Good Afternoon, News: Booster Shots for All Adults Imminent, Gresham-Barlow to Review Police Officers in Schools, and the US Legal System at Work – Blogtown

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In local news:

• Portland anti-fascist activist Alexander Dial was released on Friday charged with clashing with participants in a right-wing demonstration in downtown Portland in 2019. Alex Zielinski explains the details of the verdict and how Dial sees the terms of his probation as a trap.

• The Gresham-Barlow School District School Resource Officer program – police officers stationed at public schools – are undergoing review by an outside advisor, the school board said Thursday. The decision to review the program’s impact on students came after several Gresham High School students spoke about their negative experiences with the school’s police officer earlier this month.

When someone sees one of our articulated buses for the first time, they often ask us, “How is this huge bus supposed to turn on our narrow streets?”

So we put it to the test.

We made as tight a curve as possible with a “normal” 40-foot bus and a 60-foot articulated bus. pic.twitter.com/wy6Vjw68Tm
– TriMet (@trimet) November 19, 2021

• The US Senate unanimously appointed Chuck Sams director of the national park on Thursday evening. Sams is a former Confederate Administrator of the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton, Oregon and the first Native American to hold this position.

• Spice up your playlist and catch up on the latest edition of Hear in Portland!

Hear the latest hot music and get your tix for the hottest shows to come with @JenniferKayMo’s consistently excellent weekly music column, Hear in Portland! Https: //t.co/AhGDk0o1yy
– Portland Mercury 🗞 (@portlandmercury) November 19, 2021

On the national news:

• A jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty of shooting three people, two of whom were fatal, last year during a protest against police brutality in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse lawyers argued that the 18-year-old acted in self-defense.

• The defense attorney for one of the three white men charged with the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, a black jogger, compared a rally in support of Arbery’s family outside the courthouse to “public lynching” of the three defendants, calling for a wrongful trial. The prosecutor in the case has repeatedly accused the defense attorney of deliberately provoking black pastors and civil rights activists in hopes of getting enough reactions to disrupt the process and, in turn, cause a miscarriage of justice. The judge dismissed the wrongdoing motion.

Vaccination requirements for schools have been in place since 1818, but they have always brought headwinds.

Here’s a look at the history of mandates, hesitant vaccination – and what the future might look like. https://t.co/y2dgQPC2z5
– NPR (@NPR) November 19, 2021

• * Oprah voice * You get a booster shot! And you get a booster shot! The CDC director is expected to sign booster vaccinations for people ages 18 and older this afternoon, paving the way for tens of millions of Americans to add an extra layer of protection against COVID-19 this winter. After CDC approval, Oregonians must wait for the state’s regional immunization agency to approve the state booster approval (which they always have) before fully approving additional doses for anyone aged 18 and over.

• What does a woman need to be President of the United States (if only for a brief moment)? A routine colonoscopy, apparently:

Kamala D. Harris became the first woman serving as incumbent President of the United States on Friday when President Biden was briefly anesthetized for a routine colonoscopy https://t.co/27gKCFqNn0
– The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) November 19, 2021

In lighter news:

For World Toilet Day, we asked our NPR readers to send in photos of the craziest toilet signs they’ve come across.https: //t.co/2awCxBnmW4
– NPR (@NPR) November 19, 2021

Support the Portland Mercury

• You want to find the perfect gift and support local businesses at the same time, yes? YES INDEED! Then don’t miss Merkur’s Holiday Gift Guide, which has only the coolest gifts and where to find them … on the spot!

• Finally, congratulations to Peanut Butter and Jelly, the two turkeys that President Joe Biden pardoned before Thanksgiving.

Peanut butter and jelly won’t be on the Thanksgiving table this year.

That said, two national turkeys named Peanut Butter and Jelly have been pardoned by the President. https://t.co/0ne1Pe1mas
– NPR (@NPR) November 19, 2021

https://www.portlandmercury.com/blogtown/2021/11/19/37007892/good-afternoon-news-booster-shots-for-all-adults-imminent-gresham-barlow-to-review-police-officers-in-schools-and-the-us-legal-system-at-w