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Good morning, Portland! If you're almost out of toilet paper, today might be a good day to re-stock. Tomorrow's forecast includes an 80 percent chance of snow in the morning. 🥶🧻

On this day five years ago, the FDA approved an emergency use authorization for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test kit.

The world has changed a lot since then. Let's check in on it.

In Local News:

• Despite renewed public pushback and calls from two councilors to hold off until the city could investigate further, staff in Portland’s Permitting and Development Office granted a Land Use Compatibility Statement (LUCS) to Zenith Energy. The document was a necessary step for Zenith to continue operations at its Northwest Portland site, after the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) fined the oil transloading and storage company for expanding its facility without state approval.

Despite concern from Portland residents and members of City Council, the city has moved forward with Zenith’s LUCS. 
www.portland.gov/hello/news/2...

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— Taylor Griggs (@taylorgriggs.bsky.social)February 3, 2025 at 10:56 AM

• Pharmaceutical companies and distributors may have helped manufacture the opioid crisis in the United States, but hey, at least we get some lawsuit settlement money now! The city is using an estimated $1.5 million in opioid settlement grant money to add 50 addiction recovery beds at Bybee Lakes Hope Center. Bybee Lakes primarily provides shelter for people transitioning out of homelessness. The 17-month pilot project is part of the region’s larger effort to expand access to drug treatment services.

Inbox: The city of Portland is using opioid settlement $$ to add 50 addiction recovery beds at Bybee Lakes Hope Center as part of a 17-month pilot project.

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— Courtney Vaughn (@courtneyvaughn.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 1:24 PM

• The Oregon Zoo is celebrating the birth of a new baby elephant, delivered Saturday by Rose-Tu. The 200-pound calf is the latest elephant born in captivity as part of the zoo’s elephant breeding program. Elephants are a major draw for the zoo, but the park has also faced years of scrutiny for its elephant program, largely due to repeated elephant deaths and criticism from animal welfare advocates that the Portland zoo’s enclosure is too small to offer quality of life to its elephants, who roam several miles a day in the wild.

Hi baby! Our elephant family welcomed its tiniest member on Saturday night when Rose-Tu gave birth to a new calf 💕🐘

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— Oregon Zoo (@oregonzoo.bsky.social) February 3, 2025 at 9:40 AM

• Mike Myers, the man who currently leads Portland’s Public Safety bureaus, hasn’t been in Portland for months. We should’ve figured as much, when he previously spent a sizable chunk of his time working remotely from Nevada. The Oregonian reports Myers has been living in Henderson, a city outside Las Vegas (where his wife was already living) for the past four months due to a prolonged health issue. He told the paper he plans to resign his position this spring. Myers' remote work is notable, because Portland's mayor recently ordered all supervisors and managers back to the office full time, starting this spring.

In National/World News:

• Southern California residents have already felt the sting of recent home insurance rate hikes, but in the wake of the horrific wildfires in Los Angeles, State Farm is seeking permission to implement a roughly 22 percent rate hike in the Golden State. The LA Times reports State Farm General, the state’s largest home insurance provider, says its financial position is dire after already paying out more than $1 billion in insurance claims. The company asked the California state insurance commissioner to approve the hefty rate hike.

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the anti-vax conspiracy theorist and bear killer who’s currently undergoing confirmation hearings to be the next US Health and Human Services secretary, is a major step closer to a key position in our nation’s top health care agency. RFK Jr. received a key Senate panel vote Tuesday morning, advancing him to the next round of confirmation hearings.

Breaking news: A Senate panel voted to narrowly advance the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Donald Trump’s pick to oversee the nation’s health agencies.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) February 4, 2025 at 7:31 AM

• The US’s new Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is apparently trying to negotiate with El Salvador to take in US deportees and lock them away in its massive prison. It’s not the first time US officials have floated the idea, but the latest round of talks between Rubio and El Salvador’s president could seal the deal. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele “has agreed to the most unprecedented, … extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,” Rubio proclaimed after a recent meeting with Bukele. The El Salvadorean prison, which houses thousands of gang members, is a massive facility known for its human rights violations. Various media reports describe rival gang members crammed together in cells with little access to clean water. They primarily eat beans and pasta (no meat), and inmates are only allowed to leave their cells for brief virtual court hearings or 30 minutes a day of exercise in a small area. It’s estimated that up to a third of the prison’s population is innocent. 

• And finally, if you're sick of artificial intelligence (AI) being used to generate all your Google searches, consider adding an F-bomb to your search criteria. Magic!