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Good morning, Portland! I guess we're moving into Spring because its going to rain all week with highs in the mid-40s—stunning. Let's tuck into the news.

In local news:

• ICYMI: Oregon will lift its mask mandate in healthcare settings like hospitals, dentist offices, and outpatient clinics on April 3. The move comes as hospitalization rates for COVID-19 and other respiratory illnesses like RSV and the flu are in decline across the state. Washington will also remove the same masking requirement in April and the US plans to let its emergency COVID declaration expire in May.

• Dozens of Portlanders spoke in opposition last week to Mayor Wheeler's plan to create a year-long gunshot detection technology pilot project as a way to respond to the city's record-high gun violence. Members of the public cited civil rights concerns, fears of police responding to gunshot alerts with minimal information, and questionable technology effectiveness as reasons to not move forward with the project. Representatives from Wheeler's office were unable to say whether the strong opposition from the public will be taken as reason to stop the planned pilot project.

• City Council is planning on settling another lawsuit from a protester who claims a Portland police officer used excessive force during the 2020 racial justice protests. According to the lawsuit, Dominique Bouchard was peacefully protesting in June 2020 when she was shot with a rubber bullet and pushed to the ground by police. The city plans to pay out $55,000 after a risk assessment found that the city could be held liable.

• According to police, two people tricked multiple drivers out of their cars Sunday by claiming the drivers had car troubles, only to steal from them. In one instance, the two thieves told one driver that their car was on fire and when the driver got out to look, the two people jumped in the unoccupied car and drove off. The incidents happened in the central and east precincts and police warned the public to be cautious of similar scenarios.

In national news:

• A federal agency is suing ExxonMobil after five nooses were found at the oil company’s complex in Louisiana over several years. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission say that Exxon failed to properly investigate the incidents and created a racially hostile work environment for Black employees who found nooses at their work stations. Exxon disagrees with the federal agency’s findings (shocker).

• More anti-LGBTQ bills just dropped in Florida. The proposed legislation by a handful of Republican lawmakers aims to ban medical services for trans kids, prevent people from changing their gender on their birth certificate, classify gender-affirming care as child abuse, penalize venues that allow kids into drag shows, and more. Several lawmakers championing these bills claim that they are aiming to keep children safe. Someone tell them that the kids actually need them to pass gun control and climate change mitigation bills, not make it harder to access healthcare.

• Former reality TV host Donald Trump delivered the closing remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference this weekend, telling attendees that it is time to end the “era of woke” and falsely claiming that he won the 2020 election. The event also served as testing ground for political support for Trump’s run for a second term in office. Support for Trump’s candidacy was strong with the crowd, about 62 percent, while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis—a rumored candidate—pulled about 20 percent of the attendees.

• Fears of a shooting at a concert seemingly prompted attendees to surge toward exits in a Rochester, New York, venue Sunday night, killing one person and injuring nine others. Authorities are still investigating the cause of the stampede at the GloRilla concert and say crowd size, pepper spray, and actual shots fired could have also been a factor.

• Someone do this to my brain: