Tuesday, January 29, 2019

So the world turns its Portland side toward the sun, and it’s a new day, a Tuesday, January 29, 2019. It’s a cold morning, but our weather is out of sync with the season; it’ll be more like a sparkling early March day, with an insistent wind streaming down the Columbia, and highs of 50. On Thursday, we get a deep pool of cold air from the Aleutians that could settle in for a while. There’s nothing specific out there, but weather geeks who love snow are saying it’s too early to write this winter off. Sunrise 7:35 AM, sunset 5:12 PM.

We should mention that the NWS reports patches of freezing fog in the lower Columbia River from Vancouver to Kelso and along the I5 corridor in Cowlitz Co. There`s also some freezing fog in the south Willamette Valley.

The headline in this morning’s New York Times: “Polar Vortex to Grip Midwest With Most Extreme Cold in a Generation.” Tomorrow’s high will be minus 14 in Chicago and Minneapolis. Then the cold moves east, and some cities will have 72 hours of wind chills below zero.

Hey speaking of weather…it’s good to see Matt Zaffino back on Channel 8. Matt was off the air for surgery to remove a melanoma from his face. He’s an outdoorsy person who spends a lot of time on the mountain and says he will definitely be more dedicated to sunscreen. So he’s fine, but for now, the weather guy on The Ocho looks like he has an Oucho.

The anti-vaxers’ measles outbreak has now spread to 35 people, and now OMSI–Portland’s Kid Central–has been added to the list of possible exposure sites (January 19 would be the worry date). And we’ve learned that a family from Washington with a couple of unvaccinated children flew to Hawaii’s Big Island, where the kids promptly broke out. But the local health department got word, and the kids were quarantined until their contagious period passed, then put on a plane back home. Plus, a similarly-infected family may have visited a trampoline park in Bend.

Somewhere out there is a small airplane carrying a pilot who took off Saturday from an airstrip near Camas and has been neither seen nor heard from. His destination was believed to be Arizona or Texas, but without a flight plan, nobody knows.

A 51-year-old hiker, a man, has been missing since Friday at Oswald West State Park at the Oregon Coast.

You’ll want to avoid Harmony Road and Railroad Avenue in Milwaukie, where a tow truck driver was hooking up to a disabled vehicle–and parked his rig on the railroad tracks. A Union Pacific train promptly crashed into the truck, and though nobody was hurt, the railroad’s crossing arms were smashed to bits. The tow truck driver was jailed on some unrelated warrant.

Gray whale license plates go on sale Friday, with most of the $40 surcharge going to OSU’s Marine Mammal Institute.

The Bridal Veil Post Office is open again, for all your wedding-invitation-postmark needs. It was vandalized over the holidays. They’d really appreciate it if you bought your stamps there, too!

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Roger Stone is arraigned in DC federal court this morning.

The Congressional Budget Office says the government shutdown cost the economy 11 billion dollars, with a quarter of that permanently lost.

President Trump has accepted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation to deliver the State of the Union address one week from tonight. I’ve never missed one SOTU in my adult life. (Then again, I’d never had a speeding ticket).

Thousands of people turned out for the Texas funeral of a Vietnam-era Air Force veteran who died with no family. Thinking that he would be buried with no one attending, the veterans cemetery put out the call for the public to come..and a line of cars stretched for miles.

On the birthday list today, noncandidate Opray Winfrey turns 55. And Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ was released sixty years ago today.

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Oh, yes, we need some good news. Let’s see what I can pour into the Daily Drip Coffee Cup, below.

–“Sharp Dressed Man gives tailored suits to those in need

–“Bill Gates Shares His ‘Favorite Infographic’ That Shows 200 Years Of Human Progress

–“Boy calls 911 for homework help, dispatcher comes to his aid

–“Three-year-old boy missing in woods for two days says friendly bear kept him safe

–“The Shinto principles behind Marie Kondo’s method of tidying

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Say, Bruce has a toddler flu, so it’s Jim and Janine and me, and you remember from school days, when there’s a sub?–there might be chaos! Anyway, we invite you to tune in 103.3 and see what happens. Have a nice sparkling day!