Good morning, sunshine! It’s Thursday, April 4, 2019, and that sunshine will have to be within us, as showers increase through the day becoming a steady downpour by nightfall. Highs around 60. Sunrise 6:45 AM, sunset 7:42 PM.
Before anything else: Fifty-one years ago today, civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis. Our deepest hope is that good will continue to triumph over evil, as Dr. King’s life is magnified shining through history, while the hatred that took his life cowers in shame.
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No idea how it happened, but a two-year-old girl suffered a gunshot wound in south Salem last night, and was Lifeflighted to Portland where she is receiving treatment right now.
Authorities will use DNA to check out the story of a 14-year-old boy who says he escaped from kidnappers in Kentucky, and that he is, in fact, Timmothy Pitzen, who was kidnapped in Illinois when he was six. If true, you have to know that loved ones of Kyron Horman will find encouragement in their ongoing efforts to find their child, who vanished in Portland in 2010.
The New York Times reports that some members of the previously leak-proof Mueller investigative team are taking exception to Attorney General Barr’s summary of their findings, and they have summaries of their own that are less exculpatory to the president. We all know there’s one way to find out who’s right: read the report for ourselves, and then decide.
The “Portland Rally to Release the Mueller Report” will take over the north end of Waterfront Park at SW Ankeny St. from 5 to 7 today.
A Portland baggage handler has admitted to stealing guns from the luggage of passengers at PDX. He stole six pistols from five different bags during a month-long period last summer.
This is why we’re short of cops: Portland has 120 police vacancies. Sixty people applied. Only three made it through background checks. A lot of that is because of cannabis consumption: anyone who’s toked up, or whatever they call it now, in the past year automatically fails, because marijuana is still illegal under federal law.
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People who care deeply about cars are drawn like iron to a magnet to the PIR Auto Swap Meet at Portland International Raceway, which starts today, and the unrelated Portland Swap Meet at the nearby Expo Center starting tomorrow. Thousands of grilles, acres of chrome, fender upon fender, taillights galore…and that’s just in the traffic jam getting in. Need a hood for your ’65 SuperSport? Hey, this is where the hoods hang out! It all starts at 7 AM.
There’s no evidence of it, but President Trump told the National Republican Congressional Committee dinner that the sound from windmills causes cancer. He also predicted that the contents of his speech would be leaked to the media, while it was being carried live on C-Span.
Happy birthday to Los Angeles, incorporated this day in 1850.
It’s been announced that Celine Dion is coming to the Moda Center on April 13, 2020. To sing.
I must share with you an item in my inbox which says today is Free Burrito Day all Fuego food carts between 11 AM and 2 PM. You can find their carts in Montgomery Park, Pioneer Courthouse Square, The Pearl, Lloyd Center, Keller Auditorium, SW 5th and Salmon, and SW 2nd and Morrison.
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And while we’re sharing, let’s post the day’s good news headlines, with links posted in the DD Coffee Cup!
—“Schoolboy, 12, carries his disabled friend to school every day”
—“Colorado deputy drove through the “bomb cyclone” to help save a newborn’s life.”
—“Unused cafeteria food turned into take-home frozen meals for kids”
—“Officer throws bullied boy a party after no one shows up to his birthday”
—“Once thought to be the last of his species, he’s found a mate”
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Many thanks to the Royal Rosarians and their guests who turned out at the Doubletree by Hilton for the Newsmakers of the Year Banquet, which Bruce Murdock and I MC’d last night for the umpteenth year. It may have been the most inspiring ever, as all of the city’s TV news stations along with the Pamplin Media Group introduced us to the heroic individuals behind stories of good deeds and high achievement ranging from the first responders who saved a choking baby at a mall, to the DACA recipient who became the first of his family to attend college and is now student body president at PSU. We had a chance to thank a veteran of WWII in the Pacific, and met a onetime star football player who hit rock bottom on the streets of Portland and who now extends a helping hand to others, like the one who saved him. All kinds of K103 listeners and Daily Drip readers dropped by to say hello, and we extend our best wishes right back.
And now, with a little extra caffeine on board, let’s have a bright and positive day!
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