Good morning, friends..we’re venturing together into a Monday, April 15, 2019. Showers will come and showers will go, and we’ll see highs in the low 50s. That’s ten degrees cooler than typical for us. We’re tentatively penciling in Thursday as the best day of the week with highs of 70. Sunrise 6:25 AM, sunset 7:56 PM.
What a weekend…there was joy, to be sure… but we must first acknowledge the loss of Cowlitz County Deputy Justin DeRosier, who was just 29 years old when was shot and killed while investigating a motor home that was blocking Fallert Road in Kalama. Deputy DeRosier was a Kelso native and WSU graduate, married with a 5-month-old daughter. His was the first death in the line of duty in the history of the Cowlitz County Sheriffs Office, dating back to the 1800s. Last night we received word that the suspect was spotted emerging from the woods near the crime scene. Police say he raised his weapon toward them, and they fired and killed him.
An hour after the shooting of Deputy DeRosier, and 40 miles away, a Milwaukie officer was shot by a man he was questioning about an earlier incident. He’s home and fine, and the suspect is in custody.
A 22-year old graduate of Portland’s Jesuit High, who was just weeks away from graduating from Fordham University in New York, died in a fall from the university’s bell tower, which she and some friends had accessed to catch the view of the Bronx. Sydney Monfries was a journalism major, and served an internship at KGW-TV.
A concerning story in the Sunday Oregonian says Zenith Energy, the privately-owned New Jersey company that’s sending oil trains through the Gorge to Vancouver and ultimately to a terminal on the Willamette River in Portland, has failed to carry out agreed-on preparedness drills involving the highly toxic Canadian tar sands that it’s hauling. The company rolled 2,800 tankers of crude oil to Portland in 2018.
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It’s so wonderful to see the Blazers hang a “W” in Game One against OKC! Remember that good old Rip City playoff feeling? I feel it coming back again! This is a “high character” team, in the words of center Enes Kanter, the friendly giant from Turkey who’s been embraced by this town, even as he fills the role of the wounded and beloved Jusuf Nurkic. Kanter’s reality is so much deeper than anything that happens on a basketball court. There’s a story in New York Magazine that’s worth your time, and I’ve linked it in the “Good News” coffee cup below.
Tiger Woods’ win in the Masters–ending an eleven-year dry spell–resonates in Portland beyond the fact that we (mostly) all love a redemption story. It was at Pumpkin Ridge out west of town in 1996 that 20-year old Tiger made believers of the few remaining skeptics with his epic win at the US Amateur tournament. Nike’s Phil Knight was there watching for every hole, and when a reporter asked him if Tiger could be to golf what Michael Jordan was to basketball, Knight answered, “You bet. Same deal.” Tiger immediately dropped out of Stanford and turned pro. Just a year later, he won his first of five Masters, beginning to amass major championships. His total is now 15; his goal all along has been to reach and exceed Jack Nicklaus’ record 18 majors…and suddenly, now, that seems to be in Tiger’s reach. (His secret, for relieving stress and providing a quick sugar boost, is chewing gum. He says he picked it up from Michael Jordan).
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Maybe today…maybe not…but a redacted version of the Mueller report is expected to be released this week.
This is the day in 1912 when the Titanic sank 12,000 feet to the bottom of the western Atlantic, less than three hours after brushing an iceberg which popped the ship’s rivets, claiming 1,495 lives.
It’s the day in 1865 when President Lincoln died, after being shot the night before–on Good Friday–by John Wilkes Booth. He was a handsome and wealthy 26-year old actor who was famous for playing Shakespeare–his favorite role was the assassin Brutus–but he harbored a white supremacist’s ardent opposition to Lincoln’s abolition of slavery.
Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier as he took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers on this date in 1947.
The Seattle Mariners were swept by the Houston Astros, but one of the M’s hit a home run….extending the teams major league record for consecutive games with a home run to start a season to eighteen.
It’s tax day.
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We need something good to ease our Monday, right? This might help:
–“Why We Love Enes Kanter of the Portland Trail Blazers”
–“A Chicago man ran the Boston Marathon with a cow heart valve 11 weeks after open-heart surgery. 13 years later, he’s running for another milestone.”
–“Firefighter adopts puppy he rescued from under pile of rocks.” Watch the rescue at the link below.
–“Climber abandons Everest ascent to rescue injured Sherpa”
–“Willie Nelson Rescued 70 Horses From The Slaughterhouse”
–“Dad Immediately Regrets Letting Toddler Play With iPad When He Sees Lock Screen.”
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Bruce is out for a checkup today so Janine’s back in the pilot’s seat. When I first came to Portland, my job was to buzz around in a Cessna doing traffic reports on the morning show hosted by Uncle Don Wright on 62KGW, and he had a tag line that always stuck with me: “Love yourself…and pass it on!”
Portland's Daily Drip 