Good morning and yay!! We’ve achieved a state of Fridayness! Today is October 5, 2018, and the rain for which our town is renowned will make a splashy entrance today, pouring near an inch into the parched ground, then scooting out on Saturday. Gale warnings are already flapping in the coastal breeze. We may not reach 60 degrees today for the first time this fall, and when the clouds clear, Mt. Hood will be wearing white. Sunrise 7:14 AM, sunset 6:43 PM.
A Portland mom went to pick up her child at Jason Lee Elementary in Northeast Portland…and the gun in her purse discharged. Nobody was hurt, she was arrested, and police have not said on what charges.
Really disturbing: guards are heard on a video laughing while an inmate is seen convulsing from a drug overdose at the Clackamas County Jail. The guy died at the hospital, his family is suing the county, and the sheriff says he’s disciplined the officers involved.
This town is sad to learn of the passing of Will Vinton, the Claymation animator who for decades was a creative force in Portland.
We’ll be watching the Senate’s preliminary vote starting at 7:30 Pacific this morning on the Kavanaugh nomination. The whole country is holding its breath. His would be the vote that sets the balance of the court for a generationn…during which Roe will certainly be revisited, the issue driving much of this passion. Opinions are at a boil on both sides, and there’s an uncrossably wide river between them. I recommend reading today’s Washington Post editorial along with Kavanaugh’s own Wall Street Journal op-ed, in which he vows to be independent and impartial as part of a non-partisan court, in contrast to his words spoken in anger a week ago. (I think WSJ dropped its pay wall for his piece).
A local note regarding the above: both Governor Kate Brown and her challenger Knute Buehler say Kavanaugh does not belong on the Supreme Court. The Republican Buehler tweeting, “I strongly believe that President Trump should withdraw the nomination and put forth a candidate who appeals to both parties. This is a time to heal our nation.”
OK, this one isn’t going to wind up on Tell Me Something Good. A Portland EMT on her way to work at 5 AM stumbles upon a wrecked car on Barbur Boulevard. So she pulls over, jumps out, renders first aid to the injured driver moaning behind the wheel…when suddenly he jumps out and steals her car, in which she’d left the keys. She calls the cops, they arrive and ID the wrecked car as stolen. Halfway across townon 122nd somewhere, the guy wrecks the EMT’s car too.
Portland cops did a serious crackdown on traffic violators along the high-accident stretch of NE Sandy between 57th and 108th…in a four-hour period yesterday, with the help of a photo radar van, they wrote 112 tickets…and gave out only two warnings.
Oregon legislators may make life just a little easier for low-income folks who get parking tickets…by waiving the bond you currently have to post before you can contest the ticket in court. There’ll also be a bill that would stop driver’s license suspensions for unpaid tickets. The idea, says Rep. Jeff Barker, a former Portland cop, is to stop sending people who don’t have much into a spiral they can’t get out of.
Burgerville is on the griddle of a class action lawsuit filed by a Portland lawyer who says the company could have mitigated the damage of its credit card data breach if only they’d notified customers in August, when they first learned of it, rather than waiting until this week. Burgerville has an explanation for that: they were busy sealing off the hackers’ entryway to the system, and needed to do so without alerting them that they were onto their scheme.
There’s a King Tut exhibit about to open at OMSI. Preview for OMSI members tonight, then public opening tomorrow. It’s here through January. My understanding that’s all really excellent replicas, but not the original jammies.
Happy 60th to pop-star astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, always an illuminating joy to watch on TV, and a bit of a cuss in person, I’ve heard, but who isn’t?
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Let me see if I have this straight: Ducks have a bye week, to gird up for Washington. Oregon State will try to tackle better at home against Washington State at 6 tomorrow night on the Pac 12 network and 1190 KEX. The Huskies are at UCLA, 4:30 Saturday on FOX, is that right? The Vikings play the Griz in Missoula at 1 PM Pacific, with coverage on Rip City Radio 620. The Portland Timbers are at Salt Lake City tonight at 6:30 on Root TV. The Winterhawks are on the road against Kamloops tonight at 7, and at Everett tomorrow night.
The Blazers’ preseason home opener is Sunday night at 6 against the Utah Jazz, with live play by play action on Rip City Radio 620.
And I’m told there’s some baseball. It takes a dedicated fan to chase it around the channel lineup. The Yankees and Red Sox clash in the first-ever first round matchup of 100-win teams; they’re the top two teams in baseball, and I think the winner of that series wins it all.
Lindsey Buckingham plays at Revolution Hall on Sunday night. IMHO he more than anyone was responsible for the musical achievement of Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours,” taking simple, two-chord songs like Stevie’s “Dreams” and producing them into complex, creative works. His solo work is edgier, and nobody is nimbler on the Fender Stratocaster.
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Let’s take a sip of something good, what say?
–“Deputy pushes stranded woman’s wheelchair one mile to her home”
–“‘Don’t sit in the chair or you’ll go to seed’ – Trailblazing over-55s who are following their dreams”
–“$4000 3D-Printed House Could Provide Shelter To The World’s Homeless”
–“We ‘hire all of God’s children’: Restaurant posts sign after complaint about special needs employees”
–“Here Comes the Future! First Hyperloop Passenger Capsule Unveiled”
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And there goes the last DD before a weeklong break, during which I’ll guard the home front while my sweetie’s on the road taking our Silver show dog to the national breed competition near St. Louis. I have a small mountain of books and articles to get through, and some writing to write, and I hear there’s baseball on TV. I promise to pop up here though; a few words, maybe, about Tracy Barry’s imminent departure, and more. Have a wonderful Friday watching the rain from somewhere dry!
Portland's Daily Drip 