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Good Morning, Portland! It's Valentimes Day. Portland Public Schools are closed, along with a bunch of other schools. ALSO, Monday is President's Day some schools will be closed for that too. Hope you like your kids; let's get at the news!

IN LOCAL NEWS:
• More snow! The metro area saw between one to three inches of snow on Thursday, and this morning we're waking up to as much as four inches more! Forecasts for Friday temperatures project we'll pop-up above freezing this afternoon, and it's likely the city will thaw out in time for your Valentimes plans. Yeah, even thaw enough to drive. BUT NOT YET. WAIT A MINUTE. Try not to drive in the snow until it melts—even if you're so so good at it. I'm from Michigan and so good at driving as well, so I feel your pain. Let's talk about multi-car pileups.

• A series of what appear to be white-out-related crashes on westbound I-84 closed the interstate west of Multnomah Falls for several hours yesterday. Originally reported as an 100-vehicle pileup, officials later clarified that 20-30 of them were involved in collisions and the rest of that number described those on a "restricted road segment."

• A different crash, this time on slippery roads south of Troutdale, involved over 20 vehicles as well. Oof. Seriously, stop driving in the snow. You moved to Oregon, and you knew there would be trade-offs: as much delicious Bull Run watershed as you want, but if there's an inch of snow, you have to stay home.

• Time for some good news! It's that time of year again; time to watch the plows.

• It was cold and snowing during the morning deluge, but at Portland City Council’s Climate Resilience, and Land Use Committee Councillor Steve Novick was heating up:

Councilor Steve Novick went hard during the first meeting of the Portland City Council’s Climate Resilience, and Land Use Committee today.

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— Taylor Griggs (@taylorgriggs.bsky.social) February 13, 2025 at 10:59 AM

• Also charging in hot? Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, who joined several other AGs in filing a lawsuit to challenge "the unlawful delegation of executive power to Elon Musk" by President Trump. Rayfield has really been on a tear, working tirelessly with other AGs to block Trump's clearly illegal actions—news editor Courtney Vaughn will have to add this to her piece about Rayfield's lawsuits from earlier in the week.

• Most Multnomah County services are closed today, including libraries, so folks won't be able to use those as warming spaces. Right now, the shelters that were open yesterday—including two that opened at 8 pm last night—will remain open through noon today. We'll update our shelter info post if any announce extended times.

Here's the updated list:

• Cook Plaza (19421 SE Stark, Gresham)
• Hollywood Shelter (1815 NE 43rd, Portland)
• NW 14th Avenue Shelter (600 NW 14th, Portland)
• Ascension Church Tony Rinella Hall (823 SE 76th, Portland)
• Grand Oak Shelter (324 SE Grand, Portland)
• Charles Jordan Community Center (9009 N Foss, Portland)
• Friendly House (1737 NW 26th)
• Bud Clark Commons (650 NW Irving) 

• Another national publication is taking a look at a potential Portland comeback—groan—but wait, this one is about bikes and how when shit got exponentially worse in the city, houselessness was a symptom, not a cause. 

IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• The snow helped distract yesterday from the reality of the Senate confirming Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as US Health Secretary. Here's how everyone voted, so we may know at whose feet to bring our sickened loved ones.

• The health department of the state of Louisiana announced yesterday that it will stop promoting vaccinations. The state's surgeon general issued a nothing burger statement about "recognizing differences between seasonal vaccines and childhood immunizations," which failed to clarify which vaccines he is actually mad at. In response, the New Orleans Health Department said it would attempt to "fill any gaps" left by state government's new direction, which is vibes lately. 

• If you're leaving Twitter or Instagram to get attention gain moral high ground, you could also consider a bold new challenge: Never step foot in an Airbnb again as long as you live. Seriously, do not even fuck someone with an Airbnb. You already should have been wiping the shit off your shoes onto Airbnbs because the company is an ongoing player in the housing crisis. But anyway NYT reports that Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia—who is also a board member at Tesla—is "taking a role in President Trump’s administration to help [Elon] Musk carry out his drive to slash the federal bureaucracy." Fuck!

• Uh, also far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec joined the newly appointed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on a diplomatic trip to Germany, Belgium, and Poland this week. 

• For some reason I'm feeling the vapors of metaphor around this story of a man in Wales who wants to dig up a landfill to fins his lost Bitcoin, and the town that argues it would cause a huge impact to the environment. I'm upset that he has access to 70 million to even offer.

 

Man who lost $800 million bitcoin in landfill wants to buy the garbage dump:

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— CNN (@cnn.com) February 14, 2025 at 7:31 AM

 

• Now, get out there and get some love?