Good morning and Happy New Week! It’s Monday, September 17, 2018, as summer gives us a sweet goodbye with cool nights, mild days, and three days to dry out from our weekend inundation. Our high today will near 70. Sunrise 6:51 AM, sunset 7:17 PM.
The battle is over in Battle Ground, where teachers ratified a contract by a nearly unanimous vote, and the 2018-19 year finally begins today with a regular full day of school in grades 1 through 12. The first day of kindergarten will be Thursday, but there are conferences and orientation first, and parents are getting emails on that. By my count they’ve lost 12 days of classroom time; they were scheduled to start on Wednesday, August 29. How to make up those days will require school board action; let’s hope for no snow days, because the 4th of July is not a time to be in school!
A landslide is blocking Kalama River Road about two miles east of I-5.
Authorities are certain that the cougar they shot on Friday was indeed the one that killed a hiker near Zig Zag. Hunters groups are saying the cougars are far more numerous and bold than they were before a 1994 ballot measure prohibited hunting them with hounds. But wildlife advocates say that cougar encounters are extremely rare–this was Oregon’s first recorded fatal cougar attack in the wild–and deer kill far more people, by jumping onto highways and causing wrecks.
Romance novelist Nancy Crampton Brophy, author of an essay titled “How To Murder Your Husband,” is in court this morning after being indicted Friday for doing just that–murdering her spouse, the culinary instructor Daniel Brophy, last June.
A judge in Hillsboro will rule today on whether a horse can sue its former owner. (We expect he will say Nay). The poor animal, once named Shadow, was 300 pounds underweight and covered with lice when he was rescued. The ex-owner was convicted of animal neglect and fined $3,700, but the horse’s attorneys say that doesn’t begin to cover the cost of care for their client, whom they have renamed Justice. His condition is now stable.
Happy 50th to Portland author and famous Pacific Coast Trail hiker Cheryl Strayed! Another Oregonian of letters–and famous novels and acid trips on a hippie bus–was born on this day: Ken Kesey came into this world in 1935, and left it for good in 2001.
Today is Kermit Washington’s 67th birthday. The former Portland Trail Blazer and Portland talk radio host is serving a six-year sentence in federal prison for embezzling half a million dollars in charity money meant for children in Africa. While in prison, he is blogging about working with younger inmates on making choices against violence and drugs that may keep them out of prison in the future, and he adds, “My future depends on many things. But most of all, me.”
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Flipping over to the national page…
The vast weather system that once was Hurricane Florence is now a windy tropical depression centered over the middle of South Carolina and moving west, unburdening itself of the unfathomable quantity of water it scooped out of the Atlantic. Flooding, like Portland in 1996 multiplied, is affecting the entirety of both Carolinas. Wilmington is an island, powerless and surrounded by floodwater, and the airport is shut down. Stories will come out of heartbreak and heroism; more than 1,000 people were rescued, but 17 lives were lost, and you know there will be more. For now, local authorities say the danger from this storm has ever been greater.
There’s a surprise cliffhanger in the Kavanaugh nomination as a sexual assault allegation from his high school days surfaced. Details and denials are all over the news. Will it delay Thursday’s committee vote? Push it past the midterms, derail the nomination? Unknown!
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From the DD sports department…the defending champion Portland Thorns stopped the Seattle Reign 2-1 to earn a spot in this Saturday’s title game, conveniently scheduled at Providence Park. They’ll face the winner of the North Carolina-Chicago match which is also to be played in Portland, tomorrow night, having been flooded out of North Carolina.
The #20 Oregon Ducks, now 3 and 0 after a soft nonconference schedule, host #7 Stanford Saturday at 5 PM in Eugene. Oregon State fans have reason to be hopeful after the 1-2 Beavers’ near miss (wide left) against Nevada. They’ll host Arizona Saturday. The Huskies and Cougars are 3-0 and rolling as well. And the 1-2 Portland State Vikings erupted for nine touchdowns against College of Idaho, to win 63-14 at Hillsboro Stadium.
The Seahawks are at Chicago for Monday Night Football at 5 on ESPN.
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We all have good things in our lives. But good things in the news? Sometimes we have to search. Here are a few.
–“Hurricane Florence ruined this Maryland couple’s wedding – until friends replanned it all in 48 hours”
–“As Florence loomed, a pet lover escaped South Carolina with 64 dogs and cats on a school bus”
–“Football Coach Gives Up Rooms, Donates Scheduled Team Meals to Hurricane Florence Evacuees”
–“Japan sets a new record number for people over 100 years old — and almost 9 out of 10 are women”
–“California town appoints Max the Golden Retriever as their mayor for a fifth term”
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I was surprised and impressed by the turnout for Sunday’s Race for the Cure! The starting horn blew under a pouring rain, yet an estimated 10,000 folks made their way around the Waterfront/Eastbank loop, soaked but resolute in the cause of defeating breast cancer. It was fascinating to see the event from a different perspective; for years I’ve been up on the starting scaffold speaking to a sea of people. This year, I was at the finish line with K103’s Bruce Murdock, and interacted on a much more personal level with the individuals coming across the line–and was struck by the emotional power that completing the event represented for many people. For some, doing the Race for the Cure is the fulfillment of a self-promise made during difficult treatment. And for some, it’s an act of honor, in memory of a dear one. I saw many people wiping more than raindrops from their eyes. Lots of teams (with K103’s Team Janine leading the fundraising for the 8th year); lots of support groups, and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised to help stop this cancer in its tracks.
That’s the Daily Drip for today! Thanks for plowing through it, and for adding your updates and thoughts below!
Portland's Daily Drip 