this week in Scotland.

• A CDC panel is meeting today to hash out whether all kids ages 5-11 ought to get vaccinated against COVID-19. Depending on their recommendation, shots for those kids could be coming very soon.

• And finally, here's an interview that'll make you laugh: