Good morning! Today’s your basic Wednesday, January 23, 2019, and Portland’s weather is a little drier and a little warmer, and a little brighter too, by a minute or so over yesterday, with a chance of showers and highs of 52 degrees. Sunrise 7:41 AM, sunset 5:04 PM.
They vow he will be caught, but police have not yet found the man who gunned down a young woman working the night shift at Holt’s Quik Chek convenience store in Kelso. Happened at 4 AM Tuesday on Cowlitz Way at N. Pacific Ave. There’s an outpouring of love in Cowlitz County for 30-year old Kayla Chapman, a graduate of nearby Kalama High School.
The swamped Clark County health department has logged its 23rd measles patient, still another unvaccinated child, in a county with a vaccination rate among Washington’s lowest, at just 77%. This is now getting national attention, with this morning’s Washington Post headlining: “An anti-vaccination “hotspot” near Portland declares an emergency over measles outbreak.” None other than Chelsea Clinton weighed on this one, retweeting an OregonLive article and mistakenly inferring that Clark County is in Oregon, but making the perfectly valid point that this shouldn’t be happening in this century, or even the last.
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Today is the 33rd of our surreal government shutdown, and workers are officially going paycheckless again on Friday. Are the parties oblivious to the consequences? Here’s one: the shutdown is hampering FBI investigations into terror suspects, drug traffickers, and child sexual predators, and undermining the agency itself, according to federal law enforcement people. The Senate votes on competing bills tomorrow, and both appear doomed.
The US Supreme Court is allowing Pres Trump’s transgender military ban to take effect, while lower courts decide whether or not it’s constitutional.
The LA teacher strike is over.
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Widmer, which was brewing craft beers when Portland was still a Blitz town, has closed its pub and tasting room in a venerable old building at N. Interstate and Russell near the Fremont Bridge. Some people say they hadn’t been back since the kitchen there was closed a year or so ago.
Not sure what, but something caused a boom that drew the attention of worker bees in the upper floors of downtown buildings at SW 5th and Salmon around midday yesterday. People flocked to the windows, but couldn’t spot smoke or flames.
A young woman out there is desperately seeking her wedding ring…posting on Reddit, “I lost my wedding ring set on New Years at Bar Maven or Kelly’s Olympian. I took an uber from Bar Maven to Kelly’s, and realized it was missing at Kelly’s. The uber driver came back and we searched her car together but did not find it. It’s a size 7 and has a simple white gold wedding band attached to the engagement ring.”
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The Blazers lost in Oklahoma City last night.
Serena Williams rolled her ankle and lost in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
Portland became a soccer town on this day in 1975, when the NASL awarded our town the franchise that became the Portland Timbers.
Seattle Mariners fans are overjoyed that at long last Edgar Martinez is heading for Cooperstown. The team’s legendary designated hitter, who played only for the Mariners and thus was out of the limelight, got the call yesterday–in his tenth and final year of eligibility. Immortal Yankee reliever Mariano River was voted in with 100% in his first year of eligibility, which has never happened. Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, and Roger Clemens didn’t make it, again. The HOF is not rewarding the steroid era.
Hey! 19 days until Spring Training!
This is cool: Sunday’s lunar eclipse, during the “super wolf blood moon,” also brought the first known sighting of a meteorite smashing into the lunar surface during such an event. It was a tiny flash that was visible to viewers of the online broadcasts. Tip of the hat to Lew Frederick for alerting us!
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Today’s news from the bright side….
–“‘I don’t know how I did it’: Mom saves daughter, 4, from sinking car after crash”
–“She lost her engagement ring on a tropical beach. Weeks later, a stranger began digging”.
–“When I Was Alone at the Hospital at 4AM, a Lyft Driver Restored My Faith in Humanity”
–“This German group renovates Holocaust survivors’ homes in Israel for free”
–“56% of Americans Give Their Cars Names – Some Revealing a Love-Hate Relationship”
Links below!
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Happy birthday, you-know-who-you-are! xxxooo
Portland's Daily Drip 