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A U.S. Secret Service officer lowers the American flag to half staff over the White House following the recent mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on May 24, 2022.
A U.S. Secret Service officer lowers the American flag to half staff over the White House following the recent mass shooting at a Texas elementary school on May 24, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Good Morning, Portland! Though we woke up to drizzle, the day itself will be cloudy and dry. Today is a sad news day, but there are MORE ORCAS to look forward to and INCOMING JUMPING WORMS TO FEAR! Here's the news!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Clackamas County has accepted the help of Oregon's Secretary of State Shemia Fagan to meet the state's deadline for processing the county's primary election ballots. "I have authority to make sure every vote is counted," Fagan said as she announced she was giving Clackamas County Clerk Sherry Hall a 24-hour deadline to produce a timeline of election results. On Tuesday, Hall released a plan, saying that all of the votes will be counted within nine days.

• Popular Pacific Northwest baker Grand Central announced yesterday that it will shift to a "perpetual purpose trust" model of ownership. The trust will purchase the company from its current owners this summer and set up a board to work with the company's CEO to maintain the bakery mission. The CEO said the change was being made to plan for the future and to avoid "uncertainties that can come when companies are bought and sold."

• Oregon is gaining orcas, according to researchers at the coast who have been using crowdsourced video and photos of orcas to gauge the shifting populations. Moving in from the south, the apex predator porpoises appear to be drawn to our state's rebounding seal lion and seal numbers.

• What are YOU gonna do with a day off, this coming Memorial Day? Check out those orcas? That's what everybody's gonna do! Here are some other event and activity suggestions, for the long weekend, from the Mercury's Everout team:


IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

• The worst US school shooting in ten years unfolded yesterday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, when an 18-year-old gunman barricaded himself inside a classroom. He killed at least 19 children and two teachers before he was shot dead by police. The suspected shooter's grandmother was also shot, in her home, shortly before and remains in serious condition.

• Today marks the two year anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by a then-Minneapolis police officer. Despite the nation-wide protests sparked off by the injustice, Minneapolis-based activists question whether measurable advancements have been made since—or if some areas of their city are now quantifiably worse.

• Just in from the horrors of the natural world, there's an invasive species of worm that can jump a foot high, making its way across the US. Now it's crossed into California, and SOON IT WILL BE WRIGGLIN' AT YOUR BACK DOOR. Oh, they “thrash violently like a rattlesnake when handled?” That's just perfect.

• This guy's home invasion plan is curiously similar to my father's plan of opening every cupboard at night and leaving them open, as a burglar deterrent.