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Portland Water Bureau
Portland Water Bureau A photo taken at a 2017 Portland Water Bureau event.

Good morning, Portland! Let's hope you soaked in some of that glorious vitamin D over the weekend, because we're back to rainy skies today. Let's splash into today's headlines:

- A survey conducted by the Oregonian and Street Roots shows how rare it is for unhoused Portlanders to get support from an outreach worker who could help get them into housing. And, according to the study, 75 percent of those who were lucky enough to be contacted by an outreach worker never heard back from them.

- Lead levels in Portland drinking water has the scientist who detected dangerous levels of lead in Flint, Michigan’s water saying, “This is worse than Flint.” The Portland Water Bureau disputes this claim, since it is the case in only a small percentage of households—but the state has called for a swift resolution.

- On Friday, Portland Public Schools announced that several of its schools were likely to shift to remote learning due to the latest COVID-19 surge. So far, that includes Cleveland and McDaniel High Schools and Ockley Green Middle School.

- Last Thursday, the Oregon Secretary of State’s office informed former NYT columnist Nick Kristof that he doesn't meet the residency requirements needed to run for governor. A day later, he appealed this ruling to the Oregon Supreme Court, arguing that “In the absence of this Court’s intervention, voters will be marginalized, and the gubernatorial race will be irreversibly altered by a lone government official applying novel and untested legal reasoning.” He’ll need a reply ASAP. Start making popcorn, folks, this here is good drama.

- Speaking of good drama:The Golden Globes wasn’t able to secure a TV broadcaster after being booted from NBC, forcing the awards to be TWEETED OUT from the event’s Twitter account. It went as well as you'd expect:


- The New York Times is paying $550 million to buy popular subscription-based sports site The Athletic in hopes of becoming a “global leader in sports journalism” (and bringing all of The Athletic’s readers to the NYT).

- The CDC under the Biden administration has been slammed for its poor communication skills amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 800,000 Americans. Last week, it promised to do better, with CDC Director Rochelle Walensky pledging to hold more media briefings to keep the public apprised.

- Sidney Poitier, a civil rights icon and the first Black actor to win an Oscar, died last week at the age of 94. Poitier is credited for paving the path for Black actors playing serious roles in Hollywood and tackling roles that addressed racism with nuance in the midst of the 1960s civil rights movement.

- Here’s a favorite clip of Poitier—from the film Paris Blues—being a stone cold fox:


- Beloved TV dad and comedian Bob Saget died Sunday at age 65. The cause of Saget’s death in a Florida hotel room is still unclear, but detectives “found no signs of foul play or drug use in this case." I apologize, I don’t have any videos of Bob Saget being a stone cold fox.

- Russia and US leaders are at an impasse in negotiations involving Ukraine. Russia has threatened to invade the neighboring country to prevent it from being swept into NATO, while the US has promised sanctions on Russia if its military steps foot in Ukraine. This should go well for everyone involved.

- At least 164 people have died in Kazakhstan amid anti-government protests and 6,000 people have been arrested. This is the toll left by the country’s violent security forces, which have been responding to protests spurred by the country’s fuel crisis.

- I leave you with this critical information: