Monday, July 8, 2019

Well, there you are! You’ve been missed! We’re back together again this morning on Monday, July 8, 2019, and let’s see if we can remember how to do this Daily Drip thing. Weather first, right? My reading of the wx geek chatter is that a shallow marine layer will retreat to the coast by lunchtime, and then we’ll turn it up toward 77 degrees–for the warmest day of the week. Long-range charts say it’ll stay cooler than normal for at least the next two weeks. Any complaints out there? None here! Nice symmetrical numbers today: Sunrise 5:30 AM, sunset 9:00 PM…..
USA 2-0!
It’s such a red-blooded American feeling to wake up in the country that owns the Women’s World Cup!–especially since it was won by a team led by a University of Portland star who’s now a youth-culture icon, and populated by past and present Portland Thorns. Former UP Pilot Megan Rapinoe has never been hotter than she is today, and while she’s outspoken and controversial, this is America and that’s a fundamental right, same as your right to cheer, jeer, or not give a damn. (But let’s pull in the elbows a little, ‘k?) There’s a back story that Megan herself briefly alluded to during her postgame interview on FOX, and I’ll share it at the end of this report. Meantime, a ticker-tape parade down the Canyon of Heroes is scheduled for 9:30 AM Eastern time Wednesday in Manhattan. And respect is due the Netherlands’ team: they put up a stiffer fight than many expected.
Say, and the Timbers beat New York FC…in Yankee Stadium….1-0!
It’ll be 89 degrees today in Fairbanks Alaska, continuing a history-melting heat wave that brought Anchorage its first 90-degree reading in history–on the 4th of July.
A couple of hot embers are flaring up today from Oregon’s recent legislative imbroglio over a climate change bill:
Senator Brian Boquist is being hauled before the Senate Special Committee on Conduct for the menacing comments he famously made prior to the Republican walkout on HB2020. The hearing’s at 9 AM.
And…today a grass seed farmer and a logger who were active in the rural protest that helped shoot down the climate bill are being rewarded with a trip to the White House to hear President Trump speak on the topic of “America’s environmental leadership.” The two are members of Timber Unity, the populist PAC that began as a Facebook page just a month ago, and twice brought convoys of log trucks to ring the Capitol.
There’s a sold-out campaign event at Portland’s Old Church tonight featuring Washington Governor Jay Inslee, whose presidential bid is all about attacking climate change.
It’s Day 900 of the Trump presidency. His approval rating is currently at the highest of his term–44 percent among voting-age Americans, up from 39% in April, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll taken June 28-July 1. In hypothetical matchups between Trump and Democratic candidates, only Joe Biden has a decisive lead. Long way to go; the next debates are three weeks from tomorrow.
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Something that’s bubbling under that we’ll be watching: Portland-area grocery store workers who belong to Local 555 of the United Food and Commercial Workers have voted nearly unanimously to authorize a strike against Albertsons, Fred Meyer, QFC, and Safeway. No date is set, and talks continue.
Speaking of stocking up on groceries, just in case…with aftershocks continuing to jiggle seismometers and jangle nerves in SoCal–I’m wondering, as a practical matter, how we’re all doing in the emergency kit department? Let’s not have a tsk-tsk judgment thread, but I’d like to encourage folks to take steps, if only of the baby variety. We ourselves have stuff stashed haphazardly, but I’m sure there are gaps. Anyone have a system?
Yikes…a gentleman was walking his Sheltie on Springwater Trail up by Powell Butte when another dog owner’s St. Bernard slipped its leash and jumped the little dog. Sad to say the Sheltie didn’t survive..its owner was bitten…and the other dog and owner split the scene.
Let’s send our best wishes to Stevie Wonder….who dropped the news on a concert crowd at London’s Hyde Park that he will have a kidney transplant in September. He says he’s found a donor, and that he’ll do three more shows before the operation.
This was the day in 1947 when a flying saucer supposedly crashed in Roswell, NM.
The Beatles released “Here Comes the Sun” fifty years ago today.
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If you like your news sunny-side up, you’ve scrolled to the right place!
–“Cops pay for groceries of Whole Foods shoplifter in emotional act of kindness”
–“Sisters who donated kidneys set off a chain-reaction of giving”
–“A man found an ailing bird but was too intoxicated to drive it to the rescue center so he called an Uber and sent the bird alone.”
–“Heroic dog saves sleeping deputy constable from Texas house fire”
–“Inmates cuddle shelter dogs during fireworks”
Details in the Coffee Cup..if I’ve remembered how to post links correctly!
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“Just one more thing. Happy birthday, Brian, I love you so much.” Those were Megan Rapinoe’s final words in a postgame interview on Fox, and they shined a light on the little-told story of the American star’s upbringing in Redding, California. Brian’s her big brother, older by five years; she and her twin sister idolized him growing up and learned to play soccer when he did, but then he got involved in drugs as a teenager, descending into heroin addiction and dealing and all the recidivist crimes that go with it, and has spent half his life in prison. He even joined a white supremacist prison gang, but made friends with a black activist in solitary confinement and changed his ways. Had the swastika tattoo on his palm changed into a spider’s web. And through it all, his connection with Megan has been fundamental to him and to her; her kneeling for the National Anthem after Colin Kaepernick started doing that, plus her activism on different causes, are controversial to many people, but they’re an inspiration to Brian and part of their relationship. He’s in a halfway house and almost done with his latest sentence, which–inspired by his strong and powerful sister–he vows will be his last.
Man the air! Ram the ramparts! Let’s have a Monday that shines!