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Good morning, Portland! We still have an unseasonably hot October ahead of us (what is "seasonable" anymore, anyways?), with highs in the 80s this week. Yet air quality remains subpar this week, thanks to the Cedar Creek Fire burning in the Willamette and Deschutes National Forests east of Eugene. Breathe with caution.

- Alaska Airlines, a top sponsor of the Portland Timbers and Thorns, will be redirecting its funds away from the teams this quarter following a damning investigation into the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) that put Thorns leadership on blast for turning a blind eye to sexual harassment of its players by a former coach. Instead of donating funds to support the Timbers and Thorns, Alaska Airlines will be supporting the NWSL Players Association "Support the Players Emergency Trust" and youth sports in the Portland area. 

- It’s been a year since Mayor Ted Wheeler agreed to pursue a truth and reconciliation process between Portland police and the Portland community, and he’s just now starting to seek out contractors to oversee the delicate work. (Surprise! The police bureau's union wants nothing to do with it.)

- The death of beloved Portland chef Sarah Pliner—caused by a truck hitting her on her bicycle at SE Powell Blvd. and 26th Ave.— has reignited a call for transferring SE Powell from state to city oversight. The Mercury’s Isabella Garcia has the details. 

- Terrance Scott, aka Portland rapper Cool Nutz was inducted into the Oregon Music Hall of Fame this weekend. To celebrate his three-decade-career, here’s a peek at his first music video:

 

- Just when you thought Salt & Straw was peak Portland quirky, the local ice cream company has teamed up with Portland perfumers Imaginary Authors to release a trio of “culinary perfume” toppings. Interested in ice cream’s pivot to perfume? Ask for a fifty cent spritz to spice up your scoop in stores across town. 

- It’s Indigenous People’s Day, which hopefully isn’t the one day a year you think about whose land you’re living on. To make local native stories and news a constant in your life, be sure to bookmark Underscore News, a Portland-based nonprofit news source dedicated to reporting on indigenous issues across the Pacific Northwest.

- Get to know Oregon’s GOP candidate for governor in this in-depth Oregonian feature story which, to me, lays out why Christine Drazan is not the leader for Oregon’s future. TLDR: Drazan would end the statewide clean energy program that reduces our state’s greenhouse gasses, end a person’s right to an abortion in Oregon, weaken “red flag” laws that keep dangerous people from owning guns, and continue lifting up far-right extremist groups in the state. 

- Amazon is facing a lawsuit for selling so-called suicide kits, brought by the families of two teens who bought a deadly chemical on the company's website and later used it to end their lives. The lawsuit accuses the retail giant of selling them sodium nitrite, a food preservative that is fatal at high levels of purity (and, at the purity Amazon sells it for, offers no other use than fatal poisoning). Amazon says the product, which was advertised along with anti-vomit medication and suicide guidebooks, was simply “misused."

- In better news, Kanye West’s Twitter and Instagram accounts have been suspended for posting anti-Semitic content. Maybe 8chan will have you, Ye. 

- Three Latino Los Angeles city council members are facing calls for resignation after comparing a fellow council members' Black son to a "monkey" in a leaked recorded conversation. 

- At least 11 people were killed and dozens more injured after Russia launched an air strike  targeting cities across Ukraine. The violent attack comes on the heels of Ukrainian forces blowing up a Kerch bridge linking Russia and Crimea a day after Vladimir Putin's birthday. 

- Today in an “everything is fine” headline: "N. Korea Confirms Nuke Missiles Tests To ‘Wipe Out’ Enemies"

- I leave you with this piece of advice as you enter yet another work week: