Good morning to you, and you, and you! Here’s the Daily Drip (I called it the “Doily Drip” yesterday to see if anyone was reading, and luckily nobody was) for Thursday, November 29, 2018. We’re supposed to get a respite from the rainfall today; we’ll see. Portland’s forecast calls for dense fog in some areas, otherwise dry and 50. Substantial rain is pluming into Northern California, and the edge of it may come up to Eugene or so. Sunrise, somewhere behind the fog, is at 7:28 AM, and sunset at 4:29 PM, but take heart–that’s within two minutes of the earliest sunset of the year. We’re nearing the bottom of our season bunjee jump. Is three your lucky number? Today is day 333 of 2018, with 32 left in the year.
Weather’s been wild in the valley, as a raggedy funnel cloud reached down from the sky near Corvallis–but did not touch the ground or do any damage.
***
This morning our hearts are with another local Gold Star family, as 39-year-old Army Sgt. 1st Class Eric Michael Emond of Brush Prairie, WA was one of three servicemen killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle during combat operations in Afghanistan on Tuesday. He was originally from Massachusetts, where he helped start a local nonprofit called Mass Fallen Heroes to help Gold Star Families, and was first a Marine before joining the Army Special Forces. He is survived by his wife and three children. We know other Gold Star families here, and while their sorrow does not recede, neither does the love and support of the community around them.
***
Governor Kate Brown has lifted the veil on a 23.6 billion dollar budget for the next years, including a $2 billion transfusion to resuscitate the staggering K-12 education system and expand the school year to 180 days, where it should have been all along. Higher education interests are not thrilled with their share, but this only an opening bid. Other points in the Governor’s proposal include the creation of a new state agency called the Oregon Climate authority; paying postage for mail-in ballots; $50 million for emergency housing to help alleviate homelessness. She’s looking to the legislature to raise the revenue, and as Democrats have a supermajority in both houses, Republicans are charging that everyday Oregonians will be hit with tax hikes.
Portland’s once-stratospheric real estate market is coming back to earth: home prices are growing at a 5.1 percent rate. That’s a big slowdown from the red-hot market that sellers have loved and buyers have dreaded. But some observers out there say Portland will be a magnet for homebuyers for decades to come, as climate migration becomes a serious fact of life.
The stock market leaped for joy–600 Dow Jones points worth–when the head of the Fed implied in a speech that interest rates may not be jacked up after all.
*****
A halftime tirade by coach Terry Stotts motivated the Portland Trail Blazers to snap a losing streak by defeating the Orlando Magic last night. That was Stotts’ 400th win.
The Portland Timbers face Sporting KC tonight for the right to advance to the MLS finals. There’s a complicated away-goal formula that I won’t put you back to sleep by explicating, but if the Timbers can score a goal in regulation, then they’ll advance even if the final score is a tie. They’re going to play to win, anyway. We’re all in the Timbers Army tonight, convening at 6:30 PM on ESPN, or at one of sixteen officially sanctioned viewing parties at pubs and sports bars in the Rose City (Kell’s, Grand Central, Thirsty Monk, et. al.).
Today looks like a big day in the drive for major league baseball in our town, as the Portland Diamond Project is set to announce that it’s secured land rights for a stadium site–rumored to be the Portland of Portland’s Terminal Two along NW Front Avenue, a mile or so downriver from the Fremont Bridge. Nice setting, underused expanse, but it’s a mile or more away from MAX. Maybe the Frog Ferry could have a stop there on game days?
******
Pass the sugar, please…
–“Tears on live TV as KOIN’s Jeff Gianola shares the story of a “Wednesday’s Child” foster child who was adopted into her forever family.” Jeff’s passionate about this, and has done good things for foster kids for decades.
–“A Texas cotton farmer is battling cancer and couldn’t harvest his crop. So his neighbors did it for him”
–“Bus driver buys homeless rider dinner, lets him stay on warm bus all night ”
–“These Young Men Drove To A Nearby Apartment Fire And Saved Many Lives”
****
Radio dad takes a rare Friday off! See you around the campus malt shop!
Portland's Daily Drip 