🌬️ How to check Portland’s air quality

Doctors Are Organizing Labor Unions

After pandemic stress, there’s a lot of labor unrest among doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers in the Portland area. The Oregonian reports “5,200 healthcare workers are either in contract negotiations, or they’re on strike.” [Oregonian]

Fires in Overlook

Firefighters have been called to camps along North Going Street 744 times in the past two years. Fires at or near camps for unhoused Portlanders have been a significant burden for firefighters during the pandemic, and the camps in Overlook have been a particular stress, with firefighters sometimes unable to enter the woods without police protection. [Willamette Week]

Republican Senators to Challenge Walkout Rules

Republican state senators who missed more than 10 days of the legislative session would presumably be barred under Measure 113, the constitutional amendment that set a limit on unexcused absences. Nonetheless four of the six senators who racked up those absences during the longest walkout in state history plan to file for reelection next year. [OPB]

Will Portland Street Response Survive?

Willamette Week reporter Sophie Peel talks to the City Cast Portland podcast about the roughly two-year-old program. It’s been successful in assisting people experiencing mental and behavioral health crises. But still funding for the program’s future is uncertain. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

🚰 Peter Gleick & U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer | Monday | 7 p.m.

The author discusses his book “The Three Ages of Water” in a conversation with a local congressman. [Free, Pearl District]

🎸 Noon Tunes: JT Wise Band | Tuesday | Noon - 1 p.m.

A Portland-based husband-wife guitar and bass duo take the stage. [Free, Downtown]

🏳️‍🌈 Wildfang x Darcelle XV Drag-A-Thon | Monday - Wednesday | Various

Technically, this event is sold out. But it’s a fundraiser, so who knows, maybe some folks aren’t planning to show. You can join the stand-by line before each show. [$10, Old Town]

• Related: Portland drag is set to break a world record. [City Cast Portland 🎧]

Portland Pizza Ranked Among the Best in the USA (Again)

Portland pizza is strangely controversial, not because of how it tastes but by how highly rated it has become. The organization Top 50 Pizza ranked Ken’s Artisan Pizza as the third best in the country but also included Apizza Scholls and Nostrana among the world’s best. Local pizza expert, Blaine Bartholomew, has been making pies and documenting the Portland pizza scene since 2014 and answered the question: is Portland pizza really that good?