—Gone fishin.' Are there any normal sex scandals anymore?
Illinois state Rep. Nick Sauer resigned last week after being accused of using nude photos of his ex-girlfriend to convince men online that he was her, and lure them into sexual conversations. This, we're told, is called "catfishing."
The woman claims Sauer, a Republican, created a fake Instagram account and posted nude photos that she had given him during their two-year relationship.
"Nick would use this account to direct-message men with my photos to engage in graphic conversations of a sexual nature," the ex-girlfriend wrote in a complaint to Legislature's inspector general. "The men believed they were communicating with me, and Nick shared private details of my life."
Distributing sexual images without consent is a felony in Illinois punishable by up to three years in prison. Police are investigating. Sauer hasn't admitted wrongdoing.
For Missourians, of course, this story comes on the heels of the Eric Greitens odyssey, in which the now-ex-governor was accused of snapping a blackmail photo of his bound-and-blindfolded lover. Seriously, what ever happened to the plain old "politician-gets-caught-in-love-nest" scandal?
—Bigfoot huntin.' Are there any normal congressional campaigns anymore?
The next time you find yourself giggling at a video of politicians in some obscure developing country throwing chairs at each other during a legislative brawl, consider the case of Virginia's 5th District U.S. House race between Democrat Leslie Cockburn and Republican Denver Riggleman. No flying chairs there, but the big thing dominating the campaign is Bigfoot. Or Bigfoot's big thing, to be precise.
Cockburn apparently went exploring on Riggleman's Instagram page and came up with a post depicting a well-endowed creature resembling Bigfoot. The creature's substantial genitals were blocked by a "censored" label.
"My opponent Denver Riggleman ... was caught on camera campaigning with a white supremacist. Now he has been exposed as a devotee of Bigfoot erotica. This is not what we need on Capitol Hill," Cockburn tweeted Wednesday.
It all could have been written off as Riggleman's middle-school sense of humor, except that he had previously promoted a self-published book, "Mating Habits of Bigfoot" on Facebook. The guy seems to take the Bigfoot subject seriously. He also embraced the support of white supremacists, including one who asserted that white supremacists were not solely responsible for last year's deadly violence in Charlottesville, Va.
We're not quite sure where Riggleman and Cockburn stand on issues like the exploding federal deficit, Russian election meddling or the southern border wall. But if the House ever decides to set up a Bigfoot Truth Commission, we've got just the right person for the job.
—The kindness of strangers. Seth Owen is the kind of kid most parents should want their kids to be. The Jacksonville, Fla., student, 18, was a high school valedictorian and had been accepted to Georgetown University. He had everything going for him — except tolerant parents.
Owen is gay, which didn't sit well with them. He told NBC News they forced him out of their home because he wouldn't attend their conservative Southern Baptist church, which, he said, was openly hostile toward gays. That created a $20,000 gap in his Georgetown tuition.
One of Owen's former teachers, Jane Martin, set up a GoFundMe account, hoping it would scrape together enough to help Owen through his first semester. Within a month the fund had exceeded $100,000. Owen and Martin are now considering using part of it to set up a scholarship fund for others in his situation.
—Racial disparities in discipline. New data show that Missouri schools mete out harsher and more frequent punishment to black students than to white students; that Missouri ranks among the worst states in those gaps; and that the problem is getting worse compared to previous studies.
Data analyzed by the American Civil Liberties Union found that Missouri has the 10th biggest gap in the country for out-of-school suspensions between black and white students in kindergarten through 12th grade.
It found black students in Missouri are five times more likely than whites to receive an out-of-school suspension; that black students with disabilities are suspended three times more frequently than white students with disabilities; and that Missouri punishes black preschoolers with multiple out-of-school suspensions more often than in 44 other states.
As the ACLU noted in a statement, the ramifications go way beyond missed class time: "When students experience harsh and disproportionate discipline in school, it can put them on a path to interact with the criminal justice system their entire lives, in what's known as the 'school-to-prison pipeline.' "
—To your health, Justice Ginsburg. Supreme Court justice and liberal stalwart Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 85, announced she intends to remain in her seat for "at least" five more years. It should prompt a sigh of relief from anyone worried about yet another seat opening on the court to deepen its conservative majority.
The Supreme Court was designed to be above politics, but in recent years it has become all-but-officially partisan. Both parties share responsibility, but Republicans took it to new heights in 2016 when, supposedly in the name of democracy, they denied President Barack Obama his final court pick and handed it to a president who lost the popular election by almost 3 million votes.
The Senate is on the verge of confirming President Donald Trump's second appointment to the already-right-leaning court. The party that lost the popular vote in six of the last seven elections is building a court that could affect Americans on everything from abortion to fair elections to health care for generations.
So, Justice Ginsburg: Take care of yourself. Please.
REPRINTED FROM THE ST LOUIS POST DISPATCH
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