Well, look! here’s Tuesday, popping up like a toasted bagel, on this July 23, 2019. Welcome, you, to the Daily Drip for a briefly cooler day in Portland: a gentle impulse in the middle troposphere will bring skies that are cloudy with patchy morning drizzle and highs of 78, a comfortable retreat from yesterday’s 84. We’re back to high pressure and 80-plus warmth on Wednesday and beyond. Sunrise 5:44 AM, sunset 8:49 PM.
Breaking news from the London desk… Boris Johnson, the pro-Brexit, pro-Trump former mayor of London, will become the next prime minister of the UK.
Mueller-watchers will need to set a 5:15 AM PDT alarm tomorrow, as the former Special Counsel begins a day on the Congressional witness stand.
At long last, the Senate is expected to pass 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund extension today.
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, perhaps the most verbally adroit star in the current Blue skies, is in Portland today for a midday fundraiser at the home of developer and community leader Bob Ball.
The throw-away-the-key approach to juvenile crime that Oregon adopted in the 90s is giving way to a new youth sentencing reform bill that Governor Kate Brown signed into law on Monday. No longer are 15, 16, and 17-year-olds who are charged with certain felonies automatically routed into the adult justice system. The DA can still ask, but a judge can grant or deny it. And juveniles will now be able to serve the second half of their sentence under community supervision if they can show they’ve been rehabilitated. This change is the legacy of Republican Rep. Jackie Winters, who championed its passage before her death this year.
There will be a silent bike ride today in memory of 32-year-old Lance Hart, who was killed by a drunk driver at SE 78th and Flavel one month ago today.
This seems weird but apparently not that unusual…a forest fire that burned east of Eugene last year has been flaring up, from embers deep within old logs.
Another famous face in town today is that of household-name documentarian Ken Burns. The four-time Emmy winner is taking time out from finishing his latest 8-part opus, “Country Music,” which airs in September on PBS. Burns and production partner Julie Dunfey will be at Revolution Hall tonight.
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A couple of local NBA notables are celebrating another lap around the solar circuit: Gary Payton, who played for the OSU Beavers before his pro career, turns 51. And Brandon Roy, nicknamed during his time with the Blazers “The Natural” by Brian Wheeler, is 35. I still remember him dropping by the radio station for a visit–and politely, almost shyly, borrowing my copy of “USA Today” to give to his Mom the day he won Rookie of the Year.
Actor Daniel Radcliffe–Harry Potter–turns 30!
And Portland-educated Monica Lewinsky, Lewis and Clark Class of 95 (BA-Psych), turns 46 today. The presidential scandal that unfairly bears her name alone is decades past but it dogs her still, yet she is an effective social activist and outspoken combatant against cyberbullying.
By the way, Chelsea Clinton Mesvinsky just had her third child–a boy, named Jasper.
One of the most famous names from the early days of space flight has left the world for good. NASA’s founding flight director Chris Kraft, the originator of Mission Control, was 95.
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Say, what do you think about this? Oregonian/OregonLive reporter Lizzy Acker tweeted: “Just witnessed it: A man carrying a toddler on the bus got a random “good job, Dad!” shouted at him. Did not happen to any of the many women with toddlers I see on the bus all the time.” Sounds like the sexism of low expectations. But: most of us are not in the habit of shouting at strangers on the bus.
And there’s this: Macy’s has been tsk-tsk’d into pulling a line of porcelain plates reminding people, as they eat, of the dietary wisdom of smaller portions. The plates were adorned with concentric circles labeled, near the middle, “skinny jeans,” then expanding outward to “favorite jeans” and finally “mom jeans.” Maybe just make smaller plates, minus the judgmental commentary?
Speaking of lunch! It’s Tuesday, so Noon Tunes is back–alongside the food carts–at Pioneer Courthouse Square, today featuring recording artist Tara Velarde. I guess it’s sponsored by another radio station. Do I care? I do not.
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Good stuff, though the first one’s been getting a lot of blowback. Links in the Cup.
“National attention to new law allowing Oregon students to take ‘mental health days’ ”
“Little bro asks parents to put his toy money towards sandwiches so he can give them to the less fortunate”. (It’s a video)
“Heat wave had police asking criminals to take a ‘break’ for the weekend”
“He first worked at Kawartha Dairy as an 11-year-old. Now he’s back as CEO”
“This food kiosk at the Halifax airport relies on customer honesty to pay”
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That’s a start for the day. Let me know what you think about things–I’m always looking for pithy comments for my 6:20 DD break on 103.3. That’s early, but early birds are usually pretty pithy.
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