Good Afternoon, News: Five Emergency Weather Shelters Open on Christmas, FBI Surveillance of Portland Protests Questioned, and Omicron Sets New Record

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The shelters will be stocked with food, places to sleep, and accept pets. Motoya Nakamura / Multnomah County

Congrats on making it through the holiday work week—let’s cap it off with a headline sendoff!

In local news:

• The city and county are opening five 24-hour warming shelter starting December 25 at 3 pm until temperatures rise the following week. Anyone who needs help getting to a warming shelter or finding warming resources can call 211, the county information line. Multnomah County and the City of Portland also declared a state of emergency due to the upcoming winter storm, ensuring that no residents will have their gas or electricity turned off due to lack of payment through January 2.

Oregon foster system continues to house children in hotels, despite agreeing to stop https://t.co/yPwqn5Fb1B pic.twitter.com/gcJfm0TnF7
— The Oregonian (@Oregonian) December 23, 2021

• A US House committee is asking the Department of Justice to expand its investigation into the FBI’s response to the 2020 Portland protests after a recent New York Times investigation revealed that FBI agents infiltrated protest crowds. The investigation would aim to determine whether the FBI’s surveillance of Portland protesters threatened their first amendments rights.

• The City of Portland, several law firms, and other administrative businesses are among the many major employers delaying the return of in-person office work due to the Omicron surge. Remote city employees were going to restart their office work one day per week in January, but the city scraped the plan on Wednesday.

The return of the property is part of the “Land Back” movement, in which landowners are returning property lost by tribes when white settlers arrived and began colonizing the landscapes where Indigenous people had lived and thrived for thousands of years. https://t.co/sUQui5I1CT
— OPB (@OPB) December 23, 2021

In national news:

• With Omicron cases surging, at-home COVID-19 tests have been wiped from pharmacy shelves. Earlier this week, President Biden announced the federal government would be mailing 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests to people who requested them in January. Yesterday, Biden told ABC news that he wished he’d thought about ordering the tests sooner. TURNS OUT, COVID testing experts presented the Biden administration with a proposal to start ramping up the production of at-home tests in October to prevent an expected holiday COVID surge. The administration declined the proposal.

• RIP to Joan Didion, a literary icon:

Author Joan Didion has died at 87. Her novels and essays explored the agitated, fractured state of the nation’s psyche. https://t.co/ElWk0CY7Lm
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 23, 2021

• A jury found Kim Potter, a white suburban Minneapolis police officer, guilty of manslaughter Thursday for shooting and killing Daunte Wright, a Black motorist. Potter testified that she confused her gun with her taser during the fatal traffic stop. Potter’s most serious charge carries a seven year sentence, but prosecutors said they would seek a longer sentence.

• It’s official: The Omicron variant is causing the largest surge in COVID-19 cases in the US in the history of the pandemic. COVID cases in the US are currently higher than during the previous Delta variant-fueled surge this summer. Oregon isn’t expected to reach its peak of Omicron infections until February.

• Otter carrot hunt to end the day:

Lemmy and Lila went on a carrot hunt pic.twitter.com/lqRTFxMEsU
— Oregon Zoo (@OregonZoo) December 23, 2021