by Courtney Vaughn If you’re reading this, you probably know the value of the Mercury’s news reporting, arts and culture coverage, event calendar, and the bevy of events we host throughout the year. The work we do helps our city shine, but we can’t do it without your support. If you believe Portland benefits from smart, local journalism and arts coverage, please consider making a small monthly contribution, because without you, there is no us. Thanks for your support! Good Morning, Portland! Today, we’ll see another unseasonably warm January day, with a high of 50 degrees and a frigid low of 37. Plants will both love and hate this. In Local News:  • It’s January, and if you were wondering where Portland Music Month went, the answer is…it’s hibernating, sorta. Organizers say the annual fest is likely to return, but this month proved too chaotic and challenging. Read more about the project and what MusicPortland’s been up to in this tag-team piece from Suzette Smith and Robert Ham.   It's January. Shouldn't we be knee-deep in Portland Music Month shows?[image or embed] — Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury.bsky.social)January 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM • Two children died from the flu in Oregon during the week of last month's Christmas holiday. Despite zero child deaths reported during last year's flu season, this year, two Oregon children are among 11 pediatric deaths reported nationwide. On Tuesday, Clark County, Washington's public health department reported an onslaught of hospitalizations for influenza. During the week of Christmas, influenza accounted for more than 7 percent of ER department visits in Clark County. • In case you didn’t have it on your radar, Oregonians who don’t have a valid passport will be required to have a Real ID by May 7 to get on a plane. You’ll need to make that dreaded trip to the DMV, cough up some documents to the Guvment, and get yourself a snazzy, reflective, super official Real ID card, updated drivers license, or permit to be able to traverse around or beyond the state. Report: No, Really, TSA To Require Real ID This Yeartheonion.com/report-no-re...[image or embed] — The Onion (@theonion.com) January 6, 2025 at 3:01 PM • Former City Commissioner Rene Gonzalez will return to his career in law, this time as a truck stop lawyer. Willamette Week reports Gonzalez is the new legal counsel for truck stop chain Jubitz. Worth noting: He’s related to the Jubitz family, and he received campaign funds from them during his bid for City Council and his most recent run for mayor.  • Disability advocates say Oregon isn't complying with a decades-old court order that requires people in jail who need psychiatric treatment to be transferred within seven days. Disability Rights Oregon, a local nonprofit that provides legal aid to people with disabilities, announced Tuesday that it filed a court motion to have the state held in contempt for failing to admit people to the Oregon State Hospital in a timely manner. Oregon must provide mental health care for people in custody who aren't mentally fit to aid and assist in their own trials.   In National/World News: • Ferocious, unrelenting wildfires are raging across the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles (an affluent area where many rich people and celebrities live) triggering evacuation orders for roughly 30,000 people as of Tuesday night. California has been plagued by wildfires, but until recently, it was uncommon to have wildfires in winter months. The LA Times reported about 3,000 acres had been burned amid dry conditions and hurricane-force winds Tuesday evening. By Wednesday morning, that number grew to 5,000 acres, leaving an estimated 1,000 homes, businesses and other properties destroyed. When the fire jumped a line across a road Tuesday, hundreds of people were told to flee their vehicles and run, leaving roads blocked by abandoned cars as fire vehicles tried to make their way to the blaze. Los Angeles from the air 😳💔[image or embed] — Eleven Films (@elevenfilms.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 9:42 PM • Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, is ditching its fact-checking team and instead using the same Community Notes function that X (Twitter) uses. The social media conglomerate also rolled out a hideous change to its standards that now allows users to claim LGBTQ people have a mental illness. The announcement comes as the company just installed UFC founder and Trump loyalist Dana White to its board of directors.  Mark Zuckerberg, Recipient of World's First Rat Penis Transplant, Announces Meta Will Stop Fact Checking thehardtimes.net/culture/mark...[image or embed] — The Hard Times  (@thehardtimesnews.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 4:07 PM • Remember a few weeks ago when we talked about Trump wanting to buy Greenland? He seems pretty serious about it. Donald Trump Jr. (AKA Donnie Jr) flew to the icy region Tuesday in his daddy's plane, but it's unclear what his intentions were. The AP reports Trump is not above using military force to acquire the North American territory, which is rich in minerals and currently has a US military base. Trump argues that America needs Greenland for "national economic security purposes." Trump also wants to seize control of the Panama Canal and thinks the Gulf of Mexico should be renamed the Gulf of America. At least we still have dogs.           View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by FUCKJERRY (@fuckjerry)