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A sign with two red buttons labeled climate and capitalism. A hand hovers over the buttons, as if trying to decide which one to push
The latest climate change report from the UN calls for global leaders to shift interests away from fossil fuels within the next decade. Alex Wong / Getty Images

Good morning, Portland! It looks like today’s winds will be a bit calmer and you can expect sun and rain showers off and on throughout the day.

In local news:

• City of Portland attorneys are suing TriMet for allegedly poor construction on a streetcar platform near the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. The city says fixing the platform could cost $10 million in repairs and alleges TriMet should have done a better job overseeing the construction of the platform in 2015.

• COVID-19 cases in Oregon increased for the first time in over two months last week. Oregon health officials reported 1,988 new cases last week, compared to 1,403 cases the previous week. For context, Oregon reached a high of more than 56,000 cases in a single week during the height of the omicron surge in January.

• OPB published a two-part story on recent federal efforts to research the death of Indigenous children at boarding schools. The stories explore the oral knowledge and current research available on two boarding schools in Oregon and the challenges the federal government faces in trying to find all of the schools. It’s worth your time!

• Oregon’s first murder trial in over two years started Monday and it is fit for a true crime documentary. Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy is accused of shooting her husband of over 20 years in 2018. Prosecutors point to Crampton Brophy’s purchase of a ghost gun kit prior to her husband’s shooting that the defense says was merely used for research for her books. The judge ruled that prosecutors cannot introduce Crampton Brophy’s 2011 essay “How to Murder Your Husband” as evidence in the case.

In national news:

• Global leaders need to take much more significant action to mitigate climate change if we want to keep the planet’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to a report this week from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Scientists say our future is dependent on “the ability to look beyond our current interests” and transform economies, create environmentally-conscious habits, and leave behind fossil fuels. “The IPCC is absolutely clear: In waiting so long to take action, humanity has denied itself any chance of making the energy transition gradual or smooth,” according to the Washington Post.

• Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney said they will vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation, basically assuring she will join the Supreme Court. The Republican support is critical as the 50-50 split Senate votes on Jackson’s confirmation later this week.

• Sacramento law enforcement have arrested a second suspect following a mass shooting downtown Sunday that killed six people and wounded 12 more. Police say the suspects are brothers. The victims include a father of four children, a 21-year-old working towards becoming a social worker, and a homeless woman who was seeking housing services to escape the trauma of living on the streets.

• Amazon is planning to deploy 3,000 satellites that will beam Internet connectivity all over the globe. The satellites will be launched by three different companies—including Amazon executive chairman Jeff Bezos’s rocket company Blue Origin—and will require 83 launches. The details are still limited, but I’m going to go on record saying this feels like the part of a dystopian movie where they explain all of the stuff that led to our demise.

Oh look, fun news!
 
• AHOY THERE, STONERS! The SPLIFF Film Festival—featuring short, hilarious, trippy, and thoughtful mini-movies about cannabis and made by stoners just like YOU—is coming to Revolution Hall for one night only on Saturday, April 16! GET THOSE TICKETS NOW!

• Spring is here. Flowers are blooming. New love is in the air.