I never had any "doubt" about the "whole thing" with Avenatti. Someone in the media leaped to the conclusion that it was his ex-wife, but domestic violence covers a broad range of relationships, including dating ones and former dating ones. Further, the cops cannot make a domestic violence arrest without a complainant, so while the ex-wife was not the complainant, I knew someone was, and a girlfriend or ex-girlfriend always made sense.

Still, beating someone with pillows is a felony? Good grief, California!

If we tell him those troops were his parade, will he shut the fuck up and go home already?

@2 spunkbutter FOR THE WIN!

The buried lead here is SPD officer Shepard not only getting his job back, but getting two full years of back pay. Have you seen the video? It's repulsive. A small woman kicks at him once as he puts her in the back of the squad car, and this giant thick athletic man rears back, winds up and punches her as hard as he can in the face. She has her hands handcuffed behind her back. He broke her orbital socket and brutally knocked her out.

How the fuck does anyone call that justified? It was about 1000 times the force necessary to just close the fucking squad car door and solve the problem. It was purely and obviously out of control anger. This cop is an utter and total piece of fucking shit and NEVER should have any power over anyone again.

"Fun fact: This turkey has spent more time at the podium in the White House briefing room than @PressSec for the entire month of November!"

OMG -- that Roaster has the Prez's Hair!
Also lots less ugly.

@5: Yeah, but if he's employed he has to be paid for work performed. That's the law. It can't be taken away for punitive reasons.

Looking forward to your new sports beat.
A few suggestions- first, lighten up on the M's. They are lousy but they are not evil.
Second, pay attention to UW women's teams- softball, volleyball, basketball. Sometimes they are just crazy good with All-American athletes and the games are a hoot to attend.
Third- the Gonzaga men's basketball team deserves more attention on this side of the state.

You don't have to write about professional/commercial sports. The Northwest is a mecca for outdoor sports that are for the most part non-commercial (or started that way like snowboarding).

@5 - Where I worked (Dallas) had a Judge given a cop like that his job back, we would have put him in what was called a "non-public contact position," usually Communications Division under City Hall. Seattle PD is big enough to be able to do the same thing, unless their union contract or some internal rule prevents it.

It's a helluva note that a cop can do that to someone and get his job back with back pay, but someone working at McDonald's can burn someone's hamburger and be fired on the spot without recourse. I'm not suggesting the latter should be the case with cops, but somewhere in the middle of the two extremes would be nice.

@6 kristofarian: I'd sure hate to have that ugly orange combover on MY head!
@10 Morty: I know, right? Wouldn't it be lovely if cops like SPD officer Shepherd, and equally unscrupulous RepubliKKKan Congress members suddenly got pay cuts equivalent to that of fast food workers? Let's see these assholes live on $8.00 an hour after IRS deductions, and with no bennies.

@10 Morty thanks for the insight and let's hope that's the case, non-public contact position for the rest of his career.

Bezos would help more people if he paid his fair share of taxes.

@13 Yeah, but they sure love the tax dollars from those "caged rat city dwellers."

As someone who actually has lived in "the sticks", I'm here to tell you that you may not have to lock your door, but you sure have to lock up anything that's not nailed down that's outside your house; livestock, gasoline, tools, equipment - everything. And that was in the 70's, when there were a lot more farmers and a lot less pompous bores with an acreage who think they are "country strong".

And, as I always say, that's why I think that gun ownership on a farm is perfectly legitimate, because the Sheriff may be thirty minutes away, or you may end up with a coyote in your chicken coop. (Although I should also note that an old bachelor farmer great uncle of mine was beat to death with the stock of his own shotgun after some horrible people broke into his home looking for money, so a gun is not a guarantee of protection.)

Hey hey! You wrote about sports without bashing the tenant improvements to Insert-Name-Here Field. Well done.

Totally agree with @8 and @9.

13 Not a single moronic trope you WON'T mouth, huh?

Nathalie - muchos pleezos do NOT start writing anything about sports.

You guys have really fucked up and bizarre ideas about how people in rural areas live.

Sometimes your television lies to you, believe it or not.

"... did you know that the mayor of Northampton, David Narkewicz, was the first [legal-pot-buying] customer?"

No kidding.
'Nark' bought the first Legal pot?

Sounds like a totally Trumpfian set-up.
Where's lil' Jeffery Bowregaurd Sessions, the Third,
when ya need him? I smell a rat.

@22 No kidding. For those that are interested this article explains a lot about rural life and why there is a widening divide.

http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-reasons-trumps-rise-that-no-one-talks-about/