It's not natural nor proper that a Mercedes sedan should be able to demolish a parking garage wall. The wall needs to win that battle, 10 times out of 10. So city officials are looking into action against the owners of the downtown parking garage that partly crumbled to the pavement last week.

'TIS THE SEASON: For random attorneys to give $1,000 to courthouse strangers. Actually just one Portland attorney and one stranger, but if I'm you, I'm headed down to the Multnomah County Courthouse right now in hopes our fair city's remaining lawyers don't want to be shown up like that.

For the three men accused of the recent shooting outside of Rosemary Anderson High School: Gifts of serious felony charges.

In case you missed it, the head of Portland's rank-and-file police union has seized on the rhetoric being tossed about by congressmen and former mayors alike: that a pervasive police-hating movement led to the recent murder of two New York police officers, that recent protests in Portland have only been symptoms of that movement, and that it needs to end. Now.

We'll stick with local law enforcement, because a potentially awful incident yesterday happily steered clear of bloodshed. An officer responded to a call in Holladay Park, and arrived to (allegedly) find a 32-year-old named Lunarness Mendoza naked. Mendoza apparently charged the officer, seizing her Taser (she was able to remove its cartridge). And yet Mendoza lived! Not a shot fired in an incident where no one would be surprised, given many examples nationwide, to hear gunfire. This is a good thing.

Let's compare it to an incident in Milwaukee this year, where an officer rousted a mentally ill homeless man sleeping in a park and, for whatever weird reason, decided he needed to be patted down. That homeless man, Dontre Hamilton, had just been talked to by other officers, and he apparently took umbrage with the search (which was a fireable offense, police brass would later find). Hamilton got aggressive, and seized Officer Christopher Manney's baton as he was being struck with it. He was felled by 14 shots. That fireable offense was not enough for criminal charges against Manney.

WELCOME BACK, to all of our North Korean readers!

You're either going to laugh or break something after reading this story about Republican Senator Mitch McConnell. After years of pushing an at-any-cost brand of contrarianism in the Senate, thwarting progress and most meaningful work, McConnell's about to preside over a majority next month. And now he's fretting over the very culture he so carefully engendered. "The Senate basically didn’t do squat for years. I don’t think most members of the Senate wanted it run that way.” Ugh.

Here's something you can count on McConnell finding a way to take credit for. The economy's growing faster than it has in more than a decade. Thanks, OBAMA.

Rest in Peace, Joe Cocker.

When's the sunset this afternoon? Whoa, 4:31 pm! That's a Vitamin-D-packed TWO MINUTES later than Saturday.

Here's your Christmas, PDX. Rain.

I'll be in Michigan, meaning one thing.