Even now that Kitzhaber’s resigned, the hits keep coming: Tom Tuchmann, Kitz’s former part-time forestry adviser, “collected hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state while also running a consulting business on the side,” reports the Oregonian. “Environmentalists, timber industry representatives, and other policy advisers said Tuchmann’s twin roles made them uncomfortable and left them questioning his motives.”
In news that couldn’t possibly be even remotely related the highly esteemed Kitzhaber administration, Governor Kate Brown “is proposing a major overhaul of the state’s policies on public records, public officials and ethics,” reports the Statesman Journal.
“I did not email any classified material to anyone on my email,” Hillary Clinton said last night. Nobody believed her. Meanwhile, Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Charles E. Schumer all inexplicably continue brag about belonging to “a small circle of members of Congress who shape 21st-century policy and legislation but do not actually send or receive email.”
Eleven service members are presumed dead after an Army helicopter crash last night near Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.
In Ferguson, following the Department of Justice’s scathing report that found he “was informed that the Ferguson Municipal Court was unfair and needed fixing, but did nothing about it,” City Manager John Shaw has stepped down. So that’ll be a fun job for somebody to try to take over.
Meanwhile, in my proud home state, state-sanctioned killing will not be denied, even as lethal injection becomes increasingly difficult to conduct in any sort of legal or non-barbaric manner. “After less than a minute of debate,” the Salt Lake Tribune reports, the Utah State Senate “gave final passage Tuesday to a controversial bill to reinstate the firing squad as an execution method.” If the bill is signed by Governor Gary Herbert, Utah will be the only state to allow firing-squad executions—fitting, I suppose, for a place that recently designated “the Browning model M1911 automatic pistol as the official state firearm.” In related news, my 90-year-old grandma just called me from Salt Lake to discuss her views on the news and the Utah State Legislature. “Isn’t that galling?” she said. “They’re idiots, absolutely idiots. Don’t get me going, as you can see! The problem is that they are 90 percent white male LDS Republicans. There’s not much democracy in Utah, I’ll tell you that.” My grandma is cooler than your grandma.
Like a twee venereal disease, Portland’s bad case of putting birds on everything has spread to Salem—where, following its appearance on The Rachel Maddow Show, you can now buy a novelty “angry owl” sign to benefit the Salem Parks Foundation. The Statesman Journal got this quote from Carol Snyder, the 73-year-old secretary for the Salem Parks Foundation and my new favorite person (after my grandma): “‘I know I’m going to donate and get one of the signs,’ Snyder laughed. ‘We’re really excited about this, we think it’s so neat.’“
I can’t be the only Portlander who’s relieved that today’s weather looks like this, right?
Solid Warren G reference
Next: a verrrry long look at the Port Commission