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Plans are moving forward on a new, earthquake-resistant Burnside Bridge.
Plans are moving forward on a new, earthquake-resistant Burnside Bridge. MULTNOMAH COUNTY

Good afternoon, Portland! Hope you're enjoying the sunny sunshine. Here are the day's headlines:

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• A Multnomah County committee voted yesterday to advance plans for a new, earthquake-resistant Burnside Bridge with one less lane for cars in an effort to expedite the construction process and save taxpayers some $240 million. Construction, already pushed back a year, could commence as soon as 2025.

• Criminal justice reform advocates and leaders in the state legislature are hopeful that a bill compensating wrongly convicted Oregonians for the time they spent behind bars will pass in the upcoming legislative session after it died in committee in 2021. The Oregon Department of Justice supports its passage.

• Researchers at OHSU have found that people infected with COVID and then vaccinated, or vaccinated and then infected, have an immune response ten times more potent than the immune response of people who have only been vaccinated—suggesting a potential path to super-immunity for a segment of the population and underscoring the value of getting vaccinated.

• The FBI raided the Illinois headquarters of the COVID-19 testing company currently under investigation by the Oregon Department of Justice and myriad other agencies across multiple states on Saturday.

• Good news: it's FREE TICKETS TUESDAY—yes, that's FREE TICKETS TUESDAY—here at the Mercury. Enter here to win tickets Kurt Elling and Charlie Hunter and the Delgani String Quartet here.

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• A group of ten Indigenous tribes are reclaiming ancestral land on the northern California coast after the Save the Redwoods League announced that it will transfer control of more than 500 acres on the Lost Coast, or Tc’ih-Léh-Dûñ, to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council. The tribes will, rightfully, be responsible for protecting the land.

• The Florida Republican Party, led by 2024 GOP hopeful Ron DeSantis, is attempting to pass a bill that would require governments to produce economic impact statements for any ordinances they pass and another that would allow businesses to sue the government for passing any law that impeded its ability to make a profit.

• US and NATO officials continue to prepare for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine, with the US planning to help direct natural gas supplies to Europe in the event that the continent's Russian supply is cut off in a potential conflict.

• Jerry Falwell Jr. is back in the news a year-and-a-half after resigning as president of Liberty University, telling Vanity Fair, "People think I’m a religious person. But I’m not." I'm sure many Christians would readily agree.

• It’s back for 2022! America’s sexiest, funnest dirty movie fest, HUMP! Coming at ya starting February 24 at Revolution Hall—GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!

• Finally...