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GOOD AFTERNOON, PORTLAND! How was your weekend? I spent mine researching lawnmowers, and puzzling over whether or not I should purchase this "Dua Lipa as Jesus" t-shirt. In the meantime, let's "dua" some NEWS!
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• The Portland Clean Energy Fund is a groundbreaking program designed to disrupt traditional bureaucracy and finally look at green energy projects through an equity lens. BUT! What happens when a non-traditional program like this runs headlong into old-timey expectations created for more traditional energy programs? Find out with this fascinating and important long-read from our Isabella Garcia.
• What were your folks (or grand-folks) up to in 1950? Now you can find out:
The release of records from the 1950 U.S. census creates a treasure trove for genealogists. They also paint a picture of what life was like for Oregonians. https://t.co/H8BztClzvi
— OPB (@OPB) April 3, 2022
• More than 190 Alaska Airlines flights (including 24 flying into Portland) have been cancelled since Friday due to an ongoing pilot strike. The pilots are saying that the company insufficiently planned for a post-pandemic rush for flights, while also demanding better pay and stable work schedules.
• In response to the city's repeated homeless sweeps (that simply results in moving that particular situation to another location), the group People's Housing Project began constructing temporary shelters in Portland's Pearl District at the Park Blocks. As you can imagine, people had FEELINGS about that.
Throughout the month of April, call 503.928.7008 to hear poems from Oregon Poet Laureates, via Oregon’s Daily Tele-Pomes Telephone Line!
📞⚡️🌱
Made with the support of the @orhumanities @OrCulturalTrust & @POETSorg! 🙌🏽🙌🏽
& set up by @mroliverblank
🙏🏽☺️ pic.twitter.com/NDFmfOLrmU
— Anis Mojgani (@mojgani) April 4, 2022
• It's time again for the latest hilarious edition of Elinor Jones' new gossip column, THE TRASH REPORT! This week: sea lions possessed by human souls, juicier Oscar news than "the slap," and flamingoes that witnessed the JFK assassination!
Buckle up for one helluva week, y'all. There's no reason to stay at home when events from Olivia Rodrigo to Tyler, The Creator and Freestyle Love Supreme to Banff Mountain Film Festival 2022 are coming in hot. https://t.co/b39m1LZiG0
— EverOut Portland (@EverOutPortland) April 4, 2022
IN NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL NEWS:
• President Biden has once again called Putin a "war criminal," and he certainly isn't wrong—especially when one looks at the satellite imagery that shows the horrifying carnage Russia has wrought upon a Kyiv suburb in which at least 300 dead civilians line the streets, "some with their hands bound, some with gunshot wounds to the head." Meanwhile, you hate to see it: "U.S. seizes mega yacht owned by oligarch with close ties to Putin." Wait... I love to see it.
Analysis of satellite images by the @nytimes visual investigations team shows bodies lay in Bucha for at least 3 weeks, when Russian forces controlled the area, refuting Russian claims the massacre was carried out by Ukrainian forces after their departure.https://t.co/OxoM9e7BNl
— Matina Stevis-Gridneff (@MatinaStevis) April 4, 2022
• Sacramento police have announced they have arrested a suspect in the brutal mass shooting that killed six and wounded a dozen more on early Sunday morning. It's the third mass shooting of at least six people this year.
• The Senate committee charged with deciding the fate of Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is deliberating today (strictly along party lines, 'natch), and the final vote could come to the Senate floor later this week.
Is it me or are the Grammy categories getting really specific? https://t.co/sD0BIDNqub
— Simon Caine (@thismademecool) April 4, 2022
• After repeated criticisms of Twitter, billionaire Elon Musk is now the proud owner of 9 percent of the social media platform to become its largest shareholder. What could possibly go wrong?
• To the disappointment of no one (except festival organizers), abusive butthole Kanye West has pulled out of Coachella just a few days before it was set to begin, sending management into a scrambling frenzy for a replacement. Two words, Coachella organizers: DUA. LIPA.
• NYC beats Florida... as usual.
BREAKING: @NYCMayor announces a new digital billboard campaign in five Florida markets denouncing the hateful #DontSayGay law and inviting Floridians to move to New York. https://t.co/kPB7J7vJoU pic.twitter.com/1Dqbxmzqjo
— NYC Mayor's Office (@NYCMayorsOffice) April 4, 2022
• AHOY THERE, STONERS! The SPLIFF Film Festival—featuring short, hilarious, trippy, and thoughtful mini-movies about cannabis and made by stoners just like YOU—is coming to Revolution Hall for one night only on Saturday, April 16! GET THOSE TICKETS NOW! (And btw, you can still stream the very sexy 2022 edition of HUMP all through the month of April!)
• And finally, for those of you detecting notes of "hot dog" in your wine... well, you're not wrong!
this chardonnay has notes of hot dog pic.twitter.com/lIztqJGUiu
— kylie brakeman (@deadeyebrakeman) March 29, 2022