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It'll be another warm one out there today, at least for October in Oregon. 74 and sunny! And you know what? Even though I prefer the mist and rain, I think I'm going to have a good attitude about it. (But only because the mist is set to return next week.) 

And now...NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Fans of pickles, sauerkraut, miso rejoice: The Portland Fermentation Fest (also known as "Stinkfest") returns tonight after a three-year hiatus. Headlining the fest this year is Oregon’s own Kirsten Shockey, who has written several books on the art of fermentation and co-founded the online Fermentation School, and the event will also feature Bon Dance Picnic PDX performing a traditional Japanese fermentation dance, Swift Cider on tap, and more. 

• More county housing trouble:

• Swiftie or not, you'll want to check out Mercury culture editor Suzette Smith's review of Taylor Swift's Eras Tour movie

• SO...I don't own a car and was intent on never owning one again. But then I saw this pollinator license plate, which will be available to Oregonians in November...and something shifted within me. Even cooler than the gorgeous design is that it was created by a 16-year-old high school student, Marek Stanton, and the profits from plate registration fees will go to support bee research at Oregon State University. Salmon plate, you have some major competition for most beautiful Oregon license plate! 

Oregon's legislature has formed a new Joint Committee on Addiction and Community Safety Response, meant to tackle the state's addiction crisis. Leaders of the committee say their work will take years, but they're urgent about starting. In presentations yesterday, lawmakers heard an overarching message: that Oregon "doesn’t have enough treatment beds, detox centers, workers qualified to assist drug users, or pretty much anything else." SO...hopefully they can address the problem with all of that in mind. 

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• President Biden has wrapped up his trip to Israel, where he got all buddy-buddy with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and announced $100 million in aid for civilians in Gaza and the West Bank (compared to the billions he wants to send Israel to, y'know, bomb those same places). Meanwhile, Palestinians still have nowhere to go amid the air strikes raining down on Gaza. Without electricity, doctors are stitching wounds using the light from their cell phones, and people are dying without access to ventilators and other medical supplies. 

• People across the world are holding protests in solidarity with Palestine, as this map from Al Jazeera shows. Today in Portland, the local chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace will hold an emergency rally to "Stop the Genocide Now" outside the Portland offices for Rep. Earl Blumenauer and Senator Ron Wyden. 

• Starbucks and the Starbucks Workers United union are suing each other over social media posts about the Israel-Hamas war, with Starbucks saying a "pro-Palestinian social media post from a union...angered hundreds of customers and damaged its reputation." Workers United claims Starbucks defamed the union by implying it supports terrorism and violence. This is a particularly contentious situation considering the battle Starbucks has fought against unions on other grounds since they started organizing, but it seems likely similar debates could play out in other workplaces around the world as the war continues. 

As far as non-Israel/Palestine news goes: this morning, lawyer Sidney Powell, an attorney for Donald Trump, pleaded guilty to charges over her attempts to overturn Trump's loss in the 2020 election in Georgia. This makes her the second defendant in the Georgia case against Trump and his co-conspirators. The plea deal will involve Powell serving six years of probation, paying a $6,000 fine...and writing an apology letter to Georgia and its residents. (Now THAT will be fun to read.) 

• In comparatively extremely-unimportant pop culture news, Twitter is abuzz with criticism for a new rom-com movie trailer. The trailer is pretty bad and weird. Is cinema dead? Do we have bigger things to worry about? (The answer to the second question is yes, but it's still okay to want good art.) 

After all that, you deserve to watch this video of cats snuggling. Happy Thursday!

@mycats_life1 best friends  #fyp #foryou #cat #catstagram #cats #catsoftiktok #cattok #catlover #kitty #kittycat #kittens #kitten #usa_tiktok ♬ original sound - my cat's life