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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! It's Thanksgiving week (for all you colonizers out there, ha-ha, JK, not really JK), and after today's foggy morning and a high of 52, the sun will come for a visit this week along with select friends, family members, and your racist Uncle Rick. Better stock up on expired cans of cranberry sauce (ha-ha, JK, not really JK), and while you're at it, stock up on this NEWS!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• IN THE TEACHERS' STRIKE: At the end of Sunday's bargaining sesh, both PPS and the teachers' union said they are making progress and weekend negotiations were "positive and productive." At this point, I take that! However, even if the strike breaks before the end of the kids' Thanksgiving holiday, there will still be work to be done: such as how will educators make up for all that lost time, and will they? Our Taylor Griggs has an informative report on just that topic.

• Need more proof that our current city council is doing everything they can to negate the progress Portland's made over the past few years? Welp, HERE YOU GO! Last week, council unanimously voted to water down important checks and balances as Portland gears up to implement its new police oversight system. For example? City leaders want police to help choose who gets to investigate police misconduct. As you know, this has been a problem for EVERY SINGLE cop accountability program we've had since... EVER. It's something our council has conveniently forgotten, or else they're just once again obeying the whims of their millionaire real estate overlords. Again for those in the back: VOTE EVERY ONE OF THEM OUT, AND WITH GUSTO! (Our Courtney Vaughn has the details.)

• The Hollywood branch of the Multnomah County Public Library closed their doors yesterday because of  angry public reaction to a planned event from the Women’s Declaration International USA, a group that claims to be a feminist organization, but has a baaaad reputation for being transphobic. The group is claiming it was "attacked" by protesters when they moved the event outside, as they carried a banner that stated "Woman = Adult Human Female." 

 • Multnomah County Commissioners voted last Thursday to continue using a North Portland motel as a shelter for houseless folk for another five years—a plan they came up with during the pandemic to stop the spread of COVID within the houseless community. But it is a pricey venture, with the county forking over a whopping $3.5 million a year to rent 137 rooms. The vote passed 3 to 1, though Commissioner Julia Brim-Edwards did pipe up to say the county should consider buying the motel outright.

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• The killer robot AI industry has been in turmoil this weekend, after OpenAI—the tech company behind the groundbreaking ChatGPT—gave the boot to CEO Sam Altman on Friday... who was immediately scooped up by Microsoft to run their AI advanced research team. Meanwhile more than 550 OpenAI employees are threatening to quit and follow their former boss Altman to Microsoft, unless their bungling board resigns. (What does this mean for you? Well, the robot who will murder you in your sleep will probably arrive bearing the Microsoft logo. Pleasant dreams!)

• Israel is still trying to make their case that Hamas is using Gaza hospitals to hide their operations as well as hostages, releasing a video that supposedly shows a tunnel underneath the recently attacked Al-Shifa Hospital, as well as hostages being led inside. However, Hamas officials countered that they were bringing their prisoners to the hospital to be treated after they were injured by Israeli airstrikes. Meanwhile, 31 premature babies have been rescued from the beleaguered Al-Shifa Hospital by a team from the World Health Organization and have been taken to a hospital in southern Gaza.

• If you flipped out this weekend over the rumor that Snoop Dogg was going to quit weed, prepare to be simultaneously relieved and disappointed:

• RIP to former first lady and tireless champion for mental health, Rosalynn Carter, who died over the weekend at age 96.

• And happy birthday to President Joe Biden who turns a ripe 81 today, and will celebrate by reading a billion think pieces about how he's too old to be president.

• And finally... time to pick out your Thanksgiving 'fit—and this dog definitely has the right idea.