Good morning, fellow dwellers in the great terrarium! It’s Friday, April 20, 2018, a fine and mild day with highs in the low 60’s. A wimpy little system scampers across the terrain tonight sprinkling light rain in the low country and snow up high, but then it’s back to dry and comfortable weather Sunday, and that could last all week long. Sunrise 6:16 AM, sunset 8:03 PM.
When you hop in the car, flip on K103 (103.3) for traffic updates–I-84 eastbound is completely closed because of a bad wreck.
They’re playing the Pelicans, but it’s a swan song that the Portland Trail Blazers are on the verge of singing, following their 119-102 loss in New Orleans last night. “They whooped our (arse) and beat us in every facet of the game,” said CJ McCollum. The Blazers have lost nine playoff games in a row, and go for an even ten tomorrow at 2:00 PM.
James Comey is everywhere on the news these days, and tomorrow he’ll bring that famous face to Portland for a long-sold-out appearance at Revolution Hall, where doors open at 11. He could have sold out the Schnitz. His storied memos-to-self were turned over to Congress by the Justice Department last night, and were leaked to the media within minutes. Interesting reading despite the blacked-out redactions.
The rumor pot is boiling with expectations that President Trump, now that he’s added pitbull Rudy Giuliani to his legal team, might fire Robert Mueller today. If there happens to be any truth to that, protesters have plans in place to hit the streets of Portland and other cities, and Portland police have plans to stop or minimize property damage. Reminder: in the 2016 election, Multnomah County went 76% for Hillary Clinton..and 17.6% for Donald Trump.
It’s the 19th anniversary of Columbine. School walkouts demanding solutions to gun violence are scheduled nationwide, mostly at 10 AM local time, and some going on all day. The organizer of the walkout at Portland’s Da Vinci Arts Middle School is an eighth grader who says, “you’re never too young to fight for your own life.”
It’s 4/20, the international clarion call for doobieists to spark up. Cops are aware of this and have filled my inbox with news releases about enhanced patrols looking for “buzzed” (a word used only by police) drivers. Anyone with half a gram of intelligence knows not to drive under the influence of anything but a clear head and full attentiveness.
Now that we’ve sold the Wapato Jail for a dime on the dollar–the deal closed yesterday–who would like to buy a ghostly old courthouse? Multnomah County’s terracotta hulk at SW 4th and Main will hit the market this summer. It was hammered together along the horsey streets in 1909, saw the town through Prohibition and the Depression and two or three World Wars and every murder trial, divorce, and traffic ticket for a century before being deemed an earthquake calamity waiting to happen. Its replacement, the Veritable Quandary Memorial Courthouse, is scheduled to be open and ready for your judicial needs in 2020.
For the first time in history, a newborn baby was trundled yesterday onto the floor of the United States Senate by her Mom, Illinois Democrat Tammy Duckworth. It took a new rule to allow such a thing, and there was some cloakroom grousing, but it passed without objection, and even the crustiest of dinosaurs that roam the Senate were heard going, “Awww” when the little one was wheeled in. Sen. Duckworth was there to vote on a Trump nomination, and she voted no.
Showing a home to a prospective buyer while the homeowner is present can be awkward, but this’ll be talked about for a long time: an agent was showing a house in the Bethany neighborhood when the buyer wandered into the garage and encountered the seller–who didn’t realize the buyer was there. Thought he was a burglar. They started punching and rolling around on the ground in the flower bed. Minor injuries, no arrests, still waiting on an offer.
Oregon’s getting a new license plate, since we have so few, this one starring a whale frolicking in the ocean, with the words “Coast Playground” along the bottom. Money raised goes to OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute.
Plenty of red faces in San Diego, where dozens of motorists pulled over to salute a funeral procession for a Marine who was killed in a helicopter crash–and were ticketed because it was street-sweeper day. The city says it will rescind all thirty-five $70 citations.
It’s Hitler’s birthday (I’ve stood where he died, and mentally anointed the spot as it deserves to be anointed).
Telling y’all something good!
–“A 96-Year-Old Woman in Mexico is fulfilling her dream of finishing high school by her 100th birthday – “Now I can write letters to my boyfriends,” she said”
–“He needed a kidney. A classmate from 50 years ago whom he barely knew answered the call”
–“Cows jump for joy after seeing grass for the first time in months”
–“Famed Surfer Laird Hamilton helps rescue family stranded by Hawaii storms”
–“Typewriter in locally owned bookstore is the repository of the community’s stories”
–“Colorado Man Didn’t Realize He Won Nearly $2 Million Lottery Until 5 Months Later.
That’s the report for this morning. Hope Facebook’s algorithms deemed it worthy of your feed, but who knows? Have a wonderful day/weekend!
(V-6)
Portland's Daily Drip 