by Suzette Smith If you appreciate the Mercury's interesting and useful news & culture reporting, consider making a small monthly contribution to support our editorial team. Your donation is tax-deductible. Good Morning, Portland: A deluge of cold rain awaits your morning commute. It'll taper off in the afternoon, and then we'll see haphazard sprinkles for the rest of the weekend. Some sun, some clouds—I'm changeable, to paraphrase the sky and weather patterns. IN LOCAL NEWS:• The Providence Oregon strike is underway this morning, as thousands of nurses and doctors left their posts to join picket lines, real or metaphorical, at 6 am. Providence has been bargaining a contract with the Oregon Nurses Association for more than a year, and ONA warned at the end of 2024 that they would strike if there wasn't a deal by today. Providence has said it has hired 2,000 replacements to cover the 5,000 nurse positions, but part of what makes this strike historic is that 150 doctors have also joined the walkout, putting a pinch on Providence's OB/GYN Clinics. The strike is open-ended, but unborn babies wait for no one. • Multnomah County announced it's chosen a site for a new 24-hour sobering and crisis center, on SE Grand Ave in the Central Eastside Industrial area. County officials don't have an opening date yet, but the center will hold up to 50 beds, and provide a space for withdrawal management as an alternative to jail or a hospital ER. News editor Courtney Vaughn has more on the announcement. • This week in "renewable fuels are just as flammable as fossil fuels," the Oregonian reports that state environmental regulators approved a $2.5 billion biofuel refinery along the Columbia River. The NEXT Energy refinery in Port Westward would seek to produce 50,000 barrels per day of renewable diesel and sustainable aviation fuel, which it will export via pipelines, trucks and railcars. Meanwhile, environmentalists and the region’s tribes are like "dude, that's right by my salmon, and I just got them to a half-okay place." • Also taking the Put Your Refinery On an Oregon River challenge, it's Zenith!   Public records obtained by Street Roots show Zenith Energy wants to vastly expand its operations to position itself as "the renewable fuels hub" in the West—a much larger project than has been made publicly available. Environmental and community advocates want transparency from the city of Portland.[image or embed] — Jeremiah Hayden (@jeremiahhayden.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 10:32 AM   • Employees at the UPS Swan Island location are concerned that an upcoming closure of the facility means they're about to lose their jobs to THE MACHINE(s). UPS has thus far replied that it j'adores its employees and furthermore doesn't even know what a machine is. • King tides are getting swole at the Oregon Coast this weekend, watch your butt for big waves from January 11-13. The towering waves seem to have claimed one life this season, after the body of a 72-year-old photographer was recovered in Coos County earlier this week. The North Bend man went missing while photographing a previous king tides swell on December 15. • East Oregon potheads take note—if possible:   Pot smokers in eastern Oregon who cross into Idaho on a regular basis or even infrequently should take note: An Idaho state representative proposes fining people for possession. oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/01/09/i...[image or embed] — Oregon Capital Chronicle (@oregoncapitalchronicle.com) January 9, 2025 at 4:21 PM   • Oregon is sending 240 firefighters and 60 fire engines to Southern California to help fight the Los Angeles-area wildfire–13 of those firefighters and three of those engines are from Portland Fire & Rescue. • ICYMI, Oregon put out a new map this week, noting which areas might be hazardous to build in, as wildfires become increasingly common and devastating in our state. Oregon law states that homeowner insurance rates can't be impacted by the maps, but the state is instituting stricter building codes and vegetation maintenance for structures, existing and planned, in the "wildfire hazard" areas. • Bet we'll see that tidbit sometime soon, on Portland's premiere news quiz, Pop Quiz PDX. How did you fare on this week's?             View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by Portland Mercury (@portlandmercury)     IN NATIONAL / INTERNATIONAL NEWS:• It's surprising; it's not surprising—impending President Donald Trump received an unconditional discharge this morning, at a sentencing trial his legal team had been trying to push off for months. The New York Times reports, a third of defendants sentenced to similar charges, of falsifying business records, received jail time of less than a year, while others received prison sentences or probation, but "no other defendant in the cases examined received an unconditional discharge." What does this mean? Donald Trump is the first president in US history to also be a convicted felon. But whatever sentence a judge would have tried to enforce probably would have tanked and dragged the proceedings on even longer. The President-elect appeared in court remotely, leading to hundreds of goofy photos of a television monitor (see above). • Speaking of goofy, the Supreme Court will hear arguments today on whether attempts to ban social media app TikTok would violate the First Amendment. • Devastating wildfires continue to spring up in the Los Angeles area. At this time, there appear to be five separate blazes. At least ten people have died, one near a gardening hose he had been using to spray his home.   New before-and-after satellite images of the Pacific Palisades neighborhood. via Maxar[image or embed] — Mike Baker (@mikebaker.bsky.social) January 9, 2025 at 8:40 PM   • Totally vibing on the "be realistic" part of Planet Money's latest fun-information video about 💀credit scores💀.             View this post on Instagram                       A post shared by NPR (@npr)