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White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre welcomes V, Jungkook, Jimin, RM, Jin, J-Hope and Suga of the South Korean pop group BTS to the daily press briefing at the White House
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre welcomes V, Jungkook, Jimin, RM, Jin, J-Hope and Suga of the South Korean pop group BTS to the daily White House press briefing Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

Good Morning, Portland! If you're comfortable getting down to lyrics in another language, may I suggest this hot new banger from South Korean girl group Aespa? Now, that we've got a crisp cringe beat, let's hit the news!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• In September, Oregon lawmakers gave the state's public schools the ability to ban concealed handguns from their campuses, but so far only 13 percent have opted to do so. OPB's Dirk Vanderhart reports.

• Related to the weekend's surprising TEDx appearance by Oregon gubernatorial candidate Betsy Johnson, extremism reporter Leah Sottile breaks down a 2020 photograph of Johnson holding a Timber Unity sign:

• If you ever kick over to the Mercury's sister paper Seattle's The Stranger, you may be interested in The Stranger's BRAND NEW SITE! (☆ω☆)

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:

• Russia is still making massive blunders in its invasion of Ukraine, but due to their overwhelming military might they may be about to take another major Ukrainian city. President Biden announced yesterday that he plans to send $700 million in aid and more advanced weaponry to aid Ukraine's defense.

• On Saturday, the FDA warned of Hepatitis A infections in California, Minnesota, and North Dakota that were potentially linked to strawberries branded as FreshKampo and HEB, sold between March 5 and April 25. It's been a month since the last case, and the warning is just for people who may have purchased strawberries and then frozen them during that window. Strawberries and beer go great together, just sayin'.

• Former Obama Adviser Dan Pfeiffer is one of the driest Pod Save America guys, so his spicy takes are more like spicy longviews. Go off, king.

• The White House hosted global sensation boyband BTS yesterday, as the group sought to bring attention to the issue of hate crimes directed at Asian people.

• Actually the rest of Good Morning, News is just going to be BTS at the White House now.

• NO FUCKING QUESTIONS FOR BTS!

• THEY SPOKE IN KOREAN BECAUSE THEY ARE KOREAN. Get it together and have translators, White House!

• Uhhh... the White House looks NICE here—in a way that should make us question what the White House photo corps are even DOING.

• The North American version of the meme below is "the person investigating your murder is a murderer."