Greetings, working comrades and traveling folks alike! Welcome to the second day of Spring Break. As we delve into the details of the weather report, we unearth this quote: “SYNOPSIS…Generally cool and showery weather will persist over northwest Oregon and southwest Washington this week except for Tuesday and Saturday, which will stand the best chance of ending up dry.” So today’s weather, on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, makes this a day you really want to seize…sunny after morning fog, and highs around 60. The coast has a chance of showers with 55-60 highs, and the Cascades will glow in the sun with highs in the 40s and a perfectly skiable 5000 foot snow level. Sunrise 7:02 AM, sunset 7:30 PM.
First item is from the Blazer beat, and even though the team clinched a spot in the playoffs by beating the Brooklyn Nets 148-144 in double overtime, the news is not good at all. Beloved center Jusuf Nurkic suffered a brutal leg injury while jumping for a rebound during the second OT and was carted off the court on a stretcher while teammates and opponents alike gathered in prayer, and fans stood in shocked silence. He was taken to a local hospital with a compound fracture of the tibia and fibula and is certainly gone for the duration of the season. Crushing.
Bet this is the talk in the car among families heading to the beach today….near Manzanita a sneaker wave snuck in under a big driftwood log that a woman was sitting on, and rolled it over right onto her. She has a dozen broken ribs but is up and smiling in her hospital room in Portland. The same wave also knocked over some people who were frolicking in the surf, but they’re OK. People who live on the coast say it seems like the waves are extra-crazy this year; they’re spotting an unusual amount of driftwood. We’ve all been taught the saying, and we’re teaching it to our children. Don’t turn your back…well, you know the rest.
One year ago today. The SUV carrying the parents and six children of the Hart family from Oregon and Washington was discovered upside-down at the bottom of a 100-foot cliff in Mendocino County, California. It was driven over the edge by intoxicated mother Jennifer, and we still don’t know why. Remains had been recovered, except those of Devonte, the young African-American boy in that famous photo hugging a Portland cop, in tears that said more than we knew when the picture went viral. Seems like these people slipped through a whole bunch of cracks.
The tweet that Michael Avenatti wishes he’d never sent reads like this:” Tmrw at 11 am ET, we will be holding a press conference to disclose a major high school/college basketball scandal perpetrated by @Nike that we have uncovered. This criminal conduct reaches the highest levels of Nike and involves some of the biggest names in college basketball.” Turns out its part of what federal prosecutors say was an old-fashioned shakedown that Stormy Daniel’s ex-lawyer attempted to perpetrate against the Oregon-based shoemaker, threatening Nike lawyers with phrases like, “I’ll go take $10 billion off your client’s market cap. … I’m not f***ing around.” Neither are the feds, who also filed bank fraud charges against him in a separate case.
****
NASA’s first all-female spacewalk has been scrapped because of a problem involving spacesuit sizes.
Look out! Flocks of scooters may be back on Portland streets one month from today.
Construction began last night on the new wind turbines atop the Tilikum Crossing Bridge of the People.
A federal ban on bump stocks begins today. Those are gun gizmos that allow shooters to fire semiautomatic rifles continuously like a machine gun with a single pull of the trigger. Owners had 90 days to turn in or destroy them, and that time is now up.
The 4th of July is 100 days from today.
Diana Ross was born this day in 1944; Steven Tyler of Aerosmith, in 1948.
This is the day Robert Frost (1874) and Tennesse Williams (1911) came into this world…and Ludwig van Beethoven (1827) and Walt Whitman (1892) departed it.
****
When you see scary things on the news, just look for the helpers, Mister Rogers said…
–“Hero teen rescues blind 16-year-old dog stuck in sewer drain”
–“Community rallies behind Verizon worker suspended for rescuing cat”
–“UPS Driver Notices Elderly Customer Hasn’t Picked Up Box & Ends Up Saving His Life”
–“Iowa Farmers Send Relief To Nebraska Flood Victim”
–“Keanu Reeves got stranded at the airport and took a bus back home with shocked passengers”
****
I’m back on the radio with Bruce and Jane this morning on 103.3 FM, and thank you to 1190 KEX’s Brad Ford for pulling double duty. I’ll return the favor this morning.
Portland's Daily Drip 