Morning friends! Your virtual town crier here, shimmying up the clock tower on this Monday, July 15, 2019, to ring out the news that the world’s still here and so are you! We’re getting the gentlest little push of weather from the ocean that could bring us just a smizzle of rain, and highs of 77 in Portland, 67 in Astoria, and 62 at Government Camp. Accuweather’s long-range guess continues to be that Portland will not reach 90 again this year. Sunrise 5:36 AM, sunset 8:56 PM.
Happy 29th birthday to Portland Trail Blazer star Damian Lillard!
The ICE raids supposedly began Sunday, as pre-announced by President Trump, but I’m not seeing the millions who were originally threatened, or the thousands, in his subsequently revised tweets. Mayor DeBlasio in New York says they carried out two raids and didn’t find their targets. Portland is not on the target city list, although one woman with two DUIs was taken in last week. Portland Police Chief Danielle Outlaw sought to reassure anxious people that local police can indeed be trusted not to hand over undocumented immigrants to the Feds: “Now more than ever it is important to understand and recognize the uncertainty and fear for many in our immigrant communities, not just around immigration enforcement efforts, but also hate crimes,” said Outlaw. “Members of the Police Bureau continue our outreach efforts to build relationships, especially in communities that may be distrustful of police. We want everyone in our community to feel safe and protected.”
Many folks try to ignore the ongoing campaign rally that is the president’s twitter feed, but it’s hard not to be aware of the dismay over his telling four United States Congresswomen of color to quit telling America how to run its affairs and go back to where they came from. All but one were…cue Springsteen… Born in the USA. DJT and AOC are slugging it out on Twitter this morning; it’s really quite remarkable.
Today is Twitter’s 13th birthday.
It’s Amazon Prime Day–tomorrow, too–with killer deals that come and go, but only for members of Amazon Prime, which costs $119/year. Other retailers have similar online promotions, and your neighborhood brick and mortar stores hope you’ll remember them too.
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Thorns win! Timbers tie.
Bryan Wheeler’s days are through as Blazers PBP voice. His impossible job was to fill the shoes of The Schonz, and he wouldn’t have lasted 21 years if he didn’t make the gig his own. I have no idea who’s next in that chair, but Travis Demers, who knows the team inside and out, did a hell of a job carrying us through the playoffs. The guy brings a respect for the team’s legacy and a knowledge of the game, and if he’s on, I’m listening.
The Steel Bridge is back open after a Sunday morning episode in which a woman climbed into the upper-level bridgetender’s shed and started pitching oil cans at the traffic below. Traffic was halted, and that means MAX too, and cops talked her down after a couple of hours.
Governor Kate Brown begins her week at the Oregon Jewish Museum and Center for Holocaust Education in downtown Portland today for the 9 AM ceremonial signing of Senate Bill 664. It will require every school district to teach students about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide starting in the 2020-21 school year.
Today’s the claim-filing deadline for all those Alberta neighborhood people who were up to their shins in Bull Run’s bubbliest when a water main inexplicably popped and spewed millions of gallons last March. The city initially declined to pay for the damage, saying it bears no legal liability, but a public outcry helped city hall discover a moral responsibility to compensate these folks.
Today’s the deadline for Portlanders to take an online survey on your “transportation experiences and investment preferences” in East Portland. We’ve had some contentious debates on the Daily Drip lately involving local spending priorities, and some of you saw me unload on an unconstructive griper last week. It’s because I truly believe that, instead of moaning from the sidelines, we have to get involved. You can do that right now by taking the survey…that I’m linking in the Coffee Cup, because citizen activism is good news!
Con Ed has yet to explain the 5-hour power outage that darkened much of Manhattan for five hours Saturday night, stranding people on subways and in elevators and canceling Broadway shows…although the cast of at least one musical serenaded people in the streets. J-Lo’s concert at Madison Square Garden was stopped; she’ll make it good tonight. Oh, and the Rolling Stones show in New Orleans was bumped to tonight by Hurricane Barry. And Paul McCartney ended his West Coast tour–which literally skipped right over Portland; if you knew the N-number of his charter jet, you could track it flying 36,000 feet above the Moda Center–anyway, he ended it in LA with a shock appearance by Ringo Starr–the closest thing we’ll get to a Beatles reunion until, well, we’re all living in the great yellow submarine in the sky.
Are you a podcast listener, like me? I’m excited because the new season of journalist Leah Sotille’s “Bundyville” drops today, which explores “the radical violence that has come out of the anti-government movement and investigates who is inspiring that violence and who stands to benefit.” Just search for “Bundyville” on the iHeartRadio app!
“Wicked” plays the Keller every night this week and next, through Sunday 7/28.
Jimmy Carter gave his “malaise” address forty years ago tonight. He never actually used that word, but it was applied by the media, which had a larger vocabulary back then. Times were weird, there was an energy crisis, gas lines stretched down the block, the Washington, DC fireworks were canceled by rain. Carter wanted us to uplift ourselves by looking within and discovering the true soul of selflessness. It didn’t go over well, and Reagan thumped him in the election the next year, but these days people from all over the world pack the church in Plains, GA whenever Jimmy’s teaching Sunday school, with pretty much the same message.
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Something good for your Monday? Sure!
–“A deputy pulled over a car for speeding. That traffic stop saved a 12-day-old baby’s life”
–“Teens push car 7 km down Ontario highway to help stranger”
–“College Grad Driving 13,000 Miles to Interview 1 Dad in Each State to Write The Dad Book: 50 Dads. 50 States.”
–“Doing these five things could decrease your risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent, new study shows”
–“City Hall Needs to Hear Your East Portland Transportation Priorities!”
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Sandra and Dylan’s prodigal kitty Oliver is home, dry, fed, and loved. Thanks to the hundreds of folks who’ve welcomed his miraculous return! I’ll be visiting today. (Scroll down into my Sunday post in case you missed it). Good luck, and good day!
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