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Good Morning, News: Street Roots Union Drive, Gambling Bank Robber, and a Healthy Dose of Brain Rot
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Good morning, Portland! The forecasts are showing another sunny day with a high of only 47 degrees. I think my brain and body don’t align when it comes to understanding what temperatures in the high 40s feel like. In my head, it doesn’t seem so bad—high 40s is almost 50s, which is pretty close to 60s, and that’s t-shirt weather! Unfortunately, that’s not how it works, especially when nighttime lows are nearing freezing. This is all to say: It’s cold outside and even inside, so wear layers and be extra nice to your homeless neighbors, who bear the brunt of the cold and the heat.
Also, you may wish to warm up with a delish, $8 holiday drink, and you can easily do so because it’s the Mercury‘s HOLIDAY DRINK WEEK and there are many wonderful beverages to choose from, at places all around town. Find out more here.
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Onto the NEWS…
IN LOCAL NEWS:
• The Street Roots staff are unionizing! In a letter to the nonprofit’s board, sent Monday, the Street Roots Workers Guild said they plan to join the Communications Workers of America (CWA) due to their “shared interest in maintaining a healthy organization.”
“We believe a union will strengthen Street Roots by democratizing processes directly impacting our workplace and community,” the letter reads.
The staff hope to gain voluntary recognition from the board, citing their “strong commitment to equity and social justice” as a reason they should recognize the union. If they are voluntarily recognized, the Street Roots union will join the Noisy Union (which represents Noisy Creek media employees, including reporters at the Mercury) and OPB’s union, both of which gained recognition from our respective bosses earlier this year. If not, it seems likely the Street Roots staff will vote with the NLRB to form the union anyway, as they unanimously agreed to move forward with the effort.
• Speaking of union activity…Bigfoot Beverages, a major drinks distributor in parts of Oregon south of Eugene, has stopped recognizing its union amid a very lengthy worker strike. Workers at the company, who are represented by the Teamsters, are on strike to fight for a contract that retains their pensions instead of transitioning to a 401(k) retirement plan. But Bigfoot Beverages says it will no longer bargain with the union, instead “establishing a direct relationship” with employees. Union representatives say this is illegal and defies NLRB protocol, so a fight is likely in order.
• HORRIBLE news about our beloved Arctic fox, who will always belong to Portland even though she now lives at a zoo in Wisconsin. But she seems to be improving, thank GOD.
The disease — which is common in the Pacific Northwest — is caused by a bacterial infection from eating raw salmon that contains a parasitic flatworm, the Ochsner Park Zoo said in a statement.
Read more: www.oregonlive.com/news/2024/12…
📷: Ochsner Park Zoo
— The Oregonian (@oregonian.bsky.social) December 3, 2024 at 1:00 PM
• A local serial bank robber was sentenced to 11 years in prison on Monday, after pleading guilty to three bank robberies, making off with nearly $17,000 in total. He also attempted robbery once when he was on release from prison for an earlier bank robbery. If my repetition of the word “robbery” didn’t make it clear enough, this man was seemingly addicted to robbing banks. He was also addicted to playing video poker. While being questioned by a judge in court, who asked him what he did with the money he stole, the bank robber said he used it to play video poker machines “as fast as I could put it in.”
I recommend reading this Oregonian article about the situation, which also contains a tidbit about one negative experience he had while robbing the IQ Credit Union in Happy Valley. Apparently, the teller gave him $100 in $1 bills, which was enough to appease him at the time. But after realizing he’d been “short-changed” (if such a term is applicable when you’re robbing a bank), the robber went back for more, and gave the tellers some sass while he did it. If this was all for video poker, perhaps we need some gambling reform in Oregon.
• In the latest sign of turmoil at the Oregon Health and Sciences University (OHSU), Knight Cancer Institute CEO Dr. Brian Druker has resigned from his position as CEO. Druker was best known for leading work on the ground-breaking leukemia drug Gleevec, which led not only to better survival rates for cancer patients, but also to a significant investment in OHSU from Phil Knight. In his resignation letter, Druker said OHSU has “forgotten our mission” and is no longer the place for cutting-edge research. This news comes after the resignation of OHSU President Dr. Danny Jacobs in October, and indicates potential future shakeups at the university and medical center.
IN NATIONAL/WORLD NEWS:
• After ending a short-lived and controversial martial law earlier this week, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is facing pressure from the public and legislature to resign from office or he may be forced out. Protests have broken out in Seoul, first with clashes between residents and the military during the six hours of martial law and now as South Koreans call on Yoon to step down, their demands becoming increasingly strong.
Portland-based journalist Sarah Jeong just so happened to be in Seoul this week, and witnessed this all go down after she had some drinks. Her account is excellent, check it out here:
6 hours under martial law: a drunk scene report from Seoul www.theverge.com/24312920/mar…
— sarah jeong (@sarahjeong.bsky.social) December 4, 2024 at 2:04 AM
• After facing calls of sexual misconduct and other inappropriate behavior from critics including his mother, Trump’s defense secretary pick Pete Hegseth is now the subject of criticism from people who worked with him at Fox News. 10 current and former Fox employees told NBC News Hegseth’s drinking is concerning, having smelled alcohol on him at work dozens of times since 2017. His candidacy for the position (a pretty important one in the presidential cabinet) is now in peril, as even Donald Trump knows a scandal like this is probably not worth dealing with. But I’m sure whoever he picks to replace Hegseth will be almost as bad, if a little better at hiding it.
• Ummm…
The chief executive of UnitedHealthcare, Brian Thompson, was fatally shot outside a hotel in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday morning. Police officers were still searching for the gunman. Follow updates.
— The New York Times (@nytimes.com) December 4, 2024 at 7:54 AM
• “Brain rot,” a phrase I consider to be two words, has been named the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024. According to Oxford University Press, “brain rot” is defined as “the supposed deterioration of a person’s mental or intellectual state, especially viewed as the result of overconsumption of material (now particularly online content) considered to be trivial or unchallenging. Also: something characterized as likely to lead to such deterioration.”
If that definition is too dark academia core for my liking, here’s a little test you can take to see if you have brain rot. Are you a Gen Alpha sigma who spends all day watching Family Guy funny moments compilations with Subway Surfers gameplay or a Zoomer sussed about looksmaxxing? Did you know the Rizzler just started yapping about skibidi toilet and Baby Gronk, meanwhile you’re demure and mindful, holding space for Defying Gravity while Kamala Harris goes full brat. Hey bestie/girlypop, being delulu during hot girls summer/goblincore fall is not the solulu (unless you’re from Ohio). Make it make sense! Or say sike RN.
If you understood any of that, you have brain rot and may be eligible for compensation. If you didn’t, please ignore everything I just wrote and let’s move on. I hope you can forgive me for that. It felt as bad for me to write as it did for you to read. We should be worried about our young people. And our older people. And our middle-aged people. And everyone in between.
• Finally…it’s no longer the Monday after Thanksgiving, but this still applies. Let’s get up and move, people! Or go back to bed. That’s ok, too. TTYL!
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