by Suzette Smith The Mercury provides its readers with interesting and useful news & culture reporting every single day. If you appreciate that, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. If you read something you like, something you don't like but are glad to know about, and/or something you can't find anywhere else consider a one-time tip. It all goes in the same pot and it all goes to the editorial team. Thanks for your support! Good Morning, Portland! It's shaping up to be a pleasant day—weather-wise. That good fortune will continue until next week when IT WILL RAIN FOR DAYS. Bring it; I love it. AND NOW let's get into the NEWS TO LOVE OR NOT LOVE OR EVEN HATE. IN LOCAL NEWS:• Researchers at Brown University released a paper last month concluding that "decriminalization of drug possession was not associated with an increase in fatal drug overdose rates in Oregon." Read the university's digest here or find it on JAMA Network Open. • Today is opening day for the Marie Equi Day Center, Portland's new day center dedicated specifically to serving queer and trans residents. While Marie Equi has existed as a nonprofit for a decade, operating out of the Q Center, this expansion represents a new chapter, as the organization works to respond to a notable influx of queer and trans folks moving to our state. At the 13,000-square-foot center Marie Equi staff will continue to help people navigate social service systems, but will now be able to also offers showers, laundry services, a gymnasium, food pantry, kitchenette, computer lab, reading nook, and art space to those in need. There's so much more to the story—read Anna Del Savio's report for the Mercury. • The Oregonian continues to review mayoral candidate City Commissioner Carmen Rubio’s parking and traffic tickets. And they want you to know that, while Rubio has told multiple media outlets that the tickets are the result of working in an over-patrolled area—accumulating 150 violations over the course of two decades—she actually received only a third of the citations around that location.  Rubio response: “In American public life, women can’t seem to apologize enough for our mistakes. While our male counterparts’ past—or recent—mistakes are minimized as youthful indiscretions or ‘poor judgment,’ women aren’t afforded that same forgiveness."https://t.co/Mf49g3NQou https://t.co/lx6cxhoFin — Shane Dixon Kavanaugh (@shanedkavanaugh) October 10, 2024 • Kind of weird that Willamette Week wrote about Rene Gonzalez' speeding tickets, license suspension, and citation for not paying for MAX, but the Oregonian never did a dedicated story about it? Just mentioned WW's reporting in the Rubio story? Am I wrong? I can't find it. • Also in Rene Gonzalez news, he's calling for Portland Police Bureau to increase its police for to 1,000 officers, ideally 1,200. Oregonian criminal justice reporter Max Bernstein reports that PPB, as of the beginning of this month, has 881 authorized positions in the city budget. It "hasn’t approached an 1,000-officer force for more than two decades." • Surrealism break! Just saw this little cutie scuttle into the race. Rank Raccoon for Mayor! Finally issues that resonate with me[image or embed] — Suzette Smith (@suzettesmith.bsky.social) October 9, 2024 at 6:47 PM • We were pretty blown away by folk musician Jeffery Martin at this year's Pickathon, and now he's recording a live album at Mississippi Studios as part of a fall tour. Ben Salmon introduces the artist and the event in this profile for the Mercury.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury) • Looking to for this week's super fun news trivia quiz? Look no further! In the mix from recent relevant mischief: Loitering Coyotes, Sleepy Volcanoes, and Other Things to PANIC About! IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:• Today's top national / international story is NPR Unlocking TikTok Docs. God bless you, administrative errors. Over the course of the last two years, attorneys general in 14 US states kept internal communications, documents, and research data gathered from the social media platform redacted, as part of confidentiality agreements the authorities had struck with TikTok. That information was blacked out and unreadable... at least until Kentucky Public Radio staff realized they could copy and paste the redacted text into a readable format! The material TikTok sought to keep confidential reveals the platform's research on its own app estimates "users can become ‘addicted’ in 35 minutes" or 260 videos and shows TikTok knows its product is harmful for teens, purposely promotes users it deems attractive, and that its plans for its time-limit tool were about improving public trust, not actually cutting down on app use (of course). Read NPR's whole exposé here. • Even as researchers try to estimate the damage wrought by Hurricane Milton, photographers on the scene are doing that same work of showing the scale. AP PHOTOS: Powerful Hurricane Milton destroys homes, shreds stadium roofs apart https://t.co/7TIylXADwF — The Associated Press (@AP) October 10, 2024 • A new, deeply-stupid-looking vehicle from Tesla: Elon Musk unveiled the Robovan at Tesla's We, Robot event saying “the future should look like the future." Musk said the Robovan can carry up to 20 people and also transport goods, and that it will solve for high density. pic.twitter.com/ltI0kmS97R — TechCrunch (@TechCrunch) October 11, 2024 • If you're following the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegations, NPR has compiled a list of "everyone caught in the web of the Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allegations so far." • Sending you into the weekend with this masterful play-by-play—although that lady is obvs driving a sedan, not an SUV.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Dan Yang (@realdanyang)