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Good Afternoon, Portland: I have been on vacation (sort of still on vacation), and time holds no meaning to me. All this news is new to me.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
ā€¢ Today in peaks:

ā€¢ Welp, all that rain on Monday caused the storm drains to overflow again. Although it seems unlikely that any of you will be diving into the Willamette River mid-March, the City advises "the public to avoid contact" until Wednesday evening at the earliest.Ā 

ā€¢ Get out your bicycles, Portland, put your pants back on, and dig out your wig. The 2023 Worst Day of the Year Rideā€”held to celebrate the dedication of local cyclists to commute through even the dankest showersā€”unfolds this Sunday, March 19 at 10 am. Expect: drummers, costumes, prizes and.... a chocolate fountain? Hell yeah.

ā€¢ Have you had a chance to check out theĀ trailer for the new project based on a book by local author Cheryl Strayed? Debuting on Hulu in April, Tiny Beautiful Things is largely based on Strayed's My Life Is a Mess:

ā€¢ Movie trailer voice: She was a straight cis woman who could never orgasm from vaginal penetration alone. But nowā€”upon reaching middle ageā€”she can! Can the director of the Center for Sexual Health Promotion answer why? Read this week's Savage Love to find out!

IN NATIONAL / NEWS:
ā€¢ As former president Donald Trump showed "a dramatic intensification of his attacks" on Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the Hill found a reason to work "nastiest" into one of their headlines. During a speech in Iowa, Trump said DeSantis wants to ā€œdecimateā€ Social Security before comparing him to Sen. Mitt Romney. Honestly, nowhere near that nasty guy's nastiest nasty.

ā€¢ Speaking of nasty, Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk has made headlines within recent months as Elon Musk touted the efficiently of their appetite suppressant weight loss drug WegovyĀ  and the Cutā€”perhaps unintentionallyā€”skewered the company's faux surprise that so many people were taking their medication for weight loss it was becoming scarce to those using it to treat diabetes. So the positive press associated with the company slashing some US insulin prices couldn't come at a better time. Although the price cuts themselves won't happen til next year.

ā€¢ But about Meta:

ā€¢ On the latest episode of the Longform podcast, Max Linsky interviews Talk Easy host Sam Fragoso, and halfway through he admits that he accidentally took a couple edibles before and is DOSED. Truly a journalism nightmare.

ā€¢ If only the judicial system were as swift and just as the Washington Post TikTokĀ 

@washingtonpost

The judgeā€™s order requires Starbucks to halt a sweeping list of behaviors that include: retaliating against employees for unionizing; promising improved pay and benefits if workers renounced the union; surveilling union-supporting employees while on-site; refusing to hire prospective employees who back the union; and relocating union organizers to new stores to halt the groupā€™s activity, overstaffing stores ahead of union votes.

ā™¬ original sound - Raixor