Monday, June 4, 2018

Hello, world! It’s Monday, June 4, 2018, and Portland-town is looking cool, this morning, with the sun ascending at 5:23 into a partly cloudy sky amid a very slight risk of showers. After fifteen and a half hours in the heavens above us, the sun sets at 8:54 PM, and by then, we will have seen a high near 70.

With thousands of families enjoying Rose Festival events just a few blocks away, blood was spilled, rocks were chucked, and pepper spray filled the air as Portland police dealt with “multiple fights” between the same hot-headed “Patriot Prayer” and “Antifa” (for anti-fascist) elements who clashed notoriously a year ago, around the time of the white supremacist murders on the MAX train. This time, four people were arrested.

A firefighter from Bend was killed off-duty when the motorcycle he was riding collided with a bear on US 26 in Warm Springs.

Whatever it was that happened to little Kyron Horman–and we don’t know, but everyone has their suspicions–happened on this date in 2010, when he was a 7-year old second grader at Skyline School. If somehow he is still with us, Kyron would be 15, looking forward to getting his license in September.

We can finally report that Jesuit High student Yelena Gangelhoff has been found and returned home, after disappearing last Wednesday. Beaverton police tracked her down using social media to a location in Portland, where she was in the company of a 28-year old man. He’s been jailed on multiple charges.

Five hundred and one days into the Trump term, we learn that the president’s lawyers argued in a secret memo to special counsel Robert Mueller in January that Trump could not have obstructed the FBI’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 election because, as president, he possesses complete control over federal investigations. The lawyers added that “Having him testify demeans the Office of the President before the world.”

Many women with early-stage breast cancer who would currently receive chemotherapy don’t really need it, according to a new study. That could quickly change medical treatment for 60,000 women.

I’m hoping that nobody wings the messenger, here, but there’s a better-than-even chance that it will rain on the Grand Floral Parade Saturday morning. Tickets are still available for seating in the Coliseum if you prefer an unsoggy experience.

Speaking of Rose Festival…the week plays out like this: The Fred Meyer Junior Parade is on Wednesday. The Fleet arrives Wednesday and Thursday. Cityfair is open Friday through Sunday. We crown the new Queen starting at 8:30 on Saturday morning in Veterans Memorial Coliseum, and roll the floats, bands, horses, and scoop-wagons through the big, wide streets of Portland in the Spirit Mountain Casino Grand Floral Parade starting at 10:00. In between, there are lots of fun Rose Festival activities, and their website has all the details you need.

Thank you to the hundreds of thousands of people who turned out for the Starlight Parade! It was fun studying the reactions of the mostly delighted faces in the crowd to K103’s Santa Claus float, with Christmas music playing, and Bruce exhorting the throng to vote for “naughty” or “nice” (it was always a tie. Humans that we are, most people voted twice!).

Yesterday was the second anniversary of the oil train derailment in Mosier, Oregon, where sixteen black tanker cars of a 96-car train pulled by orange UP engines and hauling Bakken crude skipped the tracks apparently the brakes suddenly locked, and spilled 42,000 gallons, some burning up, some seeping into the Columbia River.

Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers bring their “Summer of Living Dangerously” tour to the Moda Center tonight. It’s the Dan’s first tour since the death of Walter Becker, and his surviving partner says he’d rather call it “Donald Fagen and the Steely Dan Band,” but was overruled for commercial reasons. As for the Doobies, this incarnation includes two original members–Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons, plus longtimer John McFee, who’s done a ton of nice stuff including playing pedal steel guitar on Van Morrison’s “Tupelo Honey.” Both bands save some of their biggest hits for the encore…the Doobs do “Listen to the Music” last, and Steely Dan wind up with “Reelin’ In The Years.” Sounds sweet to me!

It’s Angelina Jolie’s 43rd birthday.

How about some headlines, to settle the jangled nerves that the news gives us…

–“Toddler, 3, makes life-saving 911 call after mother collapses”

–“Endangered mountain gorilla population recovers to over 1,000”

–“Rice grown by Chinese scientists using seawater in Dubai’s deserts – Successful harvest of salt-resistant strain raise hopes that one day large swathes of the desert could be turned into paddy fields”

–“Rapper buys good Samaritan a new car after the man saved him from a car wreck”

–“Lamb named Lucky rescued after four days trapped on cliff”

–“Scientist proves dogs actually love us”

Whoops–no time to proofread–I’m doing double duty on K103 and KEX today. My job is the most fun..when it’s the most challenging. So tune in 103.3 or 1190AM, and either way, have a good news day!