Here we are sleepily getting into a Thursday, July 18, 2019! Portland’s weather starts out with clouds overhead like a pod of lazy whales and a 20% chance of showers, then pure July sun with highs of 75. Our hottest weather in two months–but still well short of 90–is threatened to start Sunday. Sunrise comes at 5:39 AM, and sunset goes at 8:54 PM.
Here’s how your member of Congress voted–if you’re from the Portland metro area or anywhere in Oregon–as the House, by a 332-95 margin, snuffed out an effort to impeach President Trump. All Republicans voted to table the dump-Trump measure, including Oregon’s Greg Walden and SW Washington’s Jaime Herrera Beutler, as did Oregon City Democrat Kurt Schrader. Voting on the impeach side were Portland-area Democrats Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici, while downstate Democrat Peter DeFazio voted “present,” and I’ve messaged him on Twitter for comment.
At a Trump rally in North Carolina last night…the old “Lock Her Up” chant has been replaced with “Send Her Back.”
Reports from Tehran say Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has seized a foreign oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and accused its crew of smuggling oil.
Mayor Ted Wheeler brought to Capitol Hill the story of what Portland is doing about climate change. Speaking to a special committee created by Senate Democrats, Wheeler said preserving the climate and enjoying a vibrant economy are not mutually exclusive goals: “We’ve done it while our population has ballooned and our economy has thrived.” He said the secret is in trimming carbon emissions by creating safe infrastructure for cyclists and pedestrians and fast, affordable, convenient public transportation. How to pay for it? “Tolling on federal roadways,” Wheeler said.
The 19-year-old driver who smacked his ’91 Cutlass into a parked semi in Gresham the other night at 80 MPH was high on marijuana and taking a Snapchat video, according to police. He and his young woman passenger–whom he abandoned trapped in the car–were badly hurt but should survive.
Oregon had a little taste of the recent West Coast seismic festivities yesterday with a 5.4-magnitude earthquake in the Blanco Fracture Zone 140 miles off the southern Oregon coast. Let me check the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network to see if anything’s been happening as of 0400…nope, not there, but a 2.6 at 1:30 AM near Mt. St. Helens, which is pretty normal stuff.
Food cart lovers who’ve felt hungry and abandoned since the Alder Street pod was bigfooted by the Ritz-Carlton can rejoice at news that a space has been nailed down. It’s right along Burnside in the shadow of Big Pink, at SW 8th and Ankeny, in the sketchy square across the street from the North Park Blocks. There’ll be room for 30 carts, which will wipe out 22 parking spots. We’ll learn the opening date soon.
The Australian Shepherd who was plucked from a cliffside in Canby by the Oregon Humane Society the other day is home and happy. His Mom says she’d been searching for 9 days; not quite the seven-week ordeal endured by Sandra and Dylan’s (my daughter and hubby) cat Oliver, who’s doing great BTW. Anyway, the dog’s name is Chase, and he hopped right into his Mom’s back seat for a joyful return home. He will soon be chipped and licensed.
Let’s give a happy birthday shout to Oregon’s largest private employer, Intel! Founded this day in 1968 in Mountain View, California by a couple of brainiacs including my Dad’s Grinnell College roommate, Robert Noyes! Dad was busy starting up the college radio station while Bob was messing around with science stuff, and stealing a pig from the mayor’s farm and roasting it at a luau. Today’s Bob’s name is on Grinnell buildings and stuff…but Dad’s radio station is still on the air!
Lots of our kids will be quite happily packing the lawn as the artist Lizzo raps and rhymes and shakes what she’s got tonight and tomorrow night at Edgefield. There’s no artist who’s hotter right now.
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After all that news stuff, I look for stories I think you’ll like, and post them here, with links at the Coffee Cup.
–“Maui family turns a baby luau into an opportunity to feed brush fire evacuees”
–“Woman who saved home by baking apple cakes to celebrate 10 years as entrepreneur”
–“Man rescues baby Swan whilst getting slapped by his Dad”
–“Flowers can hear bees and it results in them producing sweeter nectar”
–“Area 51 Raid Spawns Rival Facebook Event: ‘Storm the Bermuda Triangle. It Can’t Swallow All of Us.'”
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Hey, a quick note about this FaceApp thing, which makes all your friends suddenly look 85 years old? I for one am staying the hell off that thing. It’s a Russian creation in which millions of trend-happy, gullible Americans blithely click YES on an agreement to “…grant FaceApp a perpetual, irrevocable, nonexclusive, royalty-free, worldwide, fully-paid, transferable sub-licensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, publicly perform and display your User Content and any name, username or likeness provided in connection with your User Content in all media formats and channels now known or later developed, without compensation to you.” Facial recognition is already a scary reality–and now we’re not only signing our photos off to the Russians–but also the projected images of us at age 85? Man, are we dumb.
Besides, my FaceApp photos look exactly like I do right now….
Have a very fine Thursday!
Portland's Daily Drip 