Ah, the camel is on the prowl….you know what day it is? Yep, it’s Wednesday, July 24, 2019, and here comes your friendly Daily Drip for Portlandish people at home and away. The weather is back to July norms, following yesterday’s cool 70s, with sun gobbling up the frosting of morning clouds, and highs of 80. Sunrise 5:45 AM, sunset 8:48 PM.
School begins in Portland five weeks from today. Gather ye rosebuds! Play ye golf! Hike ye trails! But know that there’s understandable angst over the dry and windy state of things in the Columbia Gorge, some spots still skeletonized from the infuriating inferno two years ago. So, Oregon Parks and Rec is prohibiting all campfires, open flames and propane fire rings in Ainsworth State Park, Memaloose State Park and Viento State Park effective 8 AM today.
Speaking of fires..what a scene along I-5 southbound in Marion County last evening, as multiple fires began popping up along the shoulder, spreading toward trees and fields. Local fire departments teamed up to stop the flames, while traffic slowly crept by. The cause? Under investigation.
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Everyone else is saying it, so I might as well..it’s Mueller Time! Like newspeople everywhere, I’m doing my morning media deeds with an ear on the words that reluctant Robert Mueller delivers to pair of House committees. That begins around 530 Pacific. I’ll post updates when I can, but you understand that I’ll be too swamped turning around cuts for the radio to deliver running coverage here. Feel free, if inclined, to cover it yourself and comment subject to the usual house rules. My hope is that his testimony is heard with open minds by all and that we don’t depend on pundits and partisans to think for us.
Budding national figure Mayor Peter Buttigieg came to Portland, raised campaign cash at a private home in the West Hills, stood for photos that are all over Instagram, and left. No public or media comments, which is his loss, because at this point he needs all the coverage he can get. Any Dripsters there? Love to hear a report.
Sixty thousand Oregonians are in danger of losing food stamps under a tightening of the rules by the federal administration.
Governor Kate Brown signed the bill closing the “boyfriend loophole”…which allowed some violent domestic abusers to get away with holding on to their firearms.
This was the day 45 years ago when the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that President Nixon did not have the power to withhold subpoenaed White House tapes, and they ordered him to surrender the tapes to the Watergate special prosecutor. And that was that. He was gone in weeks.
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Some Portland visitors have a sad face because their pilgrimage has come to naught: after tracking down the obscure location of the famous holy Portlandia statue, they find that she is concealed by a huge construction tarp. It’s because of the repair work being done on that lemon of a building on which she is mounted.
Lots of Oregonians are finding $92 checks in the mail because they were overcharged by Arco gas stations and AM/PM Minimarkets–which collected a 35 cent debit card fee to purchases, without bothering to say anything. Another check will arrive a year from now. People who didn’t file for these checks are outta luck.
Another commercial beverage company plans to take in mass quantities of Pacific Northwest river water, and bottle it in plastic and sell it. This time it’s in the Mt. St. Helens region, where Crystal Geyser wants to extract 325,000 gallons of water per day from the Cowlitz River. Tribal and environmental interests are opposing it.
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President Obama visited Portland seven years ago today. He gave remarks at a campaign event at the Oregon Convention Center open to folks who paid five hundred bucks each. Though it was not open to the press, I searched the Obama White House archives and came up with a transcript. It begins:
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Portland! (Applause.) Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Well, it is — it is great to be back in Portland. (Applause.) And I just want to point out every time I come to Portland, it’s like 80 degrees and sunny. (Laughter and applause.) I just want to make that point. (Laughter.) I’m not saying that I’m the reason. (Laughter.) But there does seem to be a correlation between —
AUDIENCE MEMBER: We love you!
THE PRESIDENT: I love you back. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you.
He did get into substance, and the transcript is a nostalgic artifact from a time of innocence. Here’s the link, should you wish to read it, to balance things out today.
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Fifty years ago today, in 1969, Apollo 11 splashed down safely in the Pacific.
Happy birthday to filmmaker and Catlin Gabel alum Gus Van Sant, who made movies that were set in Portland and called this city home for many years, but moved away to California.
The only-in-Portland Unipiper leads a two-mile parade today as the Oregon Brewers Festival begins at noon at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. This year they’ll pour only Oregon beers and ciders, and run four days (through Saturday) instead of five. If you go, and deem yourself unfit to pilot your own rig home, you can get twenty bucks off a cab ride or five off an Uber or Lyft; find out more at the Festival’s website (googlable) .
The Portland Thorns come home tonight to face the Houston Dash at Providence Park. They kick it at 7:30 p.m.
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Something good? Coming right up!
–“Good Samaritans rescue driver of overturned pickup truck on I-88, Oak Brook, Ill.” (Intense video)
–“‘I was thinking we couldn’t lose that little girl’, young Americans who rescued child swept out to sea in Ireland speak out”
–“Daughters who were nagged by their mothers are more successful, study says”
–“Macy’s Removes Plates From Its Stores Over Accusations That They ‘Promote Eating Disorders” (We touched a nerve on this yesterday in the DD. Here’s more info).
–“These tree-planting drones are firing ‘seed missiles’ into the ground. Less than a year later, they’re already 20 inches tall”
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That’ll do. Have an interesting and meaningful Hump Day!
Portland's Daily Drip 