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Good morning, Portland! Welcome to 2020: a year which will see Leap Day, the summer Olympics, and (maybe?) the ouster of Donald Trump.
Here are the headlines.
Castro Out: Julian Castro, the good thing you kept forgetting you had, is dropping out of the presidential race. The Democratic presidential field grows whiter by the day.
It’s with profound gratitude to all of our supporters that I suspend my campaign for president today.
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) January 2, 2020
I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished together. I’m going to keep fighting for an America where everyone counts—I hope you’ll join me in that fight. pic.twitter.com/jXQLJa3AdC
Speaking of Politics: We're just about a month out from the Iowa caucuses, the moment in the primaries when the theoretical becomes real. Candidates are swarming the state, but about 60 percent of Iowa caucasers say that while they have a top choice, they could be persuaded to support another candidate.
Fish's Farewell: Portland City Commissioner Nick Fish recently announced he will be resigning in 2020, as the cancer he was diagnosed with in 2017 has grown more complicated. This means we can expect yet another fresh face on City Council soon.
Another Seat at the Table: New Census Bureau estimates confirm what many political experts already expected: Oregon will most likely gain a sixth Congressional seat after the 2020 Census. Maybe Knute Buehler can run for that one too?
There's a New Chief in Town: Portland, meet your new police chief: Jami Resch, a 20-year veteran of the Portland Police Bureau. Mayor Wheeler's decision to promote Resch came immediately after former Chief Danielle Outlaw's departure—why so fast? We spoke with the mayor's staff to learn more about this decision.
"It's Creepy": For the past few weeks, fleets of mysterious drones have been spotted flying over Colorado and Nebraska at night, always in the same formations. Nobody knows who owns these drones or why they're flying them, so the Federal Aviation Administration is investigating.
Okay, Computer: A new law in Illinois will require employers to inform job candidates if their online job interviews are being graded by artificial intelligence, a thing that apparently happens a lot! This is the first law of its kind.
Not Invited Back! Murder mystery podcasts, new fried chicken crazes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe—a lot of things about the 2010s kind of sucked, and the Mercury staff has decided they aren't invited back to the new decade.