Good news: the clouds are still here (surprise), but the rain is taking a personal day. We're looking at a mild 49°F with only a 15% chance of precipitation today. Thursday ticks up to 51°F, and the back half of the week stretches toward the low 50s with barely a cloud in sight. Enjoy it. You know the drill.

Today in your drizzle: Portland Community College workers are one step closer to a historic strike. Oregon children are being turned away at school doors today in what amounts to the state's annual vaccination reckoning. And the Portland Timbers kicked off MLS season with a record-setting night that gave Providence Park its 100th birthday a game it'll never forget. All that, plus ten days of jazz coming right at you.

Both unions at Portland Community College voted to authorize the school's first-ever strike, and if you think that's just a routine labor maneuver, consider this: PCC is Oregon's largest post-secondary institution, serving tens of thousands of students. Faculty and classified staff say years of stalled negotiations have left them with wages that can't keep pace with housing costs in a city where housing costs have become the story. Management says it's working on it. The unions said, essentially: the clock is running. A strike authorization doesn't mean a walkout happens immediately, but it's the loudest card you can play short of actually walking out — and it got played. Oregon's already dealing with a public defender shortage, a measles outbreak, and $106 million in unspent housing funds. Adding a community college shutdown to the mix would be a February to remember.

Happy Exclusion Day, Portland. Today is the fourth Wednesday in February, which in Oregon means one thing: if your child's vaccination records aren't up to date, they don't go to school. Under state law, every kid in a public or private school, preschool, Head Start, or certified child care facility must have documentation of required vaccinations or an approved exemption — and today is the hard deadline. Last year, more than 4,500 kids across Oregon were sent home. This year, that number could be higher: the state is in a declared measles outbreak with five confirmed cases, and wastewater surveillance is picking up the virus in six counties. Health officials are notably less chipper than usual about the trend lines. Here's the thing: an MMR vaccine is a 30-minute errand. Measles complications can last a lifetime. Do the math.

Saturday night at Providence Park was a lot of things at once: the 500th MLS match in Timbers history, a record-breaking night for the ageless Diego Chará, and the 100th birthday of the stadium itself, which opened as Multnomah Civic Stadium in 1926. Chará — now 41 years old and beginning his league-record 16th season with one club — became the first field player in MLS history to make 400 starts with a single team. The Timbers won it 3-2 over Columbus, with Ariel Lassiter slipping in the winner in the 88th minute. If you needed a reason to feel good about Portland this week, Chará's face when that ball went in is probably it.

On February 25, 1919, Oregon became one of the first states in the nation to tax gasoline — a penny per gallon — to fund road construction, a move that would eventually help pave the way (literally) for the modern American highway system.

That's your Wednesday, Portland. The sky is agreeable today — you could almost go outside without a plan. Get your kids' vaccine records in order, and consider catching a Timbers road game from your couch this weekend while you mentally gear up for ten straight days of jazz starting March 5th. Spring is blinking at us from just around the corner.

Stay curious, stay dry, and prove that Portland is not, in fact, burning down.