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Good morning, Portland! This is, I'm sad to say, my very last Good Morning, News post—I'm moving on to a new job in the new year— but I swear I won't get too wishy-washy about it. Thanks for reading my pre-caffeinated rantings every Tuesday and Thursday morning for the last three years!
And one last time, here are the headlines.
• Weekly COVID-19 cases are now up 25 percent in Oregon, thanks to a little stinker I like to call "the omicron variant." And as the Oregonian reports, even that increase "almost certainly is an undercount because some counties didn’t report their case numbers from the long Christmas weekend."
• In case you hadn't noticed, it's cold outside. So cold, in fact, that houseless services in both Portland and Bend are scrambling to provide emergency shelter for unhoused folks, as temperatures stay below freezing.
• And in other "It's cold outside" news, be careful out there!
Some Portland roads shut down for ice as slick Tuesday morning commute gets underway https://t.co/rDBWCPrOMT
— KGW News (@KGWNews) December 28, 2021
• The local and state criminal justice sector spent 2021 stretched between reacting to a global pandemic and calls for reform. Many of the issues it began to address will require years of commitment to see through, while others—like casually ending the death penalty—seemed to happen overnight. Catch up on everything in the Mercury's top criminal justice stories of 2021. And stay tuned for more top story roundups this week!
• Yesterday, the CDC cut the suggested asymptomatic COVID quarantine period to just five days, in a transparent bid to allow employers to force their workers back to the job sooner. Cool country!
cdc says if you can lean you can clean
— rava (@rava) December 28, 2021
• Meanwhile, undertakers and faith leaders around the world are joining the effort to convince vaccine-skeptical folks to get their shots. As one South African funeral house owner put it, "Vaccinate, vaccinate! We don’t want to see you coming to our offices.”
• LOL:
Elon Musk is under growing scrutiny in China after his satellites almost collided with the country's space station twice.https://t.co/mdayez2zmY
— VICE News (@VICENews) December 28, 2021
• Last year saw a record-low for flu cases, a weird side benefit of masking up and social distancing thanks to COVID. But this year, as Americans continue to pretend COVID is over, the flu is like, "I'm back, bitches!".
• Progressives have quite a few valid bones to pick with President Joe Biden, but here's one thing he's doing right: Nominating a slew of qualified and diverse judges to the federal bench. After the disastrous impact Trump had on the judiciary, this is helping reverse some of that damage.
• And finally: Yes, I did name the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City as one of the best TV shows of the year! What are they gonna do, fire me?
Squid Game, Pose, Dave, Arcane, Real Housewives of Salt Lake City and more made it onto this list of our favorite TV shows of 2021.https://t.co/2yrmvDk6ak
— Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) December 27, 2021