Good morning and welcome to all Dripsters and Quiet Readers (we’re trying out less-creeper terms than “lurkers”). Here we are, slouching into a thirsty Thursday, June 13, 2019! I’m feeling parched after two days under the solar broiler, and I’m pretty sure there’s a lot more of that to come. Broiler alert! But today will be more liveable–and lovable–than where we’ve been. Yesterday etched a record highs of 98 for Portland, and now we await a puff of wind from the west, an oceanic usher of cooler air from the Pacific that will limit us to a high of 80 to 85. Sunrise 5:21 AM…followed by our first 9:00 PM sunset of the year!
Air quality is fine so far today, and the arising westerlies should keep it that way. I wish there’d been a heads-up about the descent into unhealthful conditions yesterday afternoon, but I didn’t see one from any of the trusted sources. Maybe I missed it.
Aw, right in the middle of the year’s hottest afternoon, the health department hoisted a toxic algae advisory for Vancouver Lake. All people and animals reading this are advised to avoid areas of floating blue and green-colored scum. Dang, that’s the first thing I’d swim into on a day like this!
Well, we’ve done it…Oregon’s the 15th state to join the National Popular Vote Compact. Under a law signed yesterday by Governor Brown, our electoral votes would be awarded to whichever presidential candidate gets the most votes nationally, regardless of how this state actually votes. It’s part of a blueprint to render moot the electoral college, which has given us two 21st Century presidents who didn’t get the most votes. Just my unsolicited view, here: I cringe at the possibility of our state’s collective vote being cast in any way other than how we voted. Just how much confidence do we have in the integrity of our national elections?
By the by…Oregon’s Ron Wyden is seething at the Senate’s GOP gatekeeper, Mitch McConnell, for spiking his bill to mandate cybersecurity standards for elections. Wyden tweets that thanks to McConnell, “what happens in 2020 will make what happened in 2016 look like small potatoes.”
Pres. Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos that he wouldn’t necessarily alert the FBI if approached by foreign figures with dirt on his 2020 opponent, saying “It’s not an interference. They have information. I think I’d take it.” When pressed about its apparent illegality (because it’s a foreign campaign contribution), Trump responded: “Oh, give me a break — life doesn’t work that way.”
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A major effort to throttle down Oregon’s greenhouse gas emissions cleared a tough hurdle yesterday as HB 2020, which sets up an emission cap that shrinks over time, and requires polluters to pay increasing amounts for every ton they emit, passed the legislature’s joint budget committee and heads to the House floor.
Today at 1 is the memorial service in the Oregon Senate chambers for State Sen. Jackie Winters, the first African-American Republican elected to the Legislature, who died on May 29 at age 82.
PSU, which just handed its fired president a platinum parachute, makes the case today for an 11% tuition hike before the Higher Education Coordinating Commission. UPDATE–PSU cut the tuition hike to 4.9% yesterday, so they don’t have to get HECC approval.
The long-forsaken Blue Heron paper mill that stands like a jilted bride at the edge of Willamette Falls in Oregon City is apparently being sold to the Confederated Tribes of the Grande Ronde, according to reporting by Willamette Week’s Nigel Jaquiss. They say it’s not for a casino, but for future real estate development, economic diversification, and ready access to their ancestral fishing waters. It’s not lost on us that those are the same waters and same lands–along with pretty much the whole Willamette Valley–from which the ancestors of the modern tribal members were forcibly evicted by the United States government in 1855.
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Today’s the day the city begins writing actual tickets, and not just empty warnings, to heavyfooted folks who can’t abide by the new 40 MPH limit on the Marine Drive, out past the airport, a dragstrip of a stretch where many a crash has occurred.
It was good seeing Multnomah County cops walking up to wary people on the street yesterday–and handing them bottles of nice cold water. You have a right to remain hydrated. Any water you drink can and will keep you healthy. If you cannot afford a water bottle, one will be provided for you.
Officers respond to all kinds of calls that never make the news. A Washington County sheriffs deputy in Banks saved the day when somebody’s tiny dog got tangled up in the mini-blinds. Puppy’s terrified, the owner is panicking, 911 is called, deputy calmly cuts free the poor scared animal and heads back on patrol.
Golden State, down 3 games to 2, hosts the Toronto Raptors tonight in Oakland in the NBA finals, even as Kevin Durant confirms on his Instagram that he’s had surgery for a ruptured Achilles’ tendon. He’ll be out most or all of next season. By the way….quit blaming the coaches. KD wanted to play. Championship series, elimination game, you’re a star…you would, too. And he looked good! Until he didn’t.
The Portland Timbers beat the Seattle Sounders 2-1.
The St Louis Blues are anything but blue today, having won the first Stanley Cup in team history.
She wrote “Eat Pray Love” and other works, and tonight Elizabeth Gilbert is at Revolution Hall, in an appearance presented by Powell’s Books.
Irish poet William Butler Yeats was born this day in 1865.
This was the day in 1966 the US Supreme Court ruled in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them.
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Heads for a happier heart…
–“House panel unanimously passes 9/11 victims fund bill after Jon Stewart shaming”
–“Iowa school giving students PE credits for helping elderly, people with disabilities do yard work”
–“The millionaire who saved the 11-year-old boy who studied under a lamp”
–“Former gang leader thanks police for prison”
–“Student-created charity sends medical supplies to the Navajo Nation”
Details in the coffee cup.
Portland's Daily Drip 