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People celebrate in Santiago, Chile as election results show overwhelming support for a new constitution, Marcelo Hernandez / Getty Images

Gooooood morning, Portland! Here are the local and national headlines you may have missed over the weekend while wondering how many blankets is too many blankets. (Answer: Six).

– An exhaustive investigation by the Oregonian shows that arresting and jailing houseless Portlanders does little to stop them from committing a crime in the future. Instead, reporters found that housing—not handcuffs—was the best way keep those houseless Portlanders who commit low-level crimes from being stuck in a cycle of recidivism.

– Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty will introduce an ordinance Wednesday that could keep Portland cops who’ve been deputized as federal officers from making arrests for federal crimes or acting on orders from federal officials. The proposal comes a week before election day, a date that’s expected to reignite protests in Portland.

– Speaking of election day, have you noticed this year’s particularly nutty campaign ads filling your mailbox and flooding your web browser? The Mercury‘s Blair Stenvick sure has. Find out who’s behind the weirdest local ads this election season here.

One reporter’s comprehensive experience covering recent antifascist/BLM protests in Portland: https://t.co/aEupYH7mIn
— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) October 26, 2020

– Oregon saw the largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases on Friday, which ushered in 550 new cases. While Oregon’s witnessing the kind of case number increase hitting some corners of the US right now, we’ve seen a steady uptick in cases since the beginning of October.

– In fact, Oregon’s doing well enough that some major hospitals in the Willamette Valley (including in Portland) are preparing to take in COVID-19 patients from Northern Idaho, where an increase in cases have pushed hospitals to over capacity.

– To understand how bad the country’s COVID-19 spikes are, consider this: Friday saw the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the US than on any other single day since the pandemic began. That number was 85,000. Unlike at the pandemic’s start, most of the largest outbreaks are now taking place in rural counties.

– Here’s a deeply infuriating thing to start your day with:

This was Trump’s epic meltdown on 60 Minutes and it was even worse than reported. Trump literally ran away because he didn’t like the questions. pic.twitter.com/48Xu2TiI1o
— Sarah Reese Jones (@PoliticusSarah) October 26, 2020

– The White House has officially thrown up its hands in the face of a worsening pandemic. On Sunday, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said the US is “not going to control” the coronavirus pandemic. I guess it comes as no surprise then that, despite two of Mike Pence’s top staffers testing positive for COVID-19, Pence remains on the campaign trail.

– Amy Coney Barrett is set to be confirmed as the next Supreme Court justice today, just a very chill WEEK BEFORE A MASSIVE NATIONAL ELECTION. And folks, Mitch McConnell is GIDDY.

– The Boy of Scouts of America face thousands of new sexual abuse claims from former members as the national organization spirals into bankruptcy.

– Italy is reintroducing strict COVID-19 restrictions as the country—and many across Europe—brace for a new uptick in cases, not unlike the pandemic’s initial springing spike.

– After a year of protests against their country’s deep-seated inequities, Chileans have voted to pen a new constitution that will be written by members of the public, not lawmakers. Changing the state’s outdated constitution was one of the initial demands of Chilean anti-government protesters. The landslide victory sparked celebratory rallies across the country:

Tonight in chile after landslide vote to write a new constitution and discard the current one (written under dictator Augusto Pinochet). Was truly something special pic.twitter.com/0ExZTaqzrA
— Emily Green (@emilytgreen) October 26, 2020

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