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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! Reminder: If you are a person who likes "sexy" things, then don't forget to snag your tickets for the 2024 HUMP! Film Festival, featuring short, hotsy-totsy amateur dirty movies from your friends and neighbors all around the region! It runs this weekend and until March 15, and practically every screening sells out, so don't miss the fun and get those tix now! And now, let's snag some NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Yesterday the city council considered banning gas-powered leaf blowers in Portland because... THESE. BLOWERS. ARE. TERRIBLE. Besides being loud AF, they also pump out loads of choking exhaust, which is obviously bad for both people and the environment. If the new ordinance is approved (city council should be voting on it in the next couple of weeks), the gas-powered blowhards would be banned for most of the year—from January 1 to September 30—starting in 2026, and then FOREVER starting in 2028. Our Taylor Griggs has the details!

• In state legislature news, lawmakers have reached a deal to put "historic" limits on existing campaign finance laws as well as adding significant disclosure requirements. While the latest version of the bill restricts contributions from individuals, corporations, unions, and other groups, my fave part is that it requires dark-money groups to reveal their significant donors—which is VERY BAD NEWS for groups like People for Portland and their cowardly investors who won't reveal their intention to destroy Portland for their own benefit, HEE-HEE-HEE!

• A court has put the kibosh on a lawsuit filed by a group of Oregon cities who didn't want to participate in the state's Climate-Friendly and Equitable Communities program, intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These litigious cities (pushed by their local business associations 🙄) were hoping that they wouldn't have to do their part to stop climate disaster by asking the judge to toss out the policies, without providing a good reason why. (Perhaps because there isn't one?)

• In "bad news/good news" news: Popina—one of my fave Portland-based companies which has produced gorgeous swimwear for 18 years—is closing its brick and mortar shop, as the owner moves into retirement. (That's the bad news.) However, the Popina folks will continue serving up creative bathing suits online and with their wholesale business, and are reportedly offering up some smoking deals for your summer 'fit. (That's the good news!)

• Prick up your ears, music fans! The Project Pabst music fest is returning to Portland this summer and (as before) has a banger of a lineup including, Big Thief, Soccer Mommy, STRFKR, T-Pain, Violent Femmes, and for your grandparents, Billy Idol. Our Suzette Smith has the lowdown.

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Today at 6 pm PST, President Biden will give his state of the union address in which he will attempt to tout his successes (the economy) and squirm around his failures (enabling genocide in Gaza) while also pointing out the dark dystopian future that awaits us if Trump becomes the autocrat he dreams of becoming. And undoubtedly Biden will also have some words for Republicans like the idiotic Marjorie Taylor Greene who won't be able to control her stupid chirps from the crowd. Should be fun! 😬

• Alabama Republicans have been panicking following their state supreme court's decision that frozen embryos are actually living breathing children who are just moments away from leaving the milk out on the counter all night and becoming addicted to TikTok. In an attempt to save their political futures, Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed a GOP-proposed bill that would protect in vitro fertilization clinics (which were forced to temporarily shut down) from being sued by anti-abortion creeps.

• The Supreme Court has scheduled an April 25 date with Donald Trump to consider whether or not he's immune from criminal prosecution for criminally trying to overthrow the 2020 election. Instead of simply saying "he is not" and refusing to hear the case, the Supremes decision could further delay Trump's trial date in DC, which now might fall right in the midst of election season, or worse, long after.

• GOSSIP!! (Is that even a thing anymore?)

• The armorer on the set of the movie Rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, has been found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for the death of the film's cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. However, this does not let actor Alec Baldwin—who was holding the gun at the time the trigger was pulled—off the hook, as his criminal trial is set to kick off in July.

• And finally... Senator Kyrsten Sinema has broken her silence about her long overdue retirement. (I will really miss Chelsea Pope's spot-on impersonations!)