Thursday, July 25, 2019

Morning, campers! It’s Thursday, July 25, 2019, and here’s the friendly Daily Drip for the kind of day that we’ll miss next January: sunny with highs of 90 in Portland, 70 to 75 in Cannon Beach, and 77 in Government Camp. I don’t see any rain for the next week at least. Sunrise 5:46 AM, sunset 8:47 PM.

Deputies need help finding a young mom, Nicole Murphy, and her 2-year-old son Caiden, who were last seen at an Urgent Care in Hillsboro on Tuesday night. Family members are worried about Nicole’s ability to care for herself and her little boy.

A man and his two dogs are home and happy after a harrowing ordeal in a southern Oregon canyon, where they were lost and stranded in his Jeep for four days, before a cyclist came across them and summoned help.

After people filled the streets for weeks demanding that the Governor of Puerto Rico resign over his racist and sexist messages in social media, he’s agreed to go. Next week.

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After absorbing eternal hours of yes, no, maybe so, I’m thinking that nobody got the sound bite they wanted from Robert Mueller…nobody’s going, “Aha! That changes everything!”….”Impeach” signs are appearing on freeway overpasses around Portland, but the hour is late, and the next highly vulnerable election is already in progress. The stakes are so high. And one exchange that stands out in my mind:

Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colorado): “You believe that you could charge the president of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?”
Robert Mueller: “Yes.”

Oregon’s sole GOPer on the Hill, Greg Walden, has said that people care about many things other than the Russia affair, and to back that up, his main tweet yesterday was this: “Great news, today the House passed the bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act! Last month, Oregonians in the 541 area code received an estimated 11.5 million robocalls. I look forward to working with the Senate to quickly get this to @POTUS’s desk.” Hang on, I have a call coming in from Modesto.

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TriMet’s Board of Directors is taking a whack at MAX’s downtown travel time by closing the Mall/SW 4th Ave and Mall/SW 5th Ave stations, and test-closing the Kings Hill/SW Salmon St Station for one year, in spite of a MAC neighborhood lobbying effort, all beginning March 1, 2020. That’ll trim three minutes off the 22-minute slog through downtown–saving 13 hours a year for someone who rides the train every day. The Skidmore Fountain station was spared due to the outcry from Saturday Market and other neighbors, but has two years to prove itself.

It’s a damp shame what happened at the Lincoln County Animal Shelter: they’ve been closed indefinitely because of unsafe levels of mold. Forty-two cats and kittens have been herded to the Oregon Humane Society, and they’ll be hoping for adoption today.

It didn’t take long for the blue-green algae to regroup at Vancouver Lake, and Clark County Public Health has closed the swim beach once again after test results showed elevated levels of cyanotoxins in the water.

This was the day two years ago when Andrew and Kelly Corrado were attacked by a guy on Poet’s Beach Park on the Willamette River. They are now suing the City of Portland for $500,000 each.

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The Washington County Fair opens today in Hillsboro, where Pat Benatar and hubby Neil Giraldo will hit you with their best shot in concert tonight.

Happy birthday to Helen Raptis of KATU!

This was the day 3 years ago that Tom Peterson died.

Seattle Seahawks training camp begins today!

Quentin Tarantino’s latest, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” is opening today, and Portland’s Hollywood Theatre–which is one of Tarantino’s favorite spots–is showing the movie in its rich original 35-mm format, while the rest of the country sees it in digital. There’s speculation the director himself may show up; it wouldn’t be his first surprise appearance at the Hollywood Theater.

Keep a cracker handy for a lost parrot in the Forest Park area. Friends tell Reddit that “Turbo is about 4″-5″ and occasionally emits a high pitched squawk. He likes fruit and will fly to sit on your hand if you hold it up for him with the palm down.”

Thanks to Clackamas Fire and Rescue for sharing the following:
“It’s all about service and taking the extra step to make a difference. Today Engine 309 treated and transported a patient to the hospital and before they left the scene, took care of the daily watering of the flowers.” (Well, I hope they didn’t keep the patient waiting in the ambulance while they sprinkled the petunias, but you know what they mean).

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Good news for a good day!

–“Meet The Brooklyn Woman Who Single-Handedly Drained The Long Island Expressway During Monday Night’s Storm”

–“Two dogs save the life of their 87-year-old owner by raising the alarm when he got stuck in knee-high mud for an hour while retrieving a stick on the edge of the Potomac River”

–“Jon Stewart Turned His 45-Acre Farm Into An Animal Sanctuary To Rescue Abused Factory Farm Animals”

–“‘Trojan horse’ anticancer drug disguises itself as fat”

–“Brave Man Saves Drowning 400-lb Black Bear”

Links
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I don’t think we’ll be saving any drowning bears, but it’s a new day, and who knows what we’re capable of? So let’s dive in!