Here comes your Daily Drip for another potentially stormy summer day, with best wishes to you for a happy Thursday, June 27, 2019! Today’s PDX forecast is like a copy/paste of yesterday’s: Partly sunny. Chance of showers in the morning, then showers likely with a chance of thunderstorms in the afternoon. Even the sunrise/sunset times are identical: Highs around 65. Sunrise 5:23 AM, sunset 9:03 PM.
That was a frisky little storm for some of us! Thunderclouds billowed like scoops of ice cream over the Cascades east of the Valley, and hail covered the highway like slushy snow on the way to Mt. Hood. Air traffic control scrambled to direct jets around dangerous storm cells. Then it all powered into the Portland area, largely east of 205, dousing the lights on 26,000 PGE customers and 5000 in Clark PUD country, and scaring the whee out of many a family dog. Today’s thunderstorm setup doesn’t look quite as organized, but who knows?
The storm scrambled our satellite TV signal during the Democratic presidential debate–faces kept freezing into a pixilated mess–but the affair had the intended effect of helping a few of the candidates stand out from the crowd. Elizabeth Warren certainly looked comfortable, but others jumped out too. I don’t have the space/time bandwidth to summarize the debate without contributing to the lazy media-lazy voter continuum by posting a bunch of juicy soundbites and calling it coverage. But I’ll quote an apt Twitter exchange that preceded the debate. Somebody in the media tweeted, “Security person outside debate site just now: are you here to pick up press credentials? John Hickenlooper: I’m a candidate.” To which Hickenlooper tweeted: “Last time, we elected the most famous candidate. Let’s try something new.”
There was a hot mic moment during the debate, when NBC got cute and switched moderators at halftime–but left the microphones hot for the mods who had just left the stage. Confusion filled the air for a few moments before they went to commercial and got their act together. It could have been sooo much worse. A scene from “Naked Gun” comes to mind. NBC has a chance to regroup for Debate Two tonight, featuring the likes of Joe, Bernie, and Kamala.
It’s Day Eight of the GOP state senators’ late-session walkabout, and though there are rumors of a return by the weekend, some of the missing politicians are considering demanding more concessions from Democrats before they’ll come back–such as a delay in a public vote on the newly-passed education tax that would blow a hole in schools’ budgets next year.
The 71-year old man accused of tearing through a park in his Jeep and running over two German visitors who were sunbathing on a Washougal River beach had a blood alcohol level of .085 percent, according to police. He was turned in by his son-in-law. The two are being called ” tourists” in the media, but they were just in town visiting family. They’re identified as Rudolf Hohstadt, 61, and Regina Hohstadt, 62.
A judge has given a second chance to a woman who left her two kids in the rain on the Rockwood MAX platform while she downed a bottle of wine and passed out in front of the bar: she’s been given five years of probation. And though she lost custody of the kids, she could get them back if she builds a life without addiction. The silent angel in this is the woman who spotted the baby boy and 12-year-old girl crying that night–and stayed with them for an hour to see if the mom returned. And called police when she didn’t.
New Blazer Kent Bazemore made his first Portland impression with these words about his Rip City teammates: “I’m excited to have them as allies now. The culture here is great. I’m here to continue to move the franchise in the right direction and that’s winning a championship. It’s like the first time you meet your wife, it just fits your eyes.” And then…perhaps morphing Bill Schonely with Bud Clark, he looked into the camera and said, “Rip rip!”
The TriMet board is rolling ahead on a plan to speed up crosstown MAX traffic by closing a couple of Transit Mall light rail stops permanently, and the Kings Hill/Salmon station for an experimental year—while keeping the Skidmore Fountain station open, as predicted here yesterday (humble brag). They’ll take a final vote at next month’s meeting.
So, what’s on the bottom of the Willamette River? I don’t know, but as of this morning there are 57 fewer e-scooters and bikes than just a few days ago. The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Dive Team used their training days to go scooter hunting–and it turns out they needed a bigger boat!
Fifty years ago tonight, patrons at the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in New York’s Greenwich Village, clashed with police–and thus was born the gay rights movement.
Lyle Lovett and his hair perform at McMenamin’s Edgefield tonight.
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Mmm let’s see what’s next. I know!
–” ‘How lucky am I?’: Inspired by son with diabetes and late father, man golfs in 50 states in 50 days”
–” A 12-YO Makes Shelter Animals Cool Bow Ties, Helps Them Get Adopted”
–“On thin ice: Alberta man jumps into icy pond to rescue dog”
–“A Dangerous Job: Snake Milkers Risk Their Lives to Save Others”
–“58 Realistic Mannequins Placed Around The World To Mess With People”
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That’s all I’ve got so far. Love to hear your thoughts on the storm…the debate…the hot mess in the legislature..or life in general!
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