Hello and good morning! We’re joining the world on a drippy Monday, September 16, 2019. After yesterday’s record-setter soaking of .78 inch of rain in Portland–more than an inch in some areas–today will be a showery day with a possible thunderstorm later and highs in the 65 range. Sunrise 6:50 AM, sunset 7:20 PM.
The September Equinox is just one week from today, but it sure feels like fall is here. Some neighborhoods already have colorful golden leaves, and our Sunday drenching was just the beginning; the National Weather Service says more storms will roll in over the next few days, and “Heavy rain rates with the fronts may challenge low lying areas with poor drainage for minor urban flooding. Ponding on the roads is also possible with the heavy rain, as well as hydroplaning of vehicles.” Doesn’t sound like this is a “false fall” to me, friends…but who knows?
Quick breaking traffic update! PBOT has opened a third lane on the Going Street Bridge, the critically important connection to Swan Island that was bonked into by a train derailment last weekend. That means two lanes will be going in to Swan Island, relieving the bottleneck of last week. But still only one outbound lane, when folks are trying to get home at the end of that day. It may be months.
Wonder if drivers will start topping off their gas tanks…pump prices are expected to surge following the drone strike on the world’s largest petroleum facility in Saudi Arabia. A faction in the civil war in Yemen claims responsibility for the attack, but the White House suspects Iran, which denies it. President Trump says the US is “locked and loaded” to respond.
He’s on the Supreme Court, but the past keeps trying to haunt Justice Brett Kavanaugh. New allegations of misbehavior at a Yale student party, plus corroboration of allegations that were deemed uncorroborated during last year’s confirmation hearings, are claimed in a weekend report in the New York Times. Calls for his impeachment have come from candidates Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris, Julian Castro, and Beto O’Rourke.
For the first time in a decade, there’s a strike against General Motors, where 49,000 workers hit the bricks after contract talks failed. Their union says the company has been laying off tens of thousands of workers, while the CEO collected over $20 million last year.
Folks who live near Beaver Creek Canyon–a gem of a natural area in Troutdale–couldn’t miss the pitiful cries of two little dogs who became stranded on a cliff alongside a roaring waterfall. High angle rescue crews came and saved one of the pups late Saturday night…and came back the next morning and brought down its sibling, cuddled and warm in a towel.
The Portland Timbers will play New York on Wednesday night at Providence Park, and that’s good: they’ll have a chance to erase the memory of yesterday’s pouring-down-rain 1-0 loss to DC United. One of the Timbers knocked the ball into Portland’s net for an own goal, and that was the only score of the game–although television replays showed that the Timbers actually poked the ball into their own net a second time just thirteen minutes later.
Two big-college football games in the Willamette Valley, and two wins for the home teams on Saturday. The Ducks are eager to roll into Stanford this weekend, while the Beavers, who have a bye this week, get Stanford at home the following Saturday. And it was great to see the Portland State Vikings on ESPN, holding their own against Boise State until the Broncos pulled away. The Vikings are going to have a great year.
Ric Ocasek, frontman for The Cars, died Sunday. “An interesting, smart, kind, funny man who made incredible records,” said one tweet from a fellow musician. Police have not confirmed a cause of death.
This is the birth date, in 1925, of Bill Naito, one of the most influential business leaders in Portland history. Born in Portland to Japanese immigrant parents, he moved with his family to Salt Lake City to avoid internment during WWII; then Bill joined the U.S. Army in 1944 where he served during the postwar military occupation of Japan as a translator. Coming home, he graduated from Reed College and helped grow his family’s curio shop into a billion-dollar import business with his brother Sam. They opened the Import Plaza and the Galleria…bought up buildings when other investors were leaving downtown, coined the phrase “Old Town” to replace “Skid Road,” donated the space for Saturday Market…fostered the planting of 10,000 trees..the list of his achievements is endless and indelible. The downtown stretch of Front Avenue was named in his honor, a month after his death in 1996.
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Here’s hoping for a kind and peaceful Monday!
Portland's Daily Drip 