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Goooood morning, Portland! Let's get right into it.

In local news:

• The city is planning to pay $84,000 to a current Portland Police Captain to settle a 2020 lawsuit. Police Captain James Crooker sued the city for $3 million, alleging the city failed to give him preferential treatment as a veteran (per Oregon law), didn't promote him because he is Hispanic, and retaliated against him for making a complaint to the department. After the city’s risk assessment office determined that a jury may side with Crooker, the city opted to settle for the lesser amount.

• Do you like fall and art? Then you’ll lovvveeee the Mercury’s Fall Arts Guide! Read all about how the Portland arts scene is back in a big way.

• There are over 140,000 acres of fires burning in Oregon right now—some of which are being fought with explosive ping pong balls! In an effort to preemptively burn dry vegetation in a blaze’s path (thus eliminating its fuel), Oregon firefighters are using drones to fly over the areas and drop ping pong ball-like spheres containing explosive material into the fire’s path. 

• Cherries are in short supply this season—specifically about 80,000 tons short. Farmers say that this year’s regional cherry harvest was the smallest in 14 years due to the odd snowstorm the Pacific Northwest saw in April, which occurred during the cherry blossom bloom. 

In national news:

• Consumer prices, previously thought to be on the decline, rose by 0.1 percent in August compared to July. Year over year, inflation is 8 percent higher this year than August 2021. "We were hoping for something more positive, but [the August data] is not," economics professor Sung Won Sohn told CNN. "I think inflation is certainly alive and well.”

• The Emmys were last night and LOTS of pop culture things happened. Succession won Outstanding Drama Series. Quinta Brunson won Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Abbott Elementary and Jimmy Kimmel laid on the stage during her entire acceptance speech as some kind of unfunny bit (wtf Jimmy). Bowen Yang gave us a new reaction GIF. Sheryl Lee Ralph was the second Black woman in history to win Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for her role in Abbott Elementary and delivered this BADASS acceptance speech. 

• Runners competing in the Boston Marathon will now be able to register as nonbinary, race organizers announced Monday. Organizers said they are still determining qualifying times for nonbinary participants; currently, men 18 to 34 years-old must run a marathon in 3 hours or less while women in the same age range must run it in 3 hours and 30 minutes or less.

• Alex Jones is back in court today over his Sandy Hook shooting conspiracies. A Connecticut jury is deciding how much money Jones owes 14 family members of Sandy Hook victims after claiming that the shooting was a hoax. That’s on top of the nearly $50 million a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay to a shooting victim’s family in August.

• Hey can I get, uhhh, 12 piece McLizzy with honey mustard?