AR.jpg
iStock / Getty Images Plus

"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.


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.

Screen_Shot_2018-02-16_at_7.50.48_AM.png