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Good Morning, Portland! Inside me there are two judgy people wrapped in bathrobes: 1) A high-80s weekend this early in May is a sign of climate catastrophe and 2) Get out your jorts, we're going to the river but not swimming because Oregon's mountain-fed streams are shockingly cold this time of year. Have a nice weekend! Here's some news to take with you!

IN LOCAL NEWS!
• When I was a wee Mercury contributor, I watched then Oregon governor John Kitzhaber walk onstage at an election party, soundtracked to the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." The people acted like he was Bruce Springsteen; grown men skipped after shaking his hand. It was not even a year later that he resigned office, amidst allegations that his partner had committed ethics violations—using Kitzhaber's prominence to bolster her consulting business. Now, nine years later Kitzhaber agreed to an interview with KOIN where he did not comment on current Gov. Tina Kotek and her attempts at creating an office for her wife, First Lady Aimee Kotek Wilson. WHAT DID HE SAY? Terse things, fly-fishing, and our nation's healthcare system failures are "absolutely a ticking time bomb."

• As reported by the Mercury on Wednesday,

• If you read that story from earlier this week you know the answer to this one—take the whole news quiz here.

 
 
 
 
 
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• Another flashback—Police Chief Bob Day was supposed to serve as interim chief until the next mayor, to follow Ted Wheeler, could appoint a police chief of their choosing. That idea proved short lived, as Wheeler made Day's appointment permanent in mid-April. On Thursday, Day said a little more about why holding the job permanently will allow him to make changes he wouldn't have been able to enact as interim chief. In an interview with the Oregonian, Day broke his priorities into three goals: working to rebuild trust between Portland Police and the communities they serve,  reducing crime and the fear of crime, and making sure the Portland Police Bureau bureau is a good workplace.

• To quote-paraphrase City Cast Portland executive director John Notarianni: "First we had a camping ban, then we didn't have a camping ban, then we might have had a different camping ban—now we have camping regulations"... and heaven knows I'm miserable now. This morning, you can listen to Mercury reporter Taylor Griggs discuss the the new camping regulations, the Portland State student divestment protests, and general perceptions of how safe it is to ride MAX. Notarianni is a friend and colleague, but I disagree with his trust in a recent Oregonian poll that claims public opinion widely supports arresting campers.

• Speaking of the PSU Library, the Oregonian has around a hundred photos of the scene in the protest occupation's aftermath. Kind of buried in there, we learn that—while it's alert system had been damaged—the building's fire suppression system is still in place and working. Also charming, a note that police thought some cups might be full of urine, but everyone was too delicate to check. Is that weird? Is it weird that I would just check? Great mystery for the ages.

• Portland Fire & Rescue extinguished a fire at Schnitzer Steel in North Portland Thursday afternoon. KOIN reports the fire was in a "'large debris pile of shredded combustible mixed metals,' including items like shredded cars with petroleum products, foam and upholstery." While the fire was quickly extinguished—it appeared—there was a lot of very uncool smoke over the neighborhoods.

• I've been seeing the name Spend the Night on flyers and dance night bills for years and years—now on the eve of their ninth anniversary party (at Holocene, on Saturday) Robert Ham profiles the Portland dance party heroes.

• Your Friday morning ticket drop is arriving shortly, and our Mercury EverOut calendar team has drawn up a list of notables. This week's hottest ticket drop is David Cross at Revolution Hall.... and after that Sisters of Mercy at Crystal Ballroom... and after that... Duster?

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• The Associated Press is following a UN vote this morning on whether to grant new “rights and privileges” to Palestine, moving towards admitting it as a member. The vote passed by a wide margin, the UN Security Council needs to recommend Palestine for admission as well. AP notes that Palestine became a UN non-member observer state in 2012.

• The newly constructed humanitarian pier in Gaza is about to receive its first shipment of aid, as part of an ongoing attempt to get food, medical supplies, and other desperately needed items to refugees. The floating platform was constructed by the US several miles off the coast of Gaza to circumvent strict checks by Israel. As Israel's army continues to threaten a major invasion of Gaza’s southern city of Rafah, PBS reports international aid groups are warning of a total collapse of the tenuous aid distribution network.

• If you are looking for that Trump trial hitttt, it may be found within the following digest/ episode of the Daily: 

• If you were hoping to head into the weekend feeling slightly better about Boeing, I am sorry to say that you cannot. A Boeing 737 caught fire and skidded off a runway in Senegal yesterday.

• The Sisters of Mercy music video for "Dominion" has AGED SO POORLY—in the '80s colonialism was cool and in—but the song still slaps.