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Good afternoon, Portland! Here's to a nice, new week with a lot less snow! Let's dive into the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Spring is, amazingly, just around the corner—and the Mercury's Spring Arts Preview is here to get you set for the coming season with articles on a contemporary art venue, a storytelling night with a community twist, a guide on where to go in the city after you see a show, and much more. 

• Let's get the latest weather update: Emergency weather shelters in the area closed yesterday and today as the temperature ticked back up into the 40s, but a winter weather advisory is still in effect with more precipitation and freezing nighttime temperatures threatening to make driving and life in general a challenge all week long. 

• The Portland Timbers will kick off their 2023 season in just a few hours at a frigid Providence Park. Sporting Kansas City, a team the Timbers put seven goals past at home last year, is tonight's opponent. Here's a look at the state of the club both on the field and off it to get you all set for the season. 

• THE PICKLEBALL CRAZE IS HERE. You might already know this by now, but pickleball has swept the nation, you can't get on a court anywhere, and people are beginning to get upset. Quite upset. 

• MORE SPORTS: Damian Lillard went absolutely bonkers last night, scoring 71 points to lead the Blazers over Houston, and then was immediately drug tested afterwards. Lillard had 41 points at halftime and is averaging a career-high 32.3 points on the season. He's a marvel. 

IN NATIONAL NEWS: 

• Israeli settlers terrorized the Palestinian village of Hurawa last night in one of the violent rampages the West Bank has seen in decades, burning cars, killing two people, and leaving 350 others injured. The attack came in response to the shooting of two people in the nearby settlement of Har Bracha as tensions in the region continue to escalate. 

• The Supreme Court will hear arguments on President Biden's student debt relief plan on Thursday, with the financial futures of millions of Americans hanging in the balance. I, for one, have just so much faith that this apolitical group of legal geniuses will come down on the right side of history. 

• Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp and probably one of the worst people in the world, admitted in a deposition that Fox News peddled disinformation in the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election by claiming that victory had been illegitimately stolen from Donald Trump. "I would have liked us to be stronger in denouncing it in hindsight," Murdoch said. Uh, yeah. 

• Great Britain and the European Union have agreed on a trade deal for Northern Ireland, ending one of the longest-running sagas of the Brexit. Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, called the deal the "beginning of a new chapter in our relationship." 

• Finally... it's been a shockingly good awards season for acceptance speeches, no?