Welcome to a Thursday, September 6, 2018! Here’s the Daily Drip for a lovely late-summer day, with sunshine pretty much all the way from sunrise at 6:38 to sunset at 7:38, and highs of 80 to 85. We can see a possibility of showers Friday night into Saturday morning, then a fine weekend leading into a rainy Monday.
Travelers and truckers, attention…a fierce new wildfire has closed I-5 just south of the Oregon line. Our buddy Craig Walker was driving through there as the flames erupted, and texted me, “It was incredible how fast it came down the hill and started coming towards us. I’ve seen it on TV but it’s a whole different deal in person.” He and everyone else turned around and got out of there.
New developments on the teacher strikes in Washington: Washougal tentatively settled last night, and pending a ratification vote, school opens there tomorrow. Tacoma educators hit the picket lines today. Sounds like Longview is nowhere near a settlement, with the school board filing a court injunction against the teachers. And students are still out of school in the Battleground and Evergreen districts. They’re talking, and something could pop.
The guessing game is on over the identity of the anonymous Trump senior staffer who penned an explosive op-ed in the NYT, claiming there is a “quiet resistance” within the administration actively working to thwart the president’s more reckless impulses. Trump’s anger over this is described as “volcanic”….he calls it “treason” and demands that the Times turn the writer over to the government.
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A Portland woman is suing the owners of the Wimbledon Square Apartments, saying so much garbage was allowed to pile up that a whole civilization of vermin developed, and a raccoon jumped out and bit her leg.
Here’s a possibility that’s bubbling in the background: TriMet might close four of its MAX stations downtown. Kings Hill, Skidmore Fountain, and a couple on the transit mall are seen as too close to each other, and they’re slowing down the line.
Portland and Seattle are in competition for a billion-dollar Army shipbuilding project that could create hundreds of jobs for a decade. Vigor Industrial, which will build the Army’s next generation of landing craft, already has a footprint in Portland: they’re refurbishing a Carnival Cruise ship here. The company will choose between Portland and Seattle based on the incentives they are offered.
If someone in the family needs to get their Nikes into the door of Portland’s percolating high-tech sector, tonight is the 9th annual PDX TechCrawl. where you eat and drink from office to office, networking all the way. Three thousand people attended last year. Sounds like a productive way to spend $15; do a search for PDX TechCrawl for info.
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This is the day in 2006 when a man armed with a claw hammer waited to ambush Portland nurse Susan Kuhnhausen as she came home from her job at the Providence ER. Biggest mistake of his life. She wrestled the hammer away and choked the life out of her attacker on her kitchen floor. Can’t wait for you to finish your book, Susan, so we can get you on the air!
One year ago today Hurricane Irma became the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane in history with winds of 185 mph.
NFL Week One begins tonight, Falcons at Eagles, 5:20 PM on NBC.
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Some good stuff, to balance the bad….
–“Banker picks up college tuition for entire school class … AGAIN!”
–“Mississippi family plants vegetable farm, gives half to people on fixed income”
–“Heartwarming Viral Post Shows Police Officer Buying Gas For Woman In Need”
–“‘We’re Bonded for Life:’ Woman Unknowingly Donates Kidney to Neighbor”
–“Student, 19, finds £1,000 inside shoes she bought on eBay… so sent cash back to its owner within 25 minutes”
Details by clicking here.
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Exactly 33 years ago today I was fired from something I never knew existed: a radio job I didn’t love. It’s weird, I’d never been canned (as a grownup), and it felt so liberating, a commuting of a sentence, that I practically skipped out the door with my cardboard box. Because: I knew I would never again do a job I didn’t love. And I haven’t!
Taking a day off tomorrow. I have a lot of vacation days to burn, and I am committed to their immolation. The Drip will be here in some fashion. Have a lovely day!