Monday, October 1, 2018

Rabbit, rabbit! New month!

There. That’s a tradition adhered to by FDR and many people not otherwise given to superstition, and said to bring good luck. We’ll see about THAT. Anyway, it’s Monday, October 1, 2018, and the Pacific Northwest is in the gentle path of a westerly flow with embedded wet nuggets that will bring us light showers, periods of clearing, and highs around 70. Sunrise comes at 7:09, sunset goes at 6:50. It gets cool quick. The chill is crimping my IPA on the deck style.

The authorities are releasing details only periodically, and social media is out front on this, but it looks like a 27-year old man named Patrick Kimmons was shot and killed by Portland police, possibly after being connected to a civilian-on-civilian shooting that wounded two men. It happened around 3 AM Sunday near SW 3rd and Harvey Milk, recently renamed from Stark Street. Kimmons was a father of two kids and a baker for Dave’s Killer Bread, which often hires people with a criminal past who commit (like my spelling bee friend Dave) to turning their lives around. A sad check of his Facebook page shows feet planted in both worlds.

Our pals at SOLVE say the Oregon Beach and Riverside Cleanup drew over 4,000 volunteers, who bagged 42,000 pounds of litter, yanked out 43,000 square feet of invasive plants, and lugged away 43 tires for proper disposal. They tackled 139 projects across this state of ours, and Tom McCall would be pleased.

The US and Canada agreed on a trade deal last night, essentially saving NAFTA while giving it a new name, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

The U.S. Supreme Court begins its fall term today–with just 8 members. How soon there will be a 9th is to be determined by an FBI investigation that the White House promises has free rein, and so it will go where the facts lead. They’ve talked to the second accuser, Deborah Ramirez, but apparently not Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, and third accuser Julie Swetnik is not on the list. (It occurs to me that in none of these reports do we hear of any guy with the strength and integrity to say to a frat brother pushing a drunk girl into the bedroom, “Hold up, Biff, not on my watch. Come on honey, let’s call your sister and get you a ride home”).

By the way, Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway revealed on CNN that she, too, had been a victim.

Today is the anniversary of the day in 1995 when Oregon Senator Bob Packwood’s resignation took effect, three years after a story in the Washington Post revealed years of sexual abuse of women, mostly staff members or others within his political orbit. His conduct besmirched his own legacy as a moderate Republican with progressive views on issues likes civil rights, abortion, and guns. He was the first Senate Republican to call for Richard Nixon’s impeachment. He said the allegations amounted to no more than “overeager kissing.” And–look who’s here: Ethics Committee chair Mitch McConnell led an investigation of his fellow Republican that showed “a habitual pattern of aggressive, blatantly sexual advances.” McConnell said such behavior “cannot be tolerated in the United States Senate,” and recommended that Packwood be expelled, and Packwood resigned, saying it was his duty. McConnell later said that he knew his party would lose the seat, but it came down to this choice: “retain the Senate seat or retain our honor.” Compare that to the ethos of today.

The mass shooting at the Las Vegas country music festival was one year ago today. And…

This was the day in 2015 when a gunman killed eight students and a teacher at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg. It might have been much worse but for a young man who’d been kicked out of the Army named Chris Mintz. He took five bullets blocking a door to allow his writing class to escape. Chris, who survived his wounds, was a twice-deployed Army combat veteran, but was discharged for smoking a joint to alleviate the pain of a wrist injury. The story of his redemption is detailed in “Stars and Stripes,” a good long read, and I’ll include the link in the TMSG section.

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The Ducks are up a notch to #18 after punishing Cal 42-24. They’re off next week, before hosting Washington, their toughest test, the weekend after.

Today’ll be a fun day in MLB, as the Brewers play the Cubs at 10 AM Pacific, and the Rockies visit the Dodgers at 1, in one-game division tiebreakers for the NL Central and the NL West.

The Seahawks tried hard to lose–going 0 for 10 on 3rd down conversions–but pulled out a win over Arizona anyway. Seahawks safety Earl Thomas was carted off the field with a broken leg–and flipped off somebody on the Seattle sideline on the way out.

Speaking of Arizona…it’s going to rain like crazy….remnants of Hurricane Rosa…

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TMSG:

–“Jeopardy!’ contestant proposes to girlfriend mid-show”

–“Hero Air Traffic Controller Gives His Life But Saves Many by Staying in Tower During Earthquake to Help Airliner Depart”

–“Boy Speaks Clearly for First Time After Dentist Discovers Correctable Tongue Issue”

–“Stray Dog from Afghanistan Moves to the United States — and Feels Grass for the First Time”

“Six-minute deployment: the fall and rise of former soldier Chris Mintz”

Details in the links below!

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Today is my (blush) 52nd anniversary in radio. I walked into KQXI in Arvada to record a public service announcement for my Boy Scout troop, a complete pretext to get inside the place and get on the air, and my obvious interest led someone there to hand me a broom and $1.25 an hour to come in every night to sweep up after everyone had gone home. So much mischief, so much learning, and such good mentors…which led to this, the intentional fulfillment of a childhood dream. Looks like that might continue for awhile–including today. 103.3 FM in the Northwest, iHeart Radio app everywhere else. Happy Monday!