The Mercury provides news and fun every single day—but your help is essential. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support!

A 1973 photo of people demonstrating against displacement in the Albina Neighborhood.
A 1973 photo of people demonstrating against displacement in the Albina Neighborhood. Oregon Historical Society

Good afternoon, Portland! Read to the end for a tuba meme, and, in the meantime... enjoy the headlines.

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• A new Portland State study has found that the city owes reparations to the families displaced from the Albina neighborhood by the 1970s expansion of Emanuel Hospital, and to the tune of $89 million. Alex Zielinski has more on the report.

• The 2022 short session of the Oregon legislature is underway in Salem with a new Speaker of the House presiding: Rep. Dan Rayfield, Democrat from Corvallis, won Tuesday's election to replace gubernatorial candidate Tina Kotek as the leader of the Oregon house.

• Oregon's beloved, historic Highway 101 is badly in need of reinforcing and repairs—some of which may violate the state's land-use rules. OPB has a look at how environmental groups, developers, and state leaders are trying to navigate the myriad issues.

• Today marks the beginning of Black History Month, and the nonprofit organization Word is Bond has designed nine walking tours in neighborhoods across Portland to "highlight the voices, dreams, and experiences of rising Black men as well as the neighborhoods in which they live."

• Do you like free love, free sex, and free tickets to really cool shows? Then may I direct your attention to the Mercury's FREE Reader Valentines, Dan Savage's FREE sexual advice in this week's Savage Love, and the Mercury's FREE TICKETS TUESDAY (featuring... you guessed it... FREE tickets to three great events)!

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• Pfizer is asking the Food and Drug Administration to expand the use of their COVID-19 vaccine to children under the age of five—a potentially huge step in protecting young families against the virus. Kids under the age of five are currently the only Americans not eligible to receive COVID vaccinations.

• Denmark has ended all of its COVID restrictions, declaring that the virus no longer poses a "critical threat" to the country. Cases are still rising in the Scandinavian nation, but the country's high vaccination rate and the relative mildness of the Omicron variant have changed its thinking on how best to deal with the virus.

• Former Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores is suing the NFL, claiming the league is "managed much like a plantation." Flores, who was fired by Miami last month despite leading the Dolphins to back-to-back winning seasons, is seeking both unspecified damages and a broad changes to league culture and policy.

• Another day, another standoff between American and Russian leaders over Ukraine—Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicating to his counterpart Anthony Blinken on a call this morning that Russia is not prepared to withdraw its troops from the Ukrainian border. Fun!

• 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... count on a tuba to get your point across.