Hello, and how are you? It’s Monday, so soon, August 6, 2018, and we’re back in the hot soup this week, with highs that lay out like this: Monday 93: Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday 95-100, and Friday, 85. It’s our third heat wave of the summer, and this time we’re supposed to get more smoke and haze. Forecasters tell me it’s difficult to predict if we’ll get much at ground level; last year we were so smokey at times it was unbearable. It’ll be in the perfect 70’s on the coast all week. Today’s sunrise is right at 6:00, sunset 8:31 PM, and we’ll lose about 12 minutes of daylight this week.
City leaders today are reviewing video from Saturday’s right/left showdown on the downtown waterfront, following up on complaints about use of force, and looking for crimes that police might have missed. But it didn’t turn into a riot; just mainly an occasion for rage and insults. Several people were treated for minor injuries including Oregonian reporter Eder Campuzano, who was narrating the events live on Facebook–with probably a dozen Dripsters listening–when he was clocked with a thrown bottle, and uttered half an oath (“God…”) as he dropped the feed. This part of the New York Times’ Portland coverage caught my attention: “Much of the protest seemed to be about spectacle and showboating. There is a pattern, and it long predates the recent protests and the election of Mr. Trump: To groups on the fringe, attention is oxygen, and Portland is a great place to get it.” (The Times also said that “many people” in Portland call the city “Portlandia.” Bzzzzt! Wrong. Not unless they’re named Fred or Carrie).
ODOT crews made a disturbing find during the ramp work on I-84 at I-5: thousands of cars and trucks every day have been rumbling over a ramp supported by broken rebar with holes in it. They’re fixing it, and that’ll delay the ramp’s reopening until Tuesday midday. But how many other instances of hidden structural damage from that 1960’s vintage could we be riding on, blissfully unaware?
Heads up–literally. The PDX North Runway (10L/28R) is closed for a month, starting today. That’ll shift approaches and departures to the south.
This is the day 73 years ago when the silver shadow of an American bomber thundered across the sky of Hiroshima, Japan, and a moment later the city was a fiery ruin. The thousands who were killed instantly at Hiroshima and days later at Nagasaki, and the tens of thousands more who died in years to come from burns and radiation poisoning, will be honored in the annual memorial at Portland’s Japanese American Historical Plaza along Nato Parkway at NW Couch, 6 PM.
A surprise tweet from President Trump, who acknowledged that his son’s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer was to get information on an opponent and that it was “totally legal.”
The president of Venezuela survived an apparent assassination attempt after an explosion delivered by drone exploded as he was giving a speech on the economy.
A 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, killing more than 90 people, and injuring hundreds more.
Nice work by Clackamas Fire Engine 309 and Heavy Rescue 305, who used a sling to safely pull up a 12-year-old llama named Cocoa, who was stuck eight feet down in a ditch in Oregon City.
Say, that guy seen on video taunting a bison at Yellowstone last week turns out to be an Oregonian, wouldn’t ya know. From Pendleton. The bison was smart enough to walk away, but this same guy was arrested the very same week for obnoxious behavior in two other National Parks–Glacier and Grand Teton. SFGate calls it a vacation “that would make Clark Griswold blush.”
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Some good stuff!
–“Walmart cashier steps in when nail salon refuses wheelchair-bound woman”
–“Letter Carrier Reunited with Girl He Rescued from Human Trafficking”
–“Brazilian drug dealer kidnaps medical staff, makes them vaccinate community against yellow fever”
–“Cincinnati science teacher sets fastest record for rowing solo across Atlantic Ocean”
–“Reese’s sends care package to a man whose Reese’s cup was missing peanut butter”
–“Seven puppies found on remote island rescued, named after “Gilligan’s Island” characters”
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Hey, I missed what would have been Portland Mayor Vera Katz’ 85th birthday on Friday, and I’m sorry about that. This smart and powerful woman deserves to be remembered. With a hat tip to Sam Adams, I’ll relate a quote from George Bernard Shaw that she had framed and hanging on her wall, in the Mayor’s office in the southeast corner of the 4th floor at City Hall: “The reasonable woman adapts herself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to herself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable woman.”
Monday!
Portland's Daily Drip 