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Good Afternoon, Portland! Did you celebrate with the love of your life yesterday? I am, of course, here referring to the State of Oregon. Oregon turned 163 yesterday. To celebrate, I wore long johns and ate bacon in a Douglas fir. Let's hit the news!

IN LOCAL NEWS:

• Oregon was poised to be the first state to restore prisoners with the right to vote—but (!) according to House Democrats, that bill will have to wait yet another year. Get the explainer in our the first collaboration of Bolts Magazine and the Portland Mercury.

• Vancouver, Wa has picked a location for its second city-sanctioned community for unhoused residents. The city opened its first “Safe Stay Community,” on Dec. 23, 2021 and plans to add a third in the upcoming months.

• After years of sipping, planning, and pandemic pumping the brakes, Eater PDX reports that Suckerpunch—the teetotaler drink fancier enterprise of XOXO Festival co-founder Andy McMillan—plans to open a pop-up in the Goat Blocks on SE Belmont. Reservations are open!

• When I originally heard about the Worst Person in the World I thought it was another movie about single, frustrated New Yorkers looking for love, but now having read Chase Huchinson's rave review, I've learned that it's actually about single, frustrated Swedish people looking for love—now I'm interested!

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

• THANK GOD, the cardiologists are finally here. The New York Times got some cardiologists and sports doctors on the horn to ask why 15-year-old Olympic contender (sort of!) Kamila Valieva would possibly need to take banned heart medication trimetazidine.

• Coachella at your own risk, music fans. The fest is coming in maskless—vaccines thrown to the wind—for an open-mouth kiss. But also this is basically what we all expected, right? No one expected anything responsible, thoughtful, or good from Coachella, right? Anytime something nice happens there, it's a complete surprise and wholly outside the festival's character, yes?

• If you want to read about healthy trolling leading to unlikely friendship, check out this recent profile from the New Yorker about two Citi Bike users in a contest to see who can visit the most stations:

Two strangers competed to visit every Citi Bike station in NY. One said he’d ventured out to satisfy some vague exploratory notion. The other had done it to piss off a friend—thousands of blocks, hundreds of miles, a Tour de France of pettiness.https://t.co/pBXXVPj6S0
— Suzette Smith (@suzettesmith) February 15, 2022

• Does someone love you? There's only one way to find out... check the Mercury Reader Valentines to see if you got a mushy, romantic note! (Psst! Submissions are open until February 17, lovebirds!)

• Valentine's Day IS OVER. Who was your date's favorite musician and why is this TikTok so damn correct?

@cyberexboyfriend Reply to @_sleepybish_ #greenscreen i hope y’all have good dates this week #musictok #frankocean #valentinesday #pheobebridgers ♬ Cranes in the Sky - Solange