My god it’s cold. As cold as it’s ever been on December 2 In Portland. Cold that freezes the fog and ices up the roads, and makes N Killingsworth, outside my window, into a parking lot. But the news stops for no ice.
Oregon’s got a proposed budget! And it’s rosy, according to Gov. John Kitzhaber, who made it. Kitzhaber’s $18.6 billion 2015-2017 spending plan puts an emphasis on education. Some of it, that is: Younger children would see more resources, and some of the state’s hemorrhaging higher education funding would be restored. Pretty much status quo for students in between, though. The budget will be thrown to the heavily Democratic legislature for scrutiny early next year.
Some fun Beaverton High School students realized it’d be fun to use the word “too” incorrectly while threatening classmates with gun violence on Instagram. Police, looking into the two students, have decided they were just being fun, and aren’t a real threat. But there is going to be extra security at the high school for a while regardless.
A man was struck and killed while trying to cross I-205 last night. Police think he may have been panhandling.
Most troubling story of the day: This alleged murderer sullying the name Dirk in all manner of ways. First, Dirck Morgan White does not have an inkling how to spell his own first name. Second, he allegedly killed a man at a Boring truck stop, and got into a shootout with Los Angeles cops before being critically injured.
Good news for a fracturing Iraq: It can be taped together, ever so gently, with money. That’s at least the potential lesson from a new deal the central government has reached with autonomous Kurdish leaders. In exchange for a share of oil profits, the Kurds have agreed to work closely with Baghdad in the ongoing slog against ISIS.
Also in the ISIS fight: Lebanon may have arrested the wife and son of the group’s leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. Or maybe it’s his wife and daughter? Or maybe these people have nothing to do with ISIS? It’s all pretty unclear right now.
Turns out not that many people want to be Secretary of Defense. So President Obama’s on the verge of nominating “a low-key weapons specialist and longtime Pentagon official” named Ashton Carter, the NYT reports.
You! Discerning Buick LaCrosse owner! Your headlights might conk out on you. And a lot of other GM owners as well. There’s another recall.
Today in “Things Republicans Might Vote On”: A spending bill, which would avoid another fight over a government shutdown. 🙂 And also a symbolic gesture over their feelings being hurt that President Obama would enact immigration policy changes when they made it clear they had no interest in meaningful reform. 🙁
Like I said: COLD
Plenty of warmth here, though. Before I wanted to be a journalist, I wanted to be Care Bear.
Also, a writer for the Guardian is not impressed with that Ferguson protest hug photo:
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2…