Coping with the West Coast's wildfires, Texas mail-in ballots, The Lost Year series
THE BIG STORY
Fires are bringing Portland's summer of discontent to a terrible end
On Friday afternoon, about a half a million people in Oregon — 10% of the state's population — were under some kind of evacuation warning. As the wildfires burned in the West, it transformed the sky above Portland into the most hazardous air on the planet.
For many in Oregon, and in Portland in particular, it was only the latest development in what has already been a season of horror and discontent — on top of a deadly pandemic.
President Donald Trump has painted the city as a place under siege. For months, BLM protesters engaged in nightly clashes with police. The Trump administration repeatedly attacked Portland officials. Federal officers moved into the city, deploying tear gas.
Then the fires came, bringing toxic smoke and lines of cars full of people fleeing north from burned towns further south, the stories of people missing and killed.
Read how the city is coping with mounting crises that won't stop coming.
More wildfires coverage:
👉 Horrific stories of death and loss are emerging from the massive fires in the Northwest.
👉 When they came to an Oregon town to take pictures of the fire, armed locals thought they were Antifa arsonists.  Hundreds of homes in Ashland, Oregon, and nearby towns have been lost due to wildfire. David Ryder / Getty Images STAYING ON TOP OF THIS A federal court has denied voting rights to ex-felons in Florida who can't pay off court fees
In 2018, Floridians voted in a referendum to amend the state constitution and restore voting rights to former felons. A year later, Florida's legislature passed a bill that restores voting rights only to former felons who complete all "terms of service," defined to include paying off all financial obligations.
These fees are often quite high. Opponents challenged the law, arguing it creates a "pay to vote" system akin to the poll taxes outlawed in the 24th Amendment of the Constitution.
In a 6–4 decision, the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit upheld the law, finding that the requirement is not a tax and is constitutional.
SNAPSHOTS A court ruled Texas can have different rules for voting by mail during the pandemic based on age. Texas only lets voters under 65 request mail-in ballots if they'll be absent on Election Day, are in jail, or if they have a "qualifying disability" that prevents them from voting in person — and Texas has said that fear of COVID-19 doesn't count.
Two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies were shot multiple times in a shocking ambush caught on video. The gunman is at large and the two deputies are in critical condition. The incident led to the arrest of an anti-police demonstrator and a woman journalist.
YouTube is demonetizing popular frat channel Nelk Boys for encouraging people to ignore COVID safety. The account is temporarily demonetized after the men were accused of throwing massive parties at Illinois State University. The pair had previously shared viral videos "protesting" COVID protocol.
Heartbreaking photos show thousands displaced after a huge fire destroyed a refugee camp. Fires have ravaged Europe's largest migrant camp, the Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos, leaving about 12,000 people without shelter. The photos are horrifying.
 People flee flames after a major fire broke out in the Moria migrants camp. Angelos Tzortzinis / Getty Images. THE LOST YEAR The conclusion of our Lost Year series
We spent last week highlighting the stories of six people from six different age groups as we mark six months since the coronavirus pandemic was declared. Here are the last two stories:
👉 At 63, Marissa is missing her daughter's wedding dress fitting as she fights for her fellow nurses. Marissa Lee is working overnight shifts at a hospital in Florida, where coronavirus cases have surged this summer. As a union leader, and a Black Hispanic woman in America, she knows the power of protest.
👉 At 82, reporter Ryan Mac's grandmother has lost her husband — and the world as she knows it. When Mac's grandfather died in April, the pandemic meant the family couldn't grieve him properly. For Mac's grandmother, it's also exacerbated unspeakable loneliness and pain.
METEORIC RISE The woman behind the viral meteor TikTok says it has changed her life
On a slow day at work, Eliza Petersen made a TikTok about the dinosaurs going extinct, featuring a classic dad joke. "I told you to make them meatier," God says to an angel. The angel replies "make them a meteor."
The joke is not new, but in the days of terrible news, it quickly blew up, racking up millions of views. Petersen, who has previously posted about her love of dinosaurs and her volunteer work as a paleontologist, says the TikTok has changed her life.
Allow yourself to recognize that you're dealing with a lot, Elamin BuzzFeed, Inc.
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