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GOOD AFTERNOON, PORTLAND! The gradual cooooool down starts tomorrow with sunny skies and a more reasonable high of 88. Now let's coooool down with occasionally reasonable NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Portland city council got some VERY troubling news about the city's fire bureau—due to massive understaffing and underfunding of Portland Fire & Rescue (PFR), response time to fires and medical emergencies are lagging far behind the national standard, putting 911 callers and victims in an extremely dangerous situation. Our Alex Zielinski has more details and council's reaction—but do pay special heed to this illuminating info:

In the last budget cycle, PFR was given a $147 million budget. Comparatively, the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) received a $227 million budget in the same budget year.

• Speaking of orgs that could be doing better, Metro's supportive housing tax intended to address chronic homelessness in the Portland metro region has come up short of reaching its lofty goals after one year. BUT! The good news is that they were able to put 1,600 people into permanent housing and add 227 new short-term, seasonal shelter beds—which is nothing to sneeze at. Our Alex Zielinski has more.

• State economists have a rather gloomy outlook for Oregon—we're heading either for slowed economic growth or a downright recession. However,  we're also all expected to get a pretty significant tax rebate... to the tune of $3.5 billion. Find out WHAT IS GOING ON.

• Adamma and Adanne Ebo’s film Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.—which hilariously skewers southern megachurches and stars a pitch-perfect Regina Hall—opens in Portland this weekend... and Jas Keimig explains why you should see it!

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• We're starting to learn more about what could become a very serious obstruction charge for former prez/continuing crime lord Donald Trump. The DOJ is claiming that Trump and his cronies purposefully concealed or removed classified government documents so investigators couldn't find them. THAT'S OBSTRUCTION, Y'ALL!

• In other DOJ news:

• Thanks to approval from the FDA, Americans could be getting their next COVID-19 booster shot as soon as next week, and this one has been retooled to take on the Omicron variant. This is a really good idea, since school is now back in session and the winter surges are not far away.

• The United Nation is sending up a red flag about China, who they claim may have committed crimes against humanity with their alleged detention and torture of Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic groups in the Xinjiang region.

• The Pentagon claims they've been working hard to reduce the number of sexual assaults within the military. Let's see how they've been doing OH NOT GOOD: "Reports of sexual assault in U.S. military increased 13% last year."

• And finally... hear ye, hear ye... singer Rod Stewart has a good sense of humor.