Hospitals across the country are nearing or at capacity due to the coronavirus. Credit: go Nakamura / Getty images

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Hospitals across the country are nearing or at capacity due to the coronavirus.
Hospitals across the country are nearing or at capacity due to the coronavirus. go Nakamura / Getty images

Good morning, Portland! Important question: Have you decided which Detroit pizza place you’ll be ordering for dinner tonight yet?

Aaaaaand here are the headlines:

• An anti-eviction protest continues at the Red House, a home housing a Black and Indigenous family in Portland’s historically Black Albina neighborhood. At a press conference yesterday, members of the Kinney family told details of how they were foreclosed upon, and said it was part of “the same scheme” of Black displacement that has plagued Portland for decades. You can read more about that pattern in this excellent research paper from Portland State, Bleeding Albina.

• On Wednesday, Portland City Council unanimously passed a resolution requiring that the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) request permission from City Council before purchasing certain weapons for officer use, including explosive impact munitions, armored vehicles, drones, and specialized firearms. The resolution also instructs PPB to keep a clear inventory of all military-style equipment used during protests or other crowd control events, and update commissioners on those amounts on a quarterly basis.

• The US set a new record for more COVID-19 deaths in a single day yesterday: 3,053. Thirty of those deaths were Oregonians. Hospitals across the country are now at or nearing capacity.

• Some schools have been providing in-person learning in Central Oregon—but so many students and teachers are now quarantined due to COVID-19 that the schools have been forced to close. “We just saw the writing on the wall,” one district spokesman told OPB. “We can’t operate schools without teachers.”

• Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court for permission to join a lawsuit led by Texas that seeks to block four key swing states from formalizing President-elect Joe Biden’s victory. Seventeen other Republican-led states have joined the lawsuit, which appears to be based on… absolutely nothing.

• Republicans’ schemes likely won’t be successful in stealing the election, but they are effective by other measures:

• The federal government and 48 states (including Oregon) are suing Facebook for operating a “predatory” monopoly. The aim of the lawsuit is to have Facebook broken up into several different pieces—meaning social media apps like Instagram and What’s App, which have been swallowed up by Facebook, could be spun off into their own companies. Maybe that means every third picture on Instagram won’t be an ad for home goods anymore. Only time will tell!

• Lawmakers in Congress are currently squabbling over which version of a stimulus bill they might finally, finally pass. A Republican-backed bill would provide funding for small businesses and vaccines, while one with bipartisan support would fund those items as well as expanded unemployment benefits, rental assistance, and food aid. But the entire fight could come down to liability protections for businesses, which Republicans covet.

• This holiday season is going to be a rough one for many Portlanders. Here are some easy ways to help feed those in need over the holidays—and all year round.

• Some seasonal jolliness for you, if you’re into that kind of thing:

Blair Stenvick is a former news reporter and culture writer for the Portland Mercury.