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Good Morning Portland! It'll be a balmy 60 degrees and rainy today—quintessential April weather. Let's get out and enjoy it! Here's the news for your commute:

Republicans are using fear of Trump's impeachment as a method of fundraising to prevent a sweep of Democrats in the midterms. Damnit, they're on to us!

But we may not need to impeach him if he continues to commit lots and lots of fun crimes! The FBI raided the office of Trump's longtime lawyer Michael Cohen yesterday (partially due to a referral by Robert Mueller), seizing records related to the payment of Stormy Daniels and Russian election meddling. Oh, and he's mad about it.

Mark Zuckerberg is set to go before lawmakers next week and has signaled that he's very, very sorry for how screwed up Facebook is. But maybe he's just trying to take responsibility in order to avoid new regulations on his company.

In better news, those asshole sex traffic enablers on BackPage.com are getting their comeuppance this week—top officials at the now-defunct website have been indicted on 93 counts of conspiracy, money laundering, and facilitating prostitution. But my beloved Brooke Gladstone of On The Media reports the law is an easy fix that might actually harm victims by hiding them from their rescuers.

By the way, it's not okay to pay women less just because they've historically been paid less—a no brainer, but now it's legally binding. Could this help us close the pay gap? Maybe, maybe not. Analysts at The Indicator: Planet Money say much of the gap comes from women's career choices and their need to take time off for child care, but a full forty percent of the wage gap can't be explained by anything other than straight discrimination. And that's podcast number two of this article, so now you kind folks know what this reporter does in her free time.

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After Syria's horrific gas attack in Douma which has killed at least 40 people, someone called airstrikes on a Syrian airbase—and Russia is blaming Israel for it. The United States is considering how to respond. If you're concerned about the people of Syria who have been trapped in this endless war, you can donate to the White Helmets.

But it's not all bad in the Middle East! Here's a bunch of young people from all over the world participating in a robotics contest in Iran. And here's a restaurant in Jordan that feeds the homeless.

Also, we're all going to be in debt forever. The United States's deficit is set to hit $1 trillion by 2020. Oof.

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Locally, there's chaos. After police shot a man on Saturday in a local homeless shelter, it came out that not only had the police had contact with him earlier in the night (without killing him), but they also already knew he was in crisis.



Rest in peace, John A. Elifritz.

Workers at Washington's non-operative nuclear power plant have to stop demolishing it due to radiation exposure. It's the nation's most polluted nuclear site and dozens of workers have been contaminated by radioactive material while working to deconstruct it.

Governor Kate Brown is set to sign a controversial tax bill, though she has called a special session to extend lower tax rates to a segment of very small businesses—a little something something for conservatives. (Check the byline on that link, by the way—it's your old pal Dirk working hard for OPB!) The bill will give legislators an extra $1.05 billion in the budget through 2023.

The CEO of Columbia is spending $1.5 million on the construction of a downtown homeless shelter.

Enjoy your Tuesday, Portland! Here's a video of a Turkish reporter accidentally talking into a mushroom instead of a mic: