Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Good morning, children of the Flower Moon! We’re all back from a well-earned timeout, and now we’re slipping into a comfortable Tuesday, May 29, 2018, with a mix of clouds and sun and highs of 65. We’ll stay in that neighborhood for the week, while adding a chance of showers for the weekend–including, maybe, during the Rose Festival Starlight Run and Parade. But we’re in serious need of having the dust settled; this is one of the driest and warmest Mays we’ve ever seen. Today’s the day of the Full Moon. The Flower Moon comes up at 8:58 tonight. Sunrise 5:27 AM, sunset 8:49 PM.

It was a perfect day for the thoughtful and heartfelt Memorial Day ceremonies around the state, with oceans of fluttering flags at Willamette National Cemetery, the reading of names at the Oregon Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and local events in towns like Oregon City and Lake Oswego, where the design was unveiled for a Veterans Memorial. And it was all tied together by a team of U.S. Air Force F-15 Eagles from the 173rd Fighter Wing out of Klamath Falls, roaring across the state at 400 MPH, a thousand feet high, slipping in and out of clouds, glinting in the morning sun.

The daughter of a man who was stabbed in Northeast Portland on Sunday night says her father was attacked by a homeless man after telling him not to camp in his neighborhood. A 25-year old suspect is in custody.

At this point we don’t know what in the world motivated that 61-year old man to drive onto a sidewalk at PSU Friday, running into three women. He’s in jail charged with attempted murder, while all three are recovering, with one in critical condition.

A guy leading police on a 100 MPH chase in his Land Rover through Estacada wiped out on a curve and sailed airborne off Oregon 224, splashing down upright in the middle of the Clackamas River. A witness yelled to see if the people inside were OK, and the man yelled back, I’m fine, no help needed…and he apparently swam away. Hasn’t been seen. Cops have his Land Rover. It’s wet.

Without any of the trash-talking that accompanies some of our international relations, negotiations begin today between the US and Canada on updating the Columbia River Treaty, which was formed after the Vanport flood 70 years ago. Canada now stores a huge amount of water to help prevent such floods on the Columbia, and is paid in hydroelectric power–overpaid, the US contends, and that inflates power rates in the Northwest.

Neighbors around SE 122nd and Main say they were blindsided by the news that a homeless shelter for men was opening, and opening soon, on county land that abuts on no fewer than eleven backyards. The county says, hey, we told the neighborhood association, but word never made it to the people. The first public meeting is tonight–more than two weeks after the announcement.

Your afternoon pick-me-up at Starbucks today might need to happen in a neighborhood spot instead, as the chain is closing 8,000 of its company-owned coffee shops at 2 PM for a session of anti-bias training, an outgrowth of the Philadelphia incident where a Starbucks manager called the cops on two black guys.

After a pair of Game Sevens over the holiday weekend, the NBA finals are set. Cleveland and Golden State meet again. As they have every year since 2015, with Golden State winning twice. Golden State–which beat Houston last night despite a cold start–has home court advantage, and Game One is Thursday night.

The Las Vegas Golden Knights–in their inaugural year as an NHL franchise–has taken a one-game lead in the Stanley Cup finals.

This was a surprise–David Byrne, former frontman for The Talking Heads–was in town for a concert at the Keller. But he also popped into the Alibi on N. Interstate Avenue…and sang karaoke Prince tunes.

A Portland author won a critical but ultimately favorable review in the Sunday New York Times. Former Willamette Week writer Corey Pein’s book is LIVE WORK WORK WORK DIE: A Journey Into the Savage Heart of Silicon Valley.

It’s President John F. Kennedy’s birthday. He would have been 101 years old today. JFK’s was a familiar face in Oregon through the 1960 presidential campaign, coming here at least five times, and he whomped our fabled anti-war Senator Wayne Morse in his own state primary. The average approval rating through JFK’s presidency was about 70%.

On this date in 1942, Bing Crosby recorded “White Christmas.”

Now the feature some folks scroll straight to!

–“This 6th-grade teacher once wrote ‘invite me to your Harvard graduation!’ on a student’s report card. More than 20 years later, the student did just that. ”

–“Alabama student who woke up at 4.30am every morning to get a bus to his high school is gifted a car after photos of him making the trek in graduation robes went viral”

–“Mamoudou Gassama, the heroic Malian migrant who scaled a Parisian apartment building like Spiderman to save the life of a toddler, is to be given French citizenship and a job with the fire department.”

–“Indiana Teacher Out of Hospital After Stopping School Shooting (including throwing a basketball at him)”

–“94-yr old WW II veteran gets high school diploma 74 years after dropping out to serve”

–“A 4-year-old in a superhero cape goes around the city and feeds the homeless.”

Big week ahead! June begins Friday…Starlight on Saturday night…K103 is taking, well, a different approach to its float this year, and I’ll be riding it along with Bruce and Janine. We hope you like it! Meantime tune us in on 103.3 FM, please, including the 6:20 AM “Daily Drip” segment. You’ll never know which Dripster’s comments will be featured on the air!