Morning, team! It’s Tuesday, May 21, 2019, and yep, the sun comes up as always, today at 5:33 AM, and we’ll have a 50-50 chance of light showers and highs of 65 before sunset at 8:41 PM. For the summer kickoff Memorial Day weekend, they’ve added in a slight chance of showers on both Saturday and Sunday, but Monday looks dry and mild with highs of 70 to 75.
Well, friends, the Golden State Warriors put the R-I-P into Rip City and made a clean sweep of the Western Conference Finals with a 119-117 overtime win over our beloved Blazers, who showed guts, talent, and most importantly, a hint of a breakthrough in rising to the final four, after being an easy out for years. Man, I thought Damian’s 3-pointer at the buzzer was going in, but when it hit the rim and bounced away, I said a nasty word and then thought, wow. The Blazers have been playing ball with the big kids here, right on the doorstep of greatness, and I haven’t felt this hopeful about the team in decades. Plus, we love the character this team showed, and the personality, more than any other since the Drexler/Porter days. What they learned, and how we connected as a city, will serve us well. For now the defending champs get a 9-day rest before going for a three-peat in the Finals, and Portland gets, what, a two-month break before summer training camp begins.
It’s election day in Oregon, for school boards mainly. Turnout is pathetically thin–so far it’s 14% in Clackamas County where I live, and 11% in Multnomah County, home of the biggest district with the biggest problems, yet the folks being elected today will have their hands on millions, even billions, of taxpayer dollars, that need to be spent wisely and well.
A happy end to a scare for a couple of Vancouver families, whose 12-year-old daughters went out to get coffee at Dutch Bros at 8:30 PM for some reason and didn’t come home until police were called and a search commenced. They were found and reunited with their kin, and the all-clear was sounded after midnight.
The 18-year-old student who pulled a gun on a 4th-period government class at Parkrose High School last week is pleading not guilty and is held on $500,000 bail.
Today is the 21st anniversary of the shootings at Thurston High School in Springfield.
A 22-year-old Corvallis woman is in Legacy Emanual Hospital with life-threatening injuries after she fell about 100 feet while taking pictures at the Neahkahnie Mountain Viewpoint on Highway 101. A tree stopped her from plunging all the way into the ocean.
A man in Forest Grove is sentenced to probation, community service and restitution, after pleading guilty to charges that he stole $700 that his daughter collected selling Girl Scout cookies–and then used the money to pay for what prosecutors call “an erotic massage.” For seven hundred bucks? Dad-of-the-year there also staged a phony burglary of his own house to cover up his deed.
Powerhouse country vocalist Carrie Underwood, who won Season Three of American Idol and became a multiplatinum superstar, brings her Louisville Slugger to the Moda Center tonight. She has something in common with Portland folks–she’s had to put up lately with the Golden State Warriors. Her concert last week at Oracle Arena was bumped a night to make room for the Western Conference Finals.
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s feel-good School of Rock musical starts tonight at the Keller Auditorium.
Today’s birthday trio is Raymond Burr, Al Franken, and Mr. T!
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In the Good News Department….
–“Sibling Shares James Taylor’s Sweet Interaction With Nonverbal Sister Before Concert.”
–“Woman In Jamaica Returns ATM Cash And Gets Rewarded $1.2 Million For Her Honesty”
–“60 Cute Dogs At Work” (not click bait. Cool pix).
–“Parkland therapy dogs have their own special yearbook page”
–“Cafeteria Worker Fired For Giving Student Free Food Gets Job Offer From Celebrity Chef”
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The Summer Solstice is one month from today!
Portland's Daily Drip 