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Justice Stephen Breyer (pictured alongside two jerks) will reportedly retire at the end of the term.
Justice Stephen Breyer (pictured alongside two jerks) will reportedly retire at the end of the term. Chip Somodevilla / Staff / Getty

Good, sunny afternoon, Portland! It's another beautiful winter day. (Enjoy it while you got it.) Here are the headlines!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Portland City Council is meeting this week to discuss selecting a vendor to operate the city's new police body camera program—a key step towards the implantation of an accountability measure that has been in the works for... (*checks notes*)... nearly a decade? Alex Zielinski has the story.

• Oregon's housing department is again taking applications for rental assistance, restarting its program after an eight-week hiatus thanks to new funding from the state legislature. A spokesperson said that the department estimates it has between $43 and $60 million to distribute to renters who apply starting today. (So get going!)

• The Portland Clean Energy Fund is bolstering its proposal review process ahead of its second year of funding after last year giving $12 million to an organization whose executive director had spent time in prison for financial crimes. Isabella Garcia has more.

• Rotisserie chicken is delicious, and a new restaurant on NW 23rd is taking the classic meal to the next level—sourcing pasture-raised chickens and preparing them over the course of three days. Rotigo, short for rotisserie to go, also serves as a wine bar and market. Janey Wong has our review.

• The Oregon Department of Education has announced that it is withholding COVID relief funds from the Alsea School District in Benton County after the small district announced it would stop requiring masking in its schools in defiance of a state order. Very much related: Alsea schools are closed this week because of a rash of COVID outbreaks.

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• Justice Stephen Breyer will—thank God—reportedly retire from the Supreme Court at the end of its current term, giving President Biden the opportunity to appoint his successor while the Democratic Party retains control of the Senate. Breyer, 83, is one of the court's three liberal justices and its oldest member.

• Biden, remember, promised during the 2020 campaign to appoint a Black woman to the Supreme Court—and White House press secretary Jen Psaki reiterated during her press briefing today that the president is standing by that commitment. Here are a few leading candidates for the role.

• The US and its allies continue to prepare for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Ukrainian officials are saying that a full-scale invasion is exceedingly unlikely and a targeted attack in the eastern part of the country is a bigger possibility.

• Progressive leader Nina Turner is launching a second bid for Congress, setting up a rematch with moderate Rep. Shontel Brown for the Cleveland-based U.S. House seat that Brown narrowly won in a bitter special election last August.

• The Biden administration has chosen to mark the anniversary of the 2011 Egyptian revolution by approving a $2.5 billion arms sale to Egypt despite serious ongoing human rights concerns—even as Congressional Democrats were urging the administration not to approve a separate $130 million military financing package.

• It’s back for 2022! America’s sexiest, funnest dirty movie fest, HUMP! Coming at ya starting February 24 at Revolution Hall—GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

• Finally... don't agonize, organize.