If you're old enough to remember the pro wrestler Sting, it's probably time to start checking in closely on your retirement account. Credit: Scott Barbour/ALLSPORT/Getty Images

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GOOD MORNING, PORTLAND! We’re due for a little sunshine today, but don’t get too excited. The temperature is unlikely to break 47 degrees, and could drop down to 29 in some areas. 

As of Tuesday morning, both Facebook and Instagram reported major outages. It’s a good excuse to go outside and touch some grass.

Now for the headlines.

In LOCAL NEWS:

  • City Council agenda check: the Portland Water Bureau is proposing a nearly 8 percent rate hike. Portland City Council is scheduled to vote this week to approve a 7.9 percent increase in water rates. The change comes as several city bureaus are trying to fill budget gaps heading into the next fiscal year. The Water Bureau says the rate would increase from nearly $7 a unit to $7.56. The city expects the average residential water bill to jump from $56.22 a month to $60.66. You can read more here.
  • A 74-year-old man in Southwest Portland who was hit while using a motorized scooter has died of his injuries. Police say Peter Pellegrin was struck February 7 near SW 19th Ave and Boones Ferry Road. He died at a hospital Saturday, March 2. The driver cooperated with authorities but isn’t facing charges at this time, police say.
  • As the Multnomah County Animal Services division works to implement more than 100 recommendations from various audits and a review ordered by the county chair last year, MCAS is also clarifying its euthanasia policy. Recently, several media outlets (including the Mercury) noted the county had scrapped language from its policy that previously indicated animals would never be put down due to a lack of space at the shelters. The county has clarified, noting its euthanasia policies remain the same, despite the language change. Read the update here.
  • Portland’s sexiest, spiciest indie film fest, HUMP! is back, and runs until March 15. All screenings take place at Revolution Hall. This is your chance to peer inside the kinky, gritty minds of Pacific Northwest filmmakers and see real people making amateur pornos for other real ones. Tix here.

In NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:

  • The estate of Sinéad O’Connor is pissed that Donald Trump’s campaign is using the late musician’s music at his campaign rallies. O’Connor’s family noted she upheld a “fierce moral code” and would’ve objected to the Trump team using “Nothing Compares 2 U” as it has. “It is no exaggeration to say that Sinéad would have been disgusted, hurt, and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone who she herself referred to as a ‘biblical devil,’” the BBC reports the estate noting in a statement to media asking Trump to desist the use of her music. Hopefully her ghost can come back and haunt the Trump family by turning all the sprinklers off at Mar-a-Lago or something.

  • The US Supreme Court has intervened to temporarily halt a new Texas law set to go into effect this month that allows local police to arrest migrants who cross into the US illegally. Federal immigration law already makes it a crime to enter the US outside designated ports of entry, but Texas’s law would allow state and local police to enforce local criminal penalties as well. In a ruling Monday, Justice Samuel Alito froze a lower court’s decision and is giving the rest of the high court time to digest the arguments and rule before March 13.
  • We kind of already know France is more sophisticated and sometimes more progressive than the United States. I mean, they’ve got a well-functioning high-speed transit system and universal health care. French culture also gave us croissants, Monet and Renoir, the Eiffel Tower, and Notre Dame. (We won’t get into how behind they are on curbing smoking.) Now, France has enshrined the right to abortion in its constitution. NPR reports the move “came in response to concerns over the rollback of abortion laws in the United States.”
  • Haiti isn’t a country that makes news headlines often, but apparently the region is currently under siege by armed gangs. Inmates at two large prisons have escaped amid what USA Today describes as “Haiti’s long descending spiral of violence.” Haitian gangs are now issuing direct threats to the country’s prime minister, Ariel Henry.

If Thin Lizzy’s “Jail Break” immediately popped in your head, you’re not alone.

  • Gen-Xers and millennials who spent any amount of their childhood or teen years watching wrestling likely remember the legendary Sting. The man whose wrestling persona was initially marked by colorful face paint, a bleached blond flat top and spandex, later transitioned to his better known image: a goth-inspired, black-clad doom bringer, with face paint inspired by 1994’s “The Crow.” Sting, now 64, wrestled his final match Sunday evening as the main event in All Elite Wrestling’s (AEW) pay-per-view event, Revolution. The match featured the standard TLC (tables, ladders, and chairs) expected of any finale event, and saw the iconic performer team up with Seattle-based wrestler Darby Allin, with both men falling through panels of glass before claiming victory over the California-based brothers, the Young Bucks.

Courtney Vaughn is the news editor at the Portland Mercury. She appreciates your news tips and musings. Reach out at cvaughn@portlandmercury.com or find her on Bluesky @courtneyvaughn.