Good morning, and thanks for checking in! It’s Wednesday, January 30, 2019, and though it’s a cold 32 on my deck, Portland’s weather looks sunny and mild again today, with light winds and highs of 52 degrees. But that’s sure to change with the arrival of a blob of cold air from Alaska that will chill us down late in the weekend, bringing a possibility of a bit of snow down to 1000 feet or lower from Sunday night into Tuesday morning. This is not a setup for a major snow event–not enough moisture, not enough cold–but the timing and the exact snow level are moving targets, so we’ll keep watch. Sunrise 7:34 AM, sunset 5:14 PM.
At least we’re not enduring the temporary ice age that’s enveloping the Midwest. As I write this it’s 28 below in Minneapolis and minus 18 in Chicago, with enough wind to make it feel colder than nighttime on Mars. It’s so cold that the unofficial creed of the post office…”Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds”… is temporarily on ice. The U.S. Postal Service is stopping delivery in parts or all of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. I know we have Daily Drip readers in those brutally cold states: we send warm thoughts and comfortable virtual hugs!
Midway up the snowy north side of Mt. Hood is the wreckage of a small plane that took off from a Camas airstrip on Friday. The Battleground man at the controls didn’t make it. I’m told George Regis was the owner of a flooring company in Sellwood, and that he loved the mountains. He was believed to be on a heading toward Texas or Arizona.
The Clark County measles count is now 36, plus one in Multnomah County, one in Deschutes County, and two in Hawaii, namely the Washington kids who sprouted symptoms while on vacation. Plus an adult from the Seattle picked it up on a trip to Vancouver. The total is expected to grow significantly. A church in Vancouver thinks a Bible study class may have been the origin of the local outbreak: a girl visiting from Florida may have brought the infection here over Christmas. The church says it encourages vaccinations, but many members who came here from the former Soviet Union are suspicious of such things.
It’s fizzled in the past, but Oregon Rep. Mitch Greenlick is sponsoring a bill to run a commuter train between Portland and Salem. He’d like to extend Trimet’s WES line, between Beaverton and Wilsonville, another 29 miles south.
Three Oregon lawmakers have introduced a bill the “prohibits landlords that allow pets from charging tenants additional rent or fees based on possession of pets.”
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Senator Ron Wyden is putting the heat on the FBI to investigate the five cases from Oregon where Saudi students have been accused of serious crimes–and skipped bail with the apparent help of their government. Wyden’s demand for action came during a Senate committee hearing, where the chiefs of the nation’s intelligence agencies delivered a threat assessment that directly contradicted President Trump by concluding that North Korea is not about to give up its nuclear stockpiles and that Iran is not, for now, taking steps to make a nuclear bomb. They also said the Russia and China are cooperating with each other more closely than at any time since the 1950s. And they didn’t mention the supposed invasion of our southern border as a threat at all.
We expect any day to hear confirmation that Intel, Oregon’s largest private employer, is planning a major manufacturing plant expansion in Hillsboro. They just announced an $11 billion facility in Israel, and the news release alluded to expansion in Oregon as well.
Apple says it will release a fix later this week of a security bug that a 14-year-old boy discovered, in which the FaceTime app could eavesdrop on people, even before recipients answer calls.
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Random items for today from the DD files…
A Portland brainiac who invented the computer mouse was born here on this day in 1925. Douglas Engelbart was a graduate of Franklin HS and OSU.
This is the day in 1969 of the Beatles famous rooftop performance on Savile Row in London, a quiet street except for the clots of gawking tourists (like me in 2010).
On this day in 1973, KISS played their first show at a club iin Queens, New York. They play their last Portland concert this Friday.
The Portland Trail Blazers (31-20) play the hot Utah Jazz (29-22, but winners of 9 of their last 11) at the Moda Center tonight. ESPN, NBC Sports NW, and Rip City Radio 620.
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Tell me something good??
–“A cure for cancer? Israeli scientists say they THINK they’ve found one.”.
–“Barack Obama’s former chef to use $250,000 lottery winnings to feed the homeless
–“McDonald’s workers open restaurant after-hours to feed little girls after father was arrested”
–“Soccer ball survives Challenge explosion”
–“Canadian police officer filmed helping woman with groceries on snowy street”
Details at the links posted in the comment section of my Facebook page. The Coffee Cup will return as soon as I defeat my own technical adequacies that are thwarting me from figuring out the supposedly better new system for posting on our web site.
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That wraps up the day’s Drippitudes. Hope you’re wrapped up and warm!
Portland's Daily Drip 