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Good morning, Portland!

It's set to be another dry day today, with temperatures in the high 40s—a little chillier than yesterday. (Yesterday was too warm for January.) Now, here's the news. 

IN LOCAL NEWS: 

• Ahead of the incoming Trump administration, the Portland Public Schools board is expected to vote on a resolution affirming the rights of the district's undocumented students. The resolution, which will also lay out PPS's rules for dealing with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at schools, will be brought to the board at its meeting tonight. Trump has vowed "unprecedented" mass deportation when he takes office again. 

• Greyhound is cancelling intercity bus service in rural northeast Oregon, making it harder for people who live in small cities on the I-84 corridor—including Ontario, Baker City, La Grande, and Pendleton—to travel around the area (and to Portland and nearby Boise, Idaho) without a car. The last day of service will be on January 15. There will still be some intercity bus options available in northeast Oregon, but not as many, leaving some people without bus access to the bigger cities. It's clear Greyhound's glory days have long come and gone. 🙁 How about getting trains between Portland and Boise up and running again? Forever yearning for the Amtrak Pioneer. 

• Speaking of trains...a railroad trestle bridge over the Marys River in Corvallis collapsed over the weekend, sending a couple freight cars into the river. Photos from the scene are quite astonishing. Nobody was injured, which is good. BUT...it's a good reminder that we should be wary of trains carrying crude oil and other contaminants that could cause a serious environmental catastrophe if infrastructure fails. 

Yikes! (Photo: Corvallis Police)

• This is true, and it shouldn't be a difficult law to follow. 

New law just passed that you have to like my column

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— Elinor Jones (@elinorjoneser.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 2:16 PM

•  Has Nike become less sexist? While the Beaverton-based multibillion dollar company has attempted to change its reputation about how it treats female employees, many staff members say they haven't seen that reflected in their experience at work. Read more in the Oregonian's ongoing reporting on this subject. 

This is the first of three stories about the “Starfish” survey, which in 2018 documented the experiences of Nike employees with discrimination and sexual harassment.

www.oregonlive.com/business/202...

📷: Wesley Lapointe

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— The Oregonian (@oregonian.com) January 6, 2025 at 10:53 AM

 

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS: 

• Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his decision to resign from office yesterday. Trudeau was in power for almost a decade, but has recently faced significant and growing backlash over his leadership and said he decided to resign ahead of upcoming elections "due to internal battles." Now, a new leader of Canada's Liberal Party must be chosen, and Canadian politicos are wondering who that will be. Trudeau had his faults, but I will say—it must be interesting to live in a country where your leaders will actually leave office on their own accord, instead of white-knuckling through ego-driven incompetency. Ah, well. Good luck to Canada on this political journey.

• Environmental advocates have celebrated President Biden's decision to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling on the US coast. While Biden is leaving office in less than 15 days, he says the decision will impact Trump's ability to expand offshore drilling—though Trump has promised he'll overturn the action. This is good! But once again, with only 13 days until Trump comes back into office, why hasn't Biden made more big decisions like this? Let's keep this energy up while we still can. 

• While 66 cases of bird flu infections in humans have been reported in the US since last March, the first death was just reported yesterday. A person in Louisiana died from the virus after suffering severe respiratory symptoms. According to health officials, the person was older than 65 with underlying medical problems and had been in contact with sick birds in their backyard flock. Still, the virus could mutate to better spread to others, potentially even by human-to-human transmission. Let's not have a repeat of 2020...please??  

• It was initially supposed to go into place last summer, but a congestion pricing plan has finally begun in Manhattan. It's the first time a city in the United States has decided to charge drivers a small fee ($9) to get around in a car, and the funding will benefit the New York City subway. Manhattan is probably the most optimal place in the country for car-free living, but I still hope this strategy takes off elsewhere. 

We are up to $2.4 million of congestion revenue

Thank you drivers 🫡 

www.congestionrevenue.nyc

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— Michael McLean (@mclean.bsky.social) January 6, 2025 at 4:45 PM

• Finally...my Instagram algorithm is pretty much only showing me videos of baby animals now. Just wanted to pass this one along. BYE! 

 

 

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