Spock is dead. Leonard Nimoy had warned us a year ago that it wouldn't be long, after he announced having chronic pulmonary disease—a byproduct of his long relationship with cigarettes. He was 83 and a hero. I'm unsurprisingly pretty sad about it. Getting to be a pretty good cast reunion off in the beyond by now.
Oregon's champion marijuana smokers, most of them undoubtedly fine and upstanding citizens, may not do a damned thing to help pay for our schools, etc., once pot becomes legal. A state study released yesterday suggests casual smokers will wind up supplying most of the tax revenue from pot sales, maybe just $29 million a year. The usual tokers, the study forecasts, will keep on using the medical system or black market.
Some of Portland's most decorated housing advocates showed up at city hall yesterday with a message about Mayor Charlie Hales' proposed urban renewal changes: The city's not doing enough to leverage affordable units in ritzy South Waterfront, or anywhere else for that matter.
It's been confirmed the IRS is also poking into former Governor John Kitzhaber's business, right along the FBI. That detail surfaced in an interview with the state's top administrator, who also attempted to clear the air about why he was launching a criminal probe into email leaks to Willamette Week.
Former first lady Cylvia Hayes, meanwhile, is pleading the Fifth, AKA invoking her right not to self-incriminate, in hopes she won't have to turn over emails from her private account nonetheless expected to contain public record emails detailing state business.
Governor Chris Christie has performed a curiously timed favor for Exxon Mobil. Eleven years after New Jersey filed a $9 billion lawsuit over wetlands pollution—in a case where almost everyone agreed Exxon was to blame—Christie's office announced a settlement just before a judge was set to rule. The damages? A measly $250 million. Down from $9 billion. "It raises questions," someone said. Indeed.
In the nick of time, Congress seems to have blinked and decided to fund the Department of Homeland Security—which probably, yeah, contributes to security theater. But now at least some of the actors won't have to work without pay.
Maybe stop touching armadillos.If you're cool with not getting leprosy, that is.
Future President Scott Walker is very, very proud of his war with Wisconsin's unions—suggesting he'd similarly find no trouble with the Islamic State.