"Republicans called for prayers, but argued that no single fix to the nation’s gun laws would deter a shooting like the one on Wednesday in Parkland, Fla." Do I even need to spend time writing that the political response to Wednesday's massacre at a Florida high school is the same "thoughts and prayers" nothingness we've seen countless times?
These are Wednesday's victims. Read about them. The shooter has confessed.
#GunReformNow - cartoon by @PiaGuerra https://t.co/O7T1Ic4Mlf pic.twitter.com/OTOVjUft0E
— Sarah Mirk (@sarahmirk) February 15, 2018
Meanwhile in Oregon, the House of Representatives yesterday voted 37-23 to approve a bill that will expand prohibitions on gun possession for people who abuse or stalk their significant others. The rules had been in place for spouses or ex-spouses. Now, lawmakers are hoping to close the so-called "boyfriend loophole." The bill's a priority for Gov. Kate Brown. Its fate in the Senate is still unclear.
Former Portland Police Chief Larry O'Dea will get to keep is police certification, despite mistakenly shooting a friend and misleading his employees about the incident, a state panel has decided. Here's what the city's internal investigation into the matter turned up.
Here's a "fun" juxtaposition: A former lawmaker and current county commissioner reportedly being considered to replace disgraced state Sen. Jeff Kruse is still trying to shake off a trip to a California topless bar in 2012.
Meanwhile, here's a new account from a Playboy model who says she had sex with Donald Trump, and that he offered to pay her for that sex, while he was married and had a newborn son. "Her account provides a detailed look at how Trump and his allies used clandestine hotel-room meetings, payoffs, and complex legal agreements to keep affairs—sometimes multiple affairs he carried out simultaneously—out of the press." Will it matter? It will not.
SURPRISE! The much-vaunted open "debate" over an immigration deal in the US Senate was a complete bust. "The standoff left the Senate right where it has been for years — frozen by a deep reluctance on the part of leaders of both parties to force vulnerable incumbents to take politically challenging votes."
I just don't know what the hell to make of this Oregonian story headlined "Portland neighborhoods increasingly out of reach for renters, 'housing instability' grows: report." The report it's talking about is more than a year old. Yeesh.
FROM MY SUNBURNED, UNGLOVED HANDS: The state is talking about prohibiting drinking on Sauvie Island's nude beach. (And its other beaches.)
Dang.