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Good Morning, Portland! The cover of the Mercury Spring Arts Preview has a certain visual signature (fuck, I really say "visual signature" all the time now) that I can almost hear. It's Book of Love "Boy," it's Gold Casio "Thieves in the Temple," it's Glass Candy's "Candy Castle." I could go on all morning so let's get the news.

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Multnomah County is investigating a second death that appears to be related to recent freezing temperatures. The investigation could take months to conclude the cause of death.

• A hearing before a federal judge yesterday highlighted some of the ongoing conflicts between the city of Portland and Portland Police Association over the long-prophesied addition of body cameras to Portland Police gear. The PPA wants officers to be able to review the footage before making reports and also wants to limit how many body camera videos a supervisor can consider as part of an officer’s annual review. Wait, like, the supervisor can't watch the videos at other times either? What does review mean there? Isabella Garcia breaks it down.

• Pro-Choice Oregon announced yesterday that it is dissolving.

• Documentary filmmaker Andrew Callaghan has been accused by two more women of rape and sexual assault. The Stranger spoke to them and vetted their accounts, which are simultaneously hard to read and not unfamiliar in their cruelty. Read with care.

• What's on your spring calendar? We have some ideas:

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal wrote about a "low confidence" report leaked to them from the FBI. The classified report isn't public but allegedly says the COVID-19 pandemic kicked off when the virus escaped from a lab. Yesterday, FBI Director Christopher Wray went on Fox News to say the FBI believes the pandemic's origins are "most likely a potential lab incident in Wuhan." And the ranch-dressing hose of inaccurate spin known as Marjorie Taylor Green tweeted that the virus was a “man made bioweapon from China." The report that caused all this conspiracy resurgence isn't public yet, so we don't have the language. The report itself is considered low confidence. And the FBI is using language like "most likely a potential." AT THE SAME TIME, multiple studies support the idea the virus jumped from animals to humans, in a marketplace. SO anyway if you're hearing more about it—and your uncle is going off—that's probably why.

• Today in nightmare fuel: A passenger train and a freight train crashed into one another head-on in central Greece. 36 are dead and a tremendous amount are injured. Many of the passengers were students returning from the country's pre-Lent Carnival season, known as Apokries—a word that means something along the lines of "away from meat."

• The Cut has a longer, informative piece about the rise of drugs like Ozempic, which suppress  appetite. It feels kind of in favor of GLP-1 in some ways, but I also think it might be written for people who are curious and intrigued about a feeling of superiority brought upon by medically-assisted anorexia. There are some great moments: Like when the Dutch inventors feign surprise and say the drug is really for people with diabetes. Or when one of the story's subjects discusses potential dangers, and offhandedly mentions : "I’m like, Thyroid cancer’s not that bad?”

• I will now attempt to counteract all that bod-negativity with this:

@salchichathesnack

 

♬ Rude Boy x Klean Rmx x Showmusik Twist - Showmusik