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Good morning, Portland! It’s back to traditional PNW weather today, so expect cloudy skies with late night rain and a high of 54 degrees. We all need to hydrate, even the flowers and trees.
While the plants soak up rain, let’s soak up the headlines.
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• Delvis Heath, Sr., chief of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, died Sunday, March 29. He held the role of chief since 1984, 15 years after his father died, OPB reports. Governor Tina Kotek ordered all state flags lowered to half-staff Tuesday and Wednesday, in light of Chief Heath’s death. “Chief Heath was a respected elder, leader, and chief who devoted his life to the people of Warm Springs,” Kotek stated in her announcement. “He was one of three hereditary chiefs of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs, which includes the Wasco, Warm Springs, and Paiute tribes.”
• Author and violinist Ling Ling Huang’s novelImmaculate Conception isa nominee for the 2026 Oregon Book Awards’ Ken Kesey Award for Fiction. The story circles the lives of two young artists, tracking the jealousy-driven decisions of its main character with sharp specificity. It’s an ambitious book: literary with a sci-fi bent, concerned with technological ethics, loss of faith, and the competitive undercurrent that can destroy loving friendships, particularly between women artists. Read Lindsay Costello’s review in advance of the Oregon Book Awards ceremony on April 20.
• Portland Community College faculty reached a tentative labor agreement with the college on Monday, ending a nearly three-week strike. The tentative deal includes a 2 percent cost of living adjustment (COLA) this year, and another 3 percent the following year, as well as a lump sum payment of $5,475 to full-time faculty. PCC and the union representing the college’s faculty and academic professionals made the announcement late Monday evening. The community college is projecting a nearly $38 million budget deficit, noting the current labor agreement exceeds what the college set aside for bargaining and will “require additional reductions in other areas of the college’s budget,” PCC President Adrien Bennings noted in her bargaining updates. The strike–the first in the college’s history–would have put spring term classes in limbo, had it continued. As the Mercury reported last week, that also would’ve had serious consequences for PCC’s international students.
• Governor Tina Kotek has a new write-in challenger. The discourse is getting pointed. Kotek’s early lead could quickly be erased. A local pencil has announced a run for Oregon governor, hoping to make a point about education. “This year, Oregon ranked last, 50th out of 50 states, in fourth-grade literacy. This is not our kids’ fault, and it is not their parents’ fault,” Pencil wrote in a press release Monday. (A belated happy National Pencil Day to all who celebrate.) Pencil raises some important points, and other candidates may need to sharpen their campaigns if they want to win the governor’s seat. Just remember, you can’t use a Ticonderoga #2 on your ballot, you’ll have to use a pen. -JEREMIAH HAYDEN
• The Mercury’s Do This, Do That for March 30-April 5 has dropped, with events including the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival, FKA twigs at the Moda, and the Blazers playing the New Orleans Pelicans. Lessgo!
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
- Florida man and current White House resident Donald J(effrey Epstein) Trump has urged Congress to end its spring recess early and come back to vote on a funding package for the Department of Homeland Security, which is still in a partial shutdown. Congress recessed last week without reaching a deal to fund DHS. Get this: According to cross-bearing press secretary and professional liar Karoline Leavitt, Trump has even offered to “host a big Easter dinner here at the White House if Congress will come back and fight the Democrats on this issue.” Is that a bribe or a threat? The partial shutdown left TSA workers without pay for more than a month. Most TSA workers received paychecks Monday, after Trump signed a presidential memo that allows the new DHS secretary, Markwayne Mullin, to dip into Office of Management and Budget funding that can reasonably be related to TSA operations. It’s unclear if the federal employees will continue to get paid, or whether the funding will temporarily cover a short timespan.
- Be a good patriot and support Trump’s ballroom.
- It’s annoying enough that Baby Boomers seem both obsessed with and consistently duped by AI, but nothing can prepare you for the news that Bob Dylan—a man from the tail end of the Silent Generation—wants fans to pay $5 a month to listen to what critics say is AI-generated historic fanfiction. The folk rock icon launched a Patreon account where he hosts a series called “Lectures From the Grave” featuring historical figures like Mark Twain and Wild Bill whose readings of reimagined “letters” are voiced by someone, or something, possibly a bot. Dylan doesn’t actually create any of the content, rather, he curates it for funsies…and five bucks.
- As we mentioned yesterday, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments Wednesday in what could be a landmark case that challenges Trump’s attempt to end birthright citizenship in the United States. “The case presents another test for a high court that has allowed some anti-immigration efforts to continue, even after lower courts had blocked them,” the AP reports. The lawsuit was filed by a woman in New Hampshire representing pregnant women who argue their children should be US citizens as long as they are born on US soil, regardless of the parents’ legal status.
• The maternal health landscape in the US is arguably declining, due to states with personhood laws and other strict laws regulating women’s health care decisions. How bad is it? In one case, uncovered by ProPublica, a woman in Florida was in labor when hospital staff forced her to appear in virtual court because she refused a C-section delivery unless absolutely necessary. Citing health complications after previous c-section births with her other children, the mother and experienced doula told doctors and nurses that she wanted to try for a vaginal birth. Doctors felt it was too risky for her and the baby. As ProPublica found, “a nursing supervisor wheeled a tablet up to her bed and informed her she was in court. The reason? Failing to agree to a C-section.” Covered by hospital bed sheets with no legal representation or even a patient advocate, she argued in front of a judge and medical staff during a virtual legal hearing. Her ordeal was made worse when she was given an emergency C-section overnight and then forced to appear in virtual court AGAIN before she could see her baby in the neonatal intensive care unit.
• The news can be stressful. Here’s your zen.
