Well, friends, the globe has twirled a couple of times since we last convened, and now it’s Monday, July 22, 2019! Good morning, everyone, and welcome to a summertime day in Portland: sunny, a tad cooler, with highs in the low-to-mid 80s. Sunrise 5:43 AM, sunset 8:50 PM.
Say, did we hit 90 yesterday? Yep! For the third time this year, and for the first time in five weeks. In fact, it was 91 at PDX at 4:44 PM. Sure felt like it, on the riverbanks in West Linn, where our family had a picnic at a watering hole. Last year by this time. we’d had eleven 90 degree days. It’s been dangerously hot back East, but a shift in the jet stream will cool things down for New York and Chicago, with highs only in the 80s.
Weird beginnings to a couple of fires in the Northwest: One ignited when a bearing in a hay-baler broke in a Willamette Valley field, and sparks lit off a fire that rang alarms in the fire departments from Lebanon, Albany, Tangent, and Scio. A bigger blaze spread across hundreds of acres in Klickitat County when a wind turbine generator caught fire, causing melting-hot pieces to fall 300 feet to the ground, torching sagebrush and timber. That one’s still burning.
A bed and breakfast near Longview burned down early Sunday morning. All six people staying there escaped OK.
Our hearts are with the family of a 7-year-old boy who was run over and killed by a boat trailer at the Willamette Park boat ramp, along Macadam Avenue.
An early-morning porch pirate took the bait package that Washington County deputies planted on an Aloha doorstep, and when they knocked the suspect’s door, she said, oh, I found it on the sidewalk…but then ‘fessed up, and now she’s jailed not only for swiping the package but for violating parole from an earlier burglary conviction. Coffee Creek, here we come!
There’s a possible strike brewing at Oregon State University among its 1500 union employees. The two sides are presenting offers today.
Today is the trial day for a Portland lawyer accused of pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars she’d won for clients in personal injury lawsuits.
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Iran–which grabbed a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday…says it has arrested 17 people for spying for the CIA, and that some have already been sentenced to death.
It’s infuriating for us DIRECTV customers to have KOIN and CBS still gone from our lineup. We certainly hope the suits involved in the fee dispute can work it out, and fast. We dumped DISH when the same thing happened with KATU years ago. I’m not averse to making another change. In the meantime, we miss you, Jeff Gianola and Jennifer Hoff and everyone else at Channel Six!
Dig this: a tunnel to carry MAX trains beneath the Willamette is suddenly on the community agenda, as Metro and TriMet are teaming up to study building a tunnel from Lloyd Center to Goose Hollow in order to speed the crosstown travel of light rail trains–without relying on the venerable and vulnerable Steel Bridge. It all begins with an open house at 5 PM today in the Metro Council chambers on NE Grand Ave.
As of 3 AM today NW Cornelius Pass is closed, and will be until late September, for seriously needed improvements. This five-mile stretch between NW Kaiser and US 30 is notorious for crashes and truck spills as people go zipping around blind S-turns. So the county is spending $5.5 million on realigning curves, upgrading guardrails, widening shoulders, and creating pullouts. Newberry Road is the detour for cars–hence the temporary traffic light at US 30–but large trucks need to go all the way into town and take 405 to US 26, or clear down I-5 to 217 if they’re hauling hazmat, which is verboten in the Vista Ridge Tunnel. So that’ll put extra truck traffic on the westside freeways. Bet ol’ Thomas P. Cornelius never imagined any of this, when he built the road in the 1800s!
Happy birthday to Portland traffic reporting superstar Lynn Masterson!
NW author Tom Robbins was born this day in 1932. Don Henley was born this day in 1947, and so was Danny Glover, the actor who at one point made his home in Dunthorpe; he moved away years ago.
Sure was fine to see the Seattle Mariners’ legendary batsman Edgar Martinez take his place alongside baseball’s greats in the Hall of Fame! I dabbed a tear at the passage of time as the chants of “Edgar, Edgar” filled the expanse outside the venue at Cooperstorm, while the Jumbotron showed the greatest moment in Mariner history, Edgar’s scorching double into left that drove home Ken Griffey Junior to win the 1995 ALDS. Next year, let’s see Sweet Lou Pinella in there!
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Some good-news stories, with links in the Coffee Cup:
–“A carpenter saved his whole life to fund college scholarships and helped 33 strangers go to school for free”
–“Red Sox fans give extra ticket to homeless man at Fenway Park”
–“Police Officer Cared For Lonely Elderly Man For 2 Years After Meeting Him On Duty”
–“The Story Behind the ‘Space Window’ at D.C.’s National Cathedral: Embedded inside it is a 3 billion year-old moon rock”
–“Thousands of Students Are Cheered By These Photos of an Optimistic Cloud Formation”
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And now it’s Monday. Thank you for the many kind wishes regarding the anniversary at our house! We’re blessed by our lives, each other, our families, and our friends, and that includes you!
Portland's Daily Drip 