One thing that was lost—amid the understandable alarm that former Gov. John Kitzhaber was trying to have his personal e-mails wiped off state servers—is that he's not the first Oregon executive to have used a private account for public business. Former Gov. Ted Kulongoski pioneered the practice, and there's no telling if we have all his e-mails.

Speaking of Kitz, you're now paying the legal costs for 13 current and former state employees caught up in the investigation into his possible misdeeds. That's in line with a state policy offering to help out public officials who land in court for performing their jobs.

This minimum wage debate is catching fire! Everywhere but in Oregon, that is, where lawmakers just punted on even something as simple as allowing cities to set their own minimums. The latest: It looks like New York is about to have a $15 statewide minimum wage.

And the wage question is looking likely to take the stage in the upcoming presidential race. Bernie Sanders says we need a $15 federal minimum wage—a move which would force all states to comply, but doesn't stand a chance of passing Congress. Hilary Clinton isn't putting a number on her vague support of low-wage workers.

And okay—fine. Oregon Speaker of the House Tina Kotek is already signaling support for a statewide minimum wage here of $13.50, though it's pretty unclear how meaningful that support is in a legislature where Senate President Peter Courtney refused to talk about the issue in the session that just ended. (Also: Courtney's shown signs he's plenty pissed off at Kotek for throwing rhetorical shade in his direction.) Maybe that doesn't matter, though. It's looking like a $15 statewide minimum might come before voters next year.

Another movie theater shooting. This one at a screening of Trainwreck in Lafayette, La., where a man police describe as a drifter plotted out an attack that killed two people and injured nine.


Five-year-olds, not having any notion what is appropriate or healthy, love Orange Julius. So why is anyone surprised that a 5-year-old girl hopped a Trimet bus to Clackamas Town Center yesterday? Oh, right. Because a Trimet driver just blithely allowed a 5-year-old to hop the bus to Clackamas Town Center. At very LEAST he should have insisted she go to Bridgeport Village, AM I RIGHT MALL PEOPLE? (I have never been to these malls. Or to an Orange Julius.)

You guys all got really angry back in May when Erik Henriksen suggested that maybe the Regal Cinemas at the Lloyd Center wasn't the best bang for your buck—film-wise—that this city has to offer, so we shouldn't be too upset that it's being torn down. Quench your hot rage with this news, then! It's apparently not going away, after all.

An autopsy suggests Sandra Bland committed suicide in the Texas jail cell she never should have been placed in in the first place.

Screen_Shot_2015-07-24_at_8.33.22_AM.png

In honor of the impending weekend, a fun Friday activity: Time to loudly karaoke the Black Eyed Peas' seminal track "Weekends." Go nuts.