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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND!👋

While we didn't get a lot of the white stuff (that's snow, not cocaine, SETH) down here in the Portland valley yesterday, we should still stay alert for some icy stuff (that's ice, not diamonds, SETH) on the roads this morning... so if you're commuting, please be careful—especially since SETH is probably driving. And now here's some non-SETH related NEWS.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Here's a story that'll make your eyes pop out of your skull: Nursing instructors at Portland Community College, who also supervise nursing students at Providence, were ordered to cross the picket lines to fill in for striking healthcare workers OR potentially lose their teaching positions. If you're thinking, "WOW, that is some bullshit right there," so did the attorneys who quickly informed the school and Providence that the instructors would do no such thing. Unsurprisingly the hospital and school quickly backpedaled, but... Jesus Christ, the gall, amirite? Read all the details in this excellent story by Abe Asher.

It’s very cold and rainy/borderline slushy outside, but well over 50 people have turned out to Portland City Hall to protest the city issuing Zenith Energy a Land Use Compatibility Statement earlier this week.

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— Taylor Griggs (@taylorgriggs.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 9:14 AM

• Speaking of the ongoing Providence healthcare worker strike, the Oregon Nurses Association announced that it has reached a tentative agreement with management, which could end the nearly three week-long walkout. The deal, which would include salary and staff increases, will have to be ratified by a vote from union members that will take place today and tomorrow. 

• Several hundred people gathered at the state capitol in Salem yesterday to protest... well, just about everything the Trump/Musk administration has been doing for the past two weeks, which includes terrorizing immigrants and trans people, ending DEI programs, abolishing USAID, and allowing Musk and his DOGE boy-toys unfettered access to Americans' private information. Besides making a lot of righteous noise nationwide, protesters also gathered in North Portland at the office of Sen. Ron Wyden—who has been very vocal about Trump's evil power moves—to demand Democrats refuse any and all of King Fool's cabinet nominees until his bumbling jester Musk is removed from his probably illegal position. Stand by for a full report from the Mercury.

Hundreds protest in Portland and Salem against the recent firehose of orders and actions by the Trump administration and billionnaire adviser Elon Musk that have created chaos nationwide. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/02/05/h...

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— Oregon Capital Chronicle (@oregoncapitalchronicle.com) February 5, 2025 at 3:54 PM

• In great news for local women's sports, plans have been unveiled for a joint practice facility to be used by the Portland Thorns and the city's new incoming WNBA team. The 12-acre Hillsboro facility is expected to open in early 2026, and feature a 17,000-square-foot basketball gym, two soccer pitches, physical training areas, a dining hall, a social media creation room (!), and lots more. Paid for by the teams' owners, RAJ Sports, the company intends to pump an impressive $150 million into the multi-phase project.

Today in queer history: It’s possible one booklet by two AIDS patients and their doctor—and another written by drag queens—saved thousands of lives.

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— Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.bsky.social) February 5, 2025 at 2:37 PM

IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

• Here's your daily KING FOOL firehose-of-shit update:

• Yesterday Trump signed another of his (probably illegal) executive decisions, banning transgender people from participating in sports—even though there are fewer than 10 transgender folks competing on the college level among 530,000 athletes. (The point obviously has nothing to do with sports, and everything to do with spreading fear within the entire LGBTQ+ community, and anyone else who dares challenge the fragile power of insecure white "manliness.")

• More than 2 million federal workers are facing a midnight deadline to decide if they will take the deal offered by Random Citizen-in-Chief Elon Musk to leave their jobs in exchange for severance pay, while threatening layoffs if they refuse. As Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, rightly puts it, “It’s a scam and not a buyout.” 

Many of the people said they will not take the "buyout"

“It won’t make me quit. Nothing will make me quit”

👆 this from a scientist who just bought a Black history month T-shirt he plans to wear to the office when has to go back in late February.

"I’m going to dare somebody to say something to me"

— Sharon Lerner (@fastlerner.bsky.social) February 6, 2025 at 4:58 AM

• After facing lots of legal pressure, attorneys in the Trump administration have agreed to limit the amount of access that Musk's boy-toys of DOGE can have from the Treasury Department's payment system. The administration was sued by union members and a group of Treasury retirees who say that American privacy laws were clearly violated, while warning that Musk and his barely legal hench-boys could sell our information to the highest bidders.

• Trump's incessant and impotent blathering about turning Gaza into a US-owned luxury resort 🙄 continued today, with the president doubling down on the stupid and absolutely unrealistic idea, saying that the Palestinian land would be "turned over to the United States by Israel" after the war ends. However, this de facto ethnic cleansing would not be as easy to achieve as King Fool believes, as a majority of countries in the United Nations recognize Gaza as part of an independent Palestinian state.

U.S. District Court Judge Jia M. Cobb is holding a hearing in federal court Thursday morning in Washington on two lawsuits filed against the Justice Department to block the public release of names of FBI agents and other personnel who investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost.com) February 6, 2025 at 8:21 AM

• And here are the most HILARIOUS Trump/Musk headlines of the day so far: "Trump announces task force to ‘eradicate anti-Christian bias.’" (Good luck with that, Satan!) And "Elon Musk’s Far-Right Politics Are Tanking Tesla Sales." Surprise, surpriiiiiiise! 

IN OTHER (NON-KING FOOL) NEWS:

• The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has agreed to a $5 million settlement following more than a decade of sexual and mental abuse directed toward athletes from coaches and officials. The settlement also ensures the implementation of new rules that will increase "vetting of coaches, having a mental health professional on staff, and increasing training programs to prevent bullying and harassment."

• RIP to Irv Gotti—the music mogul behind Murder Inc. Records and the careers of Ja Rule, Ashanti, and DMX—who has died at the age of 54.

• And finally... since we have a new music editor, I thought it would be a great time to reintroduce ALL of our Mercury employees! Here they are:

@fuckyr.algorithm Season 3 was my personal favorite — it might have been the blue and burgundy rugby shirts. ⚡️ ZOOM “Intro” Season 3 Boston, Massachusetts  1973 ⚡️ #zoom #kidstv #boston #pbs #wgbh #zoomers ♬ original sound - Fuck Yr. Algorithm