Hello and good morning! Yay, Friday, we greet thee! It’s January 11, 2019, and Portland’s weather is about as nice as it gets for the depths of January: partly sunny, with highs of 50. And it’s going to stay dry, and Gorge-windy, until the middle of next week. Wasn’t yesterday a peach? Aurora had a high of 58, and Salem 60! So much better than our Silver Thaw 40 years ago, which turned Portland into a popsicle for a week. Sunrise, which is finally coming ever-so-slightly earlier, is at 7:49 AM, sunset 4:48 PM. But it’s still light at 5. We’ve gained 5 minutes of daylight since Monday.
Two years ago today, we were waking up to a foot of snow in Portland! (Denver, you have a winter storm warning today! That’s a town that looks good in snow, especially from afar).
Today should have been payday for 9,600 federal employees in Oregon, but instead it’s Shutdown Day 21, as the supposed expert dealmakers in DC are just holding their breaths–while thousands of families turn blue.
The FDA is not doing food inspections during the shutdown. Inspectors are furloughed. What on earth does this have to do with border security?
Portland’s Columbia Sportswear has taken out a full-page ad in the Washington Post today with the copy, “Make America’s Parks Open Again.” and “Walls shouldn’t block access to parks, and federal workers shouldn’t be left out in the cold.” CEO Tim Cook told Axios: “No party hates the outdoors except maybe the Donner Party.”
There’s flack from all over falling on SW Washington’s Republican member of Congress, Jaime Hererra Beutler, for breaking from the GOP and voting to reopen the Treasury Department ahead of tax season. Comments on her Facebook page include, “How DARE you vote with the Democrats to reopen the Government before they agree to what WE THE PEOPLE want. I’m tired of getting rolled by the liberals and you helping” and from the other side, “But Jaime, you didn’t vote for either bill that would reopen the government, allow Coast Guard, Border Patrol, TSA agents etc to be paid.” The Congresswoman herself wrote in an op-ed in The Columbian, “So, both sides have something they want. Why not give it to them?” and she made a point that’s been made here: Compromise. It’s how the pros do it. Give Trump a fence so he can save face and get Ann Coulter off his back; she’s not his type anyway. And in exchange, at long last, give the Dreamers what they dream of: a future in America. (Otherwise: the president might declare a national emergency, and divert money set aside for civil works all over the country including Hurricane Maria-damaged areas of Puerto Rico, and flood control projects in California).
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The possibility of toll roads in Portland’s future just got a little jinglier, as the Federal Highway Administration has notified ODOT that both I-5 and I-205 are “likely” to get the government’s okidoke.
There’s going to be a bill in the legislature to eliminate the tax on player salaries that would be used to help build an MLB stadium in Portland. I need to hear Sen. Ginny Burdick’s thinking on this. Without ballplayers, there would be no tax. So where’s the beef?
Portland is likely to build a roundabout in the dead-man’s-curve intersection of SW Multnomah Boulevard, Garden Home Road and 69th Avenue.
Ew: Sewage bubbled up from a manhole near Dickinson Park in SW Portland (it’s along I-5, south of Taylors Ferry), and flowed into what the city says is “an unnamed creek” It has one now!
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Saturday night’s all right for…Elton John at the Moda Center! Returning from a month-long break, he plays Boise tonight…and then tomorrow, his “Farewell Yellow Brick Road” tour brings him nice and fresh to Portland for what we’re led to believe will be the last time. Now, I have in my hands his 24-song setlist, and a good idea of the staging and choreography, but sharing it here would only detract from the night, and especially from that moment toward the end when he..wait, stop! I’ll save the surprise. I’ll just say that I’m sure he’ll play your song, whatever it is, and that the reviews I’ve read from December are uniformly ecstatic. If you’re going, we’ll look forward to reading your thoughts!
The Portland Trail Blazers, on a 3-game win streak, cap off their homestand against the Charlotte Hornets tonight. Our guys fly to Denver on Sunday. It’ll be sunny and 40.
Not to make genderalizations, but there’s a good chance we hubbies will be parked this weekend as follows:
Saturday::
Indianapolis Colts at Kansas City Chiefs, 1:35 PM, NBC
Dallas Cowboys at Los Angeles Rams, 5:15 PM, FOX
Sunday:
Los Angeles Chargers at New England Patriots 10:05 AM, CBS
Philadelphia Eagles at New Orleans Saints 1:40 PM, FOX
All times Pacific!
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A bit of good news with your decaf vanilla latte?
–“Soldier saves man’s life with hoodie, ink pen”
–“Former homeless person has been crowned London’s top bus driver – because he never stops smiling!”
–“A pilot showed incredible helicopter skills during a rescue mission in the French Alps–and you can watch”
–“Instead of Running, These Inmates Rush to Aid Their Supervisor Who Collapsed From Stroke Along a Roadside”
–“‘A Dog’s Way Home’: How Shelby went from junkyard stray to Hollywood star”
You can follow up for details in the Daily Drip link collection, located in the Coffee Cup, in the comments!
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A couple of radio folks of mixed repute, but undeniable success, have birthdays tomorrow…Howard Stern was born in ’54 and Rush Limbaugh in ’51. At the start I found Limbaugh to be entertaining, but he devolved into mere politics and I lost interest years ago. Conversely, Stern seemed surly and rude when he first went national, so I paid him no attention at all, but in recent years he’s become one of the most insightful celebrity interviewers on the air. Of course, then he shifts into a junior high schtick and I just hit the button.
Hit your button and join us on 103.3, won’t you? We have fun. You will too.
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