SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:55 P.M. ET:

LAW AND ORDER IN CHICAGO – FROM CBS CHICAGO:   An 18-year-old Back of the Yards woman faces weapons charges after she was stopped by Chicago Police as she pushed a baby stroller with a rifle, handgun and ammunition inside early Monday morning.  Yarisma Martinez lived a few blocks down from a house in the 4500 block of South Hermitage, where a police surveillance camera spotted a man firing a rifle on the street around midnight, prosecutors said Tuesday.  The camera showed 18-year-old Martinez and another woman arriving at the house soon after, carrying a bag as they entered the house. The pair left the house, this time pushing a stroller and carrying a diaper bag.  I think it's so touching – a baby stroller, a diaper bag, an arsenal.  I'm sure she's just a good mother with a penchant for marksmanship sports.

THE END OF CIVILIZATION – FROM THE TELEGRAPH:  Chocolate bars are likely to shrink by a fifth in the next three years after Public Health England told sweet manufacturers they could meet obesity targets by cutting product size.  Today PHE published new guidelines which call on food manufacturers to reduce the sugar content of cereals, breakfast goods, yoghurts, biscuits, ice creams, sweet spreads and confectionery by 20 per cent by 2020.  The cuts are intended to reduce the number of children who are overweight or obese by the end of the decade and take 200,000 tons of sugar out of the British diet each year.  Don't these children have parents?  Don't the parents control the kids' diets?  Is anyone responsible for anything these days?  Keep our chocolate bars!

REAL CLASS – FROM THE WASHINGTON TIMES:   President Trump threw a White House party for the Senate, but most Democrats couldn’t be bothered to attend.  In a sign of how difficult it could be for Mr. Trump to carry out his stated desire of working across party lines on his biggest priorities, 28 of 46 Senate Democrats snubbed an invitation to the White House on Tuesday night for a spring soiree of music and fellowship. Independent Sen. Bernard Sanders of Vermont, a member of the Democrats’ leadership team, also was a no-show.  At least 44 of the Senate’s 52 Republicans attended the East Room reception, which was co-hosted by first lady Melania Trump and featured the U.S. Army Chorus and Marine Band.  White House press secretary Sean Spicer called it “an amazing opportunity to have a moment sort of free of politics and to enjoy some collegial moments with each other in the White House.”  I think most Dems actually wanted to go, but were desperately afraid of being "named" by the party's increasingly vicious and irrational base.  The once-great Democratic Party seems awfully small.  Do the Democrats have any program at all?

March 29, 2017