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A student getting vaccinated at a school vaccination clinic.
A student getting vaccinated at a school vaccination clinic. Portland Public Schools

Good afternoon, Portland! Here's the latest on local news, national news, and a little bit of fun.

In local news:

• The Portland Public Schools (PPS) board members agreed to postpone voting on a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for students 12 and older for up to six months at their board meeting Tuesday night. The members cited Multnomah County’s high vaccination rates among school-age children and the distress a vaccine requirement may cause families who do not trust government-run public health programs as reasons to delay a possible mandate.

• Last week, a new dataset found there is little correlation between the size of the Portland Police Bureau’s staff and Portland’s crime rate. But this data alone may paint an incomplete picture of what truly influences Portland’s crime rate. Read more in a new edition of Hall Monitor, by Alex Zielinski.

• In case you missed this fascinating deep-dive yesterday:

• Gov. Kate Brown today commuted the sentences of 74 people who'd been given especially harsh Measure 11 sentences for crimes they were convicted of as teenagers. This opens the door for those incarcerated people to be released early.

In national news:

• Between May 2020 and April 2021, over 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States, meaning overdose deaths have hit an all-time high. Experts say this was caused by the social isolation of the pandemic and the rise of deadly fentanyl-laced heroin on the market.

• It's day two of jury deliberations in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. Rittenhouse's lawyer is now asking the judge to declare the case a mistrial, claiming his side received a lower-quality copy of video evidence than the prosecution had in the lead-up to the trial.

• LOL:

• Senator Kyrsten Sinema is apparently mad that people make fun of the ridiculous outfits she wears on the job. What she seems to fail to understand is that people are making fun of her for wearing hideous outfits while making morally indefensible political decisions. You gotta get the nuance!

And just for fun:

• You want to find the perfect gift while also supporting local businesses, yes? YES! Then don’t miss the Mercury’s Holiday Gift Guide, featuring only the coolest gifts and where to find them... locally!

• Finally, here's a little Hump Day inspiration: