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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! And hey! You need some hearty laughs this week, right? Then get your tickets NOW for the absolutely hilarious interactive live game show, TWO EVILS with Arlo Weierhauser and Kate Murphy, in which you compete against this month's special guest comedian Kirsten Kuppenbender (from Lez Stand Up) for fabulous prizes! AND if you bring a can of food to donate to Urban Gleaners, you'll be entered to win a mind-bendingly wonderful RAFFLE PRIZE! It's this Wednesday, November 8 at the Siren Theater, so don't miss it! And now here's some mind-bendingly... well, something... NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Yup, you guessed it: While local teachers met with the district over the weekend to discuss ending the current strike—they're still on strike. No guesses yet on when it might end. So here's something I've been wondering: Why isn't the state stepping up to help PPS find the money to pay teachers fairly and stop the strike? Our Taylor Griggs dug into that exact question, aaaaand... well, legislators have an excuse, but not a very good one. Find out more here.

• As you may have heard, City Council members—particularly faux Democrat Commissioner Rene Gonzalez—HATES the mayor's plan to transition the running of the bureaus over to a single city administrator before charter reform launches in early 2025. But screw the needs of the city, because Council has voted to hang on to their power until the very last second when they will all be (thankfully) voted out of office. (These sort of shenanigans is exactly why an overwhelming majority voted for charter reform.) Our Courtney Vaughn and Taylor Griggs have the details!

• Meanwhile, in Tacoma, Washington....

• Starting November 16, a federal judge has ruled that any suspect being held in Oregon jails without legal representation must be released within seven days of their first court appearance—otherwise, it's a violation of their Sixth Amendment rights. In case you didn't notice, Oregon is in the middle of a public defender crisis after scores have left the profession after decades of being underpaid and short staffed. (Late-stage capitalism strikes again!)

• A Portland landlord has been ordered by a jury to pay nearly $1.4 million to his former renter after the landlord admitted to "catnapping" the person's pet and dumping it in a shelter, because the building has a "no pets" policy. A good reminder to everyone to "never fuck with cats."

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• According to Gaza's Health Ministry, the territory has seen over 10,000 deaths since the war started over four weeks ago. Meanwhile Israeli forces have reportedly surrounded Gaza City, cutting it off from the southern part of the territory, and are expected to move in and begin searching the labyrinthine tunnels underneath the city for members of Hamas (who are probably long gone). 

• Serial criminal and former president Donald Trump is taking the stand today to try and convince a skeptical judge that, actually, it wasn't him that was fraudulently inflating the value of his business assets in order to score more money from banks and insurers. So far, it's not going well for him, hee-hee-heeeeee. Meanwhile, his feckless son Eric Trump, who supposedly was helping run the business, testified that he had no clue about any of his dad's financial statements—though that was quickly disproven, because liars lie, lie, and lie. 

• Tomorrow is election day across the country, and while it may be quiet here in Portland (we're saving everything up our big charter reform flip next year, woot-woot), there are some big consequential races happening in Ohio (which is trying to enshrine abortion rights into its state's constitution), in Virginia (which could see flips in its House and Senate), and the governor's races in Kentucky and Mississippi.

• Today in "right-wing homophobia kills": "Alabama mayor dies of apparent suicide days after website publishes pictures of him allegedly in women's clothes."

• YES, CHEF, YES!

• If the skies clear tonight, you might want to peep upward to see if you can catch a glimpse of the Southern Taurids meteor shower which has been happening for about a month, but has been hitting peak activity this past weekend.

• And finally... this week, don't forget to stop and enjoy the corn.