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Mercury Staff

Good morning, Portland! We've got another wet and windy week ahead of us, with a mid-week ray of sunshine expected on Wednesday. Get out your puddle-stompers and get up to speed on this Monday's news:

- Cool news: An estimated $1.2 million from President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure bill will be going to the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). Less cool: Most of it is going to highways. SNORE. The Mercury's Isabella Garcia breaks it down here

- More than three years after first agreeing to form a union, Burgerville Workers Union are weeks away from finalizing its first contract with management. (Yes, this means you might be able to stop boycotting them soon!)

- What’s this? Columbia Sportswear leadership attempted to crush a union drive among its warehouse employees at the start of the pandemic? All while Columbia CEO Tim Boyle collected praise for cutting his salary in 2020? Our hero.

- In other union news:

- The Portland Thorns season is over after losing a semi-final match against the Chicago Red Stars Sunday. We love you, Thorns!

- A Multnomah County judge has ordered Portland Police Bureau (PPB) to turn over a list of internal personnel numbers that correspond to the identities of PPB officers who responded to protests in 2020. ‘Bout time.

- Oregon’s rental assistance program for people who’ve been financially impacted by the pandemic is set to pause for six weeks, beginning on December 1. The state housing agency will use that time to work through the long backlog of funds promised to those risking eviction who have yet to receive support.

- Price inflation due to “a toxic combination of staffing shortages and supply chain woes” has cash-strapped Americans teetering on the edge of poverty. It also has President Biden’s approval rates plummeting, which is something I could care less about.

- Britney Spears is no longer under the creepy control of a conservatorship that she’s been living under for the past 13 years. Cheers for Spears and for Entertainment Weekly, who finally got to use the kicker “It’s Britney, bitch” in an article.

- Today in metal PSAs:

- Closing arguments are set to begin today in the criminal trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the Wisconsin teen accused of murdering two protesters during a 2020 protest against police violence. Rittenhouse has maintained that he acted in self defense. Allow NPR to get you up to speed on where the case stands.

- The Austrian government has prohibited unvaccinated people 12 and older from leaving their homes over the next ten days except for basic and essential activities, amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the European country. Unvaccinated Austrians can be fined upwards of $1,500 if they’re found in violation of the policy.

- Storms in southern Egypt have roused venomous scorpions from their hidey-holes and into people’s homes, leaving three people dead and at least 450 injured from stings. This is a symptom of climate change I was NOT prepared for!