We don't have a lot of time with each other in this life, everybody. Let's keep it brief today.

Powerball. You're not going to win, but it will be thrilling for a minute (if you win, e-mail me!).

Sometimes trains collide head-on. It happened in Connecticut yesterday. It makes no sense.

North Korea's firing missiles again. But it's not a big deal.

MOON EXPLOSION.

France is cool with gay marriage. Oregon still is not.

Uh oh. Crazy ants trump fire ants every time.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has yet to address allegations he smoked crack on camera.

The Weather Widget tells is like it is. No two ways about it.

Also, you'd think astronauts would be dismissive of Bowie's "Space Oddity," detailing, as it does, astronaut death. Not the case.

Portland's voter owned elections died a convincing death at the hands of the people in 2010, when Portlanders roundly rejected the system. But there are tenuous signs of life in the old girl yet.

This sign was posted on the ground floor of the Board of Trade Building (310 SW 4th) this afternoon.

• Dirk VanderHart

The meeting was closed off to the public, but revolved around how supporters might revive publicly financed elections, an attendee said. As killed by voters, the system allowed candidates for city council and mayor to gather 1,000-1,500 $5 contributions to receive $150,000 in public funding from the city.

The process was enacted in 2005, and has a bit of a spotty past. Former council candidate Emilie Boyles ran off with the public money in 2006, for example. But City Commissioner Amanda Fritz won election to council her first time around using public funds. It's been a pet issue of hers ever since.

Fritz' office confirmed she attended today's meeting, calling it a "brainstorming session." The meeting was arranged by Common Cause Oregon.

Reviving voter owned elections, by the way, has been oft-discussed since its demise. Whether this nascent push has legs remains to be seen.

No that anyone's paying attention to the growing body of cogent arguments for water fluoridation in Portland, but here's another.

Slate writer Jake Blumgart's piece takes a long look at the fight over fluoride here in town. If you've spent the last several months debating this issue (or vandalizing your neighbors' yards for their stand on the issue), not much will come as a surprise. If you've been meaning to learn about the fluoride debate but haven't gotten around to it, first read our story. Then read Slate's.

Oh, and if you haven't voted, VOTE! Ballots are due next Tuesday.

From the piece:

America is a fluoride nation. Beginning in 1945, when Grand Rapids, Mich., became the first city in the world to add the stuff to its water supply, the practice has spread across the United States. In most areas it is simply understood that ingesting minuscule levels of fluoride is good for dental health. As of 2010, almost three-quarters of Americans drink fluoridated water from community water systems, and the nation’s 30 most populous cities consume it.

With one weird exception: Portland, Ore., whose water system, sourced from the Bull Run River, serves 900,000 people.

There is an apparently amazing video for sale—says Gawker, which has seen the video and broke the news—showing the conservative mayor of Toronto smoking crack-cocaine within the past six months. While in office. And his dealers, says Gawker, service a wide swath of the cognoscenti in Canada's New York. Ford's lawyer addressed the claim rather curiously in the Toronto Sun: “I think unless one has expertise in crack cocaine smoking, it is very difficult to gauge what a person is actually doing in an alleged video.”

You remember Kai, the "hatchet-wielding hitchhiker," right? He's been charged with murdering an elderly lawyer who met Kai in Times Square took him back to his home in New Jersey. The rest of the story gets really weird, though. Maybe they had sex or maybe Kai was drugged and raped and then decided to kill the attorney?

Republicans lathered up about a supposed Benghazi coverup are now accused of doctoring the White House emails they leaked out to make their case.

Russia is beefing up the fleet it has stationed at a base on Syria's Mediterranean coast, maybe a sign to NATO types to think twice before staging an intervention in a country that's coming apart at the seams, with warring factions carving it up into autonomous fiefdoms after months upon months of civil war.

A million bucks in jewels meant for the red carpet at Cannes vanished suspiciously during the screening of a Sofia Coppola movie all about teenagers stealing jewelry. "Ironic twist?" Or how about "guerrilla marketing?"

The Pakistani doctor who helped with the vaccine scam used to suss out Osama Bin Laden's compound, landing in jail for his troubles, had previously been denied asylum in the United States.

The IRS' deposed acting boss answers Congress over claims Tea Party groups were targeted for extra investigation. "We provided horrible service here. I will admit that. Whether it was politically motivated is a very different question."

Years before Arizona targeted people with darker skin by demanding they carry their immigration papers all the time, the state went after the businesses that hire undocumented immigrants. How's that 2007 law working? Hundreds of workers have been prosecuted. But only three of the state's 147,000 businesses have had a day in court.

Justin Bieber has until midnight German time—which is only hours away—to pick up the pet monkey he toured with and then left behind (and pay thousands of dollars in boarding fees) before the government transfers the sad animal to a zoo or somewhere else.

Here's a good reminder that the Pearl District, with its buildings reserved for low-income Portlanders, is not solely a playground for the wealthy.

PREVIOUSLY ON BLOGTOWN, ICYMI: Another poll on fluoridation shows a widening lead for opponents. And, in big political news, Mayor Charlie Hales and Multnomah County Chairman Jeff Cogen struck a budget deal last night that picks up funding for about a $1 million bucks in safety net programs the city wanted to stop funding.

AFTER THE ELECTION, WE SHALL PUT ASIDE OUR FEELINGS AND WE SHALL DANCE! ALL OF US!