Good morning, Portland! Grab your coffee—or a two-liter bottle of root-beer-flavored-vape-juice-flavored-root-beer—and settle in.
root beer flavored vape juice flavored root beer pic.twitter.com/7xaGXNugeN
— An Angry Opossum (@AnAngryOpossum) March 11, 2021
Here are the headlines!
• Portland City Council approved a $2.1 million wrongful death settlement yesterday to the family of Quanice Hayes, a Black teenager who was killed by a Portland police officer in 2017. The settlement didn’t include an admittance of wrongdoing, but the majority of City Council chose to apologize to Hayes’ family for what they have endured.
• Meanwhile, a lot of other Black Oregonians are still waiting for justice:
Oregon can no longer convict people by non-unanimous juries, after Supreme Court ruling. But people still bear the burden of these unconstitutional convictions. And Black people are grossly disproportionately impacted. Oregon should give them new trials. https://t.co/p1xuT3IIdk
— Still In Prison (@stillinprison) March 10, 2021
• Despite communities of color being the most impacted by COVID-19 in the Portland metro region, they’re being offered vaccinations at a much lower rate than their white neighbors. Mercury contributor Hanna Merzbach digs in to Portland’s patchwork vaccination system in this excellent news feature.
• Today—March 11—marks the anniversary of when the COVID-19 pandemic got real for a lot of people. Tom Hanks announced he had the coronavirus, an NBA game was halted right before the start time, and the World Health Organization declared it a global pandemic. In case you have a sick desire to relive it all, NPR recounts the day in excruciating detail.
• On a related note, President Joe Biden is giving the first prime-time speech of his presidency tonight to look back on the last year, and inform the nation of what will hopefully come next—including those stimulus checks and other aspects of the recently passed $1.9 trillion recovery bill.
• Right-wing grifters gonna grift:
Salem salon owner Lindsey Graham made headlines when she defied heath orders by staying open, saying the restrictions were bringing financial ruin.
A @Salem_Statesman/@AZCentral project details how she benefited from the controversy that followed: https://t.co/ZmglLal43B
— 🌧David Davis🌧 (@DavidDavisSJ) March 11, 2021
• Tomorrow, Multnomah County moves from “high” to “moderate” risk in the state’s COVID restriction matrix. More on what that means here.
• Think you had it rough during last month’s snow storm? A neighborhood in Lake Oswego just had their Century Link internet restored yesterday—a full month after the storm!
• Spot-on:
This is every viral British news clip I’ve seen since the Meghan and Harry interview pic.twitter.com/5WGs6I4cLe
— Ryan Ken (@Ryan_Ken_Acts) March 9, 2021
