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GOOD AFTERNOON, PORTLAND! Are you curious about the WEATHER? Me, too! Let's look at it! Expect a healthy dose of clouds and showers through the weekend with highs around 50. Pretty balmy January weather, I'd say! Now let's warm up with some balmy NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Good job, Oregon! For the first time in history, you had the highest voter turnout in the nation for the November 2022 election, beating Maine's ass by .05 percent! IN YOUR FACE, MAINE!

• Also good for Oregon, we were one of the first states in the nation to develop and share guidelines on how to support transgender students back in 2016. More good news, the Oregon Department of Education has now expanded those guidelines to include all gender expansive kids—because there's a wide, beautiful range of gender experiences, don't 'cha know.

• That big fire at the downtown location of the former Portland Korean Church (vacant since 2015) was caused by arson according to officials, and an arrest has been made. No one was injured in the blaze, and the building was scheduled to be demolished earlier today.

• An independent team of Washington prosecutors are having trouble coming to consensus over a police deadly force incident from January 2022, in which an off-duty Vancouver police officer was shot and killed by a Clark County Sheriff's deputy. The prosecutors have reached a stalemate over whether or not the deputy acted in "good faith" when he opened fire on the Vancouver officer near the front door of his home.

• Hold up, y'all! It's a brand new POP QUIZ PDX! 🧠 See how YOU score on this week's funny-fun trivia quiz with Portland questions about such topics as Juanita's Chips, the supposed "best" pizza in town, and YOUR choice for the most annoying thing NOT invited back to 2023! 😡

• IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Today in HAHAHAHAHAAAA!: It's been three looooong days, and serial loser/Republican Kevin McCarthy has LOST TEN STRAIGHT BALLOTS IN A ROW (and possibly 11, stand by) in his bid to become House Speaker thanks to the right-wing wacko faction of the party who have been making all sorts of ridiculous demands (you know... as wackos often do). And thanks to parliamentary rules, the House cannot do any work or even have their members officially recognized as Representatives until the GOP gets their shit together! It's like the January 6 domestic terrorists finally got their way... there is no government! Let's go smoke a bong and rob a 7-11!!

• The South Carolina Supreme Court dealt a vicious blow to anti-abortion activists, ruling that their state's constitution provides a right to privacy, which in turn includes the right to have an abortion. Say "so long" to the state's draconian law that outlawed the medical practice after six weeks of pregnancy.

• Before you get too excited...

• While acknowledging the hardships that people experience leading them to illegally cross the Mexico border into the US, President Biden nevertheless is turning away thousands of immigrants from entering the country, asking them to “Stay where you are and apply legally."

• The Buffalo Bills' Damar Hamlin continues to recover from the cardiac arrest he experienced on the field Monday night, and while doctors are still unsure what brought it on, Hamlin's first question upon waking up in the hospital was "Did we win?" 😢

• AUBREY PLAZA ALERT!!

• And finally... this dog wins the THURSDAY DOG OF THE DAY.