Ahoy, shipmates! We’re getting piped aboard on a Fleet-Week-Wednesday, June 5, 2019. This is a cloudy day with a shower possibility, and we’ll cool off to 68, down from yesterday’s 77 at PDX. And cooler yet tomorrow with showers and maybe thunderstorms. Sunrise 5:23 AM, sunset 8:55 PM, total daylight 15:32, up 1:11 from yesterday.
The eyes of the climate-debate world are on Portland as a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in a suit filed by young people who say they have a constitutional right to a safe climate which the government has violated by approving oil and gas exploration drilling. One of the judges gave a clue that the court may not get involved, saying, “We may have the wrong Congress and the wrong president. That’s occurred from time to time over history. The real question for us is whether or not we get to intervene because of that.”
An unnerving story in the LA Times gives a not very glowing report–or maybe that’s the wrong term–on the US Energy Department’s extremely vital effort to clean up the still-hot Cold War nuclear weapons waste at Hanford. The cleanup has stalled, according to the Times. The plan to turn radioactive sludge into solid glass doesn’t quite work, so it has been mothballed. And the tunnels where the waste is “temporarily” stashed have been collapsing–200 miles up the swift Columbia River from Portland.
The Oregon Senate passed a law to penalize people for calling the cops whenever they see a person of color doing something perfectly legal, like making a phone call from a hotel lobby where you’re staying, or campaigning door-to-door, as happened to the bill’s sponsor in the House. And the Senate also passed a bill giving people who were arrested for cannabis-related activities in the past that are absolutely legal today an easy way to clear their records.
What’s new in the search for Kyron Horman–now entering its tenth year–is that his mother, Desiree Young, states that the hunt has been narrowed down to “less than 100 acres,” but she won’t say where. And she’s working with an author a book, which she hopes comes out in time for his 17th birthday in September, titled “Love You Forever: The Search for Kyron Horman.” So heartbreaking. It would be nice to know the truth.
Portland Police just updated their Facebook profile picture to that of a police badge–in rainbow colors in honor of Pride Month. This is not unanimously endorsed in the comments, which are revealing.
Mystery of the day….who hid $10,000 in cash under a seat on a MAX train? A TriMet maintenance crew found the bundle about a month ago…and nobody has claimed it. The loot could become the property of the City of Beaverton because that’s where it was found.
This afternoon at 2, the Portland City Council votes to adopt PedPDX, Portland’s Citywide Pedestrian Plan, described as a 20-year strategy to make Portland a great walking city for everyone. Fine idea, but it had better include a hose.
Do you recall the Broward County deputy who did nothing to stop the gunfire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida? After a 14-month investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Scot Peterson was arrested on 7 counts of child neglect, 3 counts of culpable negligence and 1 count of perjury.
On the other end of the valorous spectrum, I had the opportunity yesterday to shake the hand of Keanon Lowe during a visit to Parkrose High School. Of course, he’s the former Duck football player, now a coach at the high school, who courageously and kindly put a stop to an armed youth’s plans several weeks ago. A nice man, and so very young. We’ll talk with him on the K103 morning show on Friday.
Here’s what to pick from the Rose Festival garden today: the Junior Parade brings joy to Hollywood with a swarm of bicycles, middle school bands, and scads of costumed kids starting at 1 PM around NE 52nd and Sandy, and winding up near Grant Park. Then, the United States Coast Guard and Royal Canadian Navy components of the Rose Festival Fleet make their way upriver like so many silvery sleek salmon, tying up alongside the downtown seawall with names like Bluebell, Steadfast, and Swordfish (from the USCG), and Nanaimo and Edmonton (from our neighbors across the northern border). I’d love to have a hat from any of them to add to my collection of honor–which most recently includes the USS John McCain.
RFK was gunned down in Los Angeles this night in 1968. He had just bounced back to win the California Democratic Primary, after losing to Eugene McCarthy in Oregon the week before. “I thought I saw him walkin’ up over the hill…”
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Our cup overfloweth!
–“Instead of a graduation bash, this high school senior threw a pizza party for the homeless”
–“Meet the Mastermind Behind the Plywood Cartoons Invading Portland”
–“Minnesota Will Pay for Your Landscaping Costs If You Plant Bee-Friendly Greenery”
–“Cowboys Came Together To Save Animals As Oklahoma Flooding Reached Record Levels”
–“The Swiss City That’s Full of Cat Ladders: a photographer captured Bern’s eclectic and charming feline structures”
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Details in the Coffee Cup….soon! I’m running late! Speaking of which..another sip, and away we go!
Portland's Daily Drip 