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Good morning, Portland! It's time to get ready for the fun fright of your life with SLAY—the Mercury’s short horror film fest which is streaming online THIS WEEKEND from Oct 29-31, and showing LIVE and IN-PERSON at the Clinton Street Theater on Oct 29 & 30! GET THOSE TICKETS NOW.

Here are the headlines.

• A grand jury in Clackamas County has found that a county sheriff's deputy was justified in shooting and killing a man in Happy Valley in September. The cop will face no charges for the fatal shooting.

• Oregon's two US senators, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden, are calling for a federal investigation of the Chemawa Indian School—Oregon's only boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Education. The senators say they have reason to believe the school isn't properly educating students, is being shady with its finances, and is failing to protect students from violence.

• Shameful:

6 female athletes say body shaming on Oregon track and field program led to eating disorders https://t.co/pO2oMJrnEQ

— KGW News (@KGWNews) October 26, 2021

• The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) issued a $2.1 million fine—the largest in the department’s history—to Malarkey Roofing Products last week for emitting higher levels of formaldehyde than previously reported for over a decade. Happy Halloween week!

• Usually it's Facebook and Twitter that get all the attention/blame for ruining our society, but don't worry! Today, senators will question executives from TikTok, YouTube, and Snap about whether their products harm kids.

• Some Democrats in Congress recently had an inspired idea: implement a new tax just for billionaires to help pay for the climate resiliency and social services provisions in President Joe Biden's "build back better" plan. Of course, now that new plan is facing criticism from the cowards, liars, and corporate cronies in Congress.

• Today in "concrete evidence for things you basically already knew":

⚡️ EXCLUSIVE: Nearly half of Americans still don’t think climate change is caused by human activities, but Democrats were far less likely than Republicans to hold those views, a new VICE News and @guardian poll has found. https://t.co/gGlGsBODZL

— VICE News (@VICENews) October 26, 2021

• Next week is Election Day in the US—and while there's not much going on here in Oregon, the city of Minneapolis has what could be a game-changing measure on the ballot. Minneapolis voters will be asked to vote on replacing the city's police department with a Department of Public Safety, which would focus more on mental health and social services.

• Major credit card companies are now offering bitcoin as rewards for their customers. But, you know, you're still totally a maverick rebel tech genius for dropping thousands on that non-fungible token.

• Finally, consider one of the most pressing questions of our time:

Halloween is getting horrifyingly close, and the Mercury is celebrating with lots of spoooooky stories this week—starting with one from @PDXDraper that asks the terrifying question, "Which is more haunted: Lloyd Center Mall or Mall 205?" 💀🎃👻https://t.co/wP9fz3xUre

— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) October 25, 2021