Hello and good morning on a Full Moon Monday! It’s October 14, 2019, a day should turn out sunny with highs in the low 60s. The weather moods becomes stormy indeed by midweek, with rainfall that could total two inches in the valley by the weekend. And sailors beware: waves could tower 20 feet by the end of this week, the tallest seas since last winter. Sunrise 7:25 AM, sunset 6:27 PM.
It’s now been over a week since 18-year-old UP student Owen Klinger put on a hoody, grabbed his backpack, hit the ATM at the campus bookstore, walked up N. Portsmouth Avenue to Lombard–and just vanished. A volunteer search party fanned out from the historic bandstand at Peninsula Park yesterday distributing flyers and scouring parks; they also went with his Dad to Skamania County and searched the forest where the family has a cabin, covering a good eighty acres. His Mom, Mary, said she is amazed at “the love and the light from so many hearts who want to know that his heart is okay.” I am amazed at her courage; I’d be a crushed wreck. Today, by the way, is the first day of a week-long fall break at UP. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if he just got the date confused, left a week early, and came back today wondering what all the fuss is about?
Mystery surrounds the death of 23-year-old Portland activist Sean Kealiher, who was hit by an SUV and killed as he walked home after leaving Cider Riot, the left-wing hangout at NE 9th and Couch. It happened two blocks away at NE 8th and Davis, just outside the headquarters of the Democratic Party of Oregon. Somebody fired shots into the vehicle; the driver was not found, and though social media are full of rumors, police are asking the community to hold off on speculation. They are not saying if they believe Kealiher’s death was related to Antifa and anarchist political activity.
The White House is disavowing any knowledge of a graphic video that was shown to Trump supporters at a Florida conference, showing a Trump-like figure violently assaulting critics and news media.
Carrying signs like “Jail to the Chief”…A March for Impeachment headed through downtown Portland and circled the Heathman Hotel, where people banged drums, played tubas, and chanted “Gordon Sondland tell the truth!” In fact the Portland hotel owner and current US Ambassador to the European Union. Sondland intends to testify to the House under subpoena on Thursday, despite Administration orders not to, and reports say he’ll swear it was Donald Trump himself who ordered him to say there was no quid pro quo involved in his phone call with the Ukrainian president, and that Sondland himself doesn’t know if that’s true or not.
We’ll see something today we haven’t seen in twenty years: a Portland mayor kicking off a re-election campaign. If Ted Wheeler wins, we’ll have our first multiple-term mayor since Vera Katz.
Today is the Federal holiday named for the explorer who opened the door to the European takeover of the continent we now occupy. But instead of calling it “Columbus Day,” Oregon along with four other states and around 100 cities and towns observe this as Indigenous Peoples’ Day. City Commissioner Amanda Fritz, filling in for the mayor (who was in Denmark for a climate conference) signed the proclamation–and, noting that she was born in England, apologized to all native peoples for the deeds of her ancestors. There is no mail delivery today, and many federal employees and bank workers are off, but parking meters must be fed.
Let’s see…Duck fans are happy with how the team laid waste to the Colorado Buffalos…Beaver fans endured a similarly lopsided loss to Utah…PSU looked solid blanking Idaho 24-0…the Seahawks came back to beat Cleveland to move to 5-1….
Having finished the regular season in a scoreless deadlock with the Washington Spirit at sold-out Providence Park, the Portland Thorns begin the NWSL playoffs next weekend at Chicago.
The Portland Winterhawks lost to Edmonton yesterday, but scored a point, and they now stand alone atop their division. The lads now have a week to rest up from the road trip before playing at home on Saturday night.
The Manhattan Transfer, the wildly talented jazz vocal quartet that was started by folks who met the founder through his day job as a New York cabbie, is at the Revolution Hall tonight.
On this day in 1964, 55 years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. won the Nobel Peace Prize. And President Eisenhower was born on this day in 1890–the last American president born in the 1800s. Who was the first president born in the 1900s? The answer is hidden in the postscrript below..
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Let’s pour something sweet and warm into the Cup!
–“Local pet businesses come together to raise funds for emergency pet care in community”
—“Boy reuniting 1000 commemorative bricks from demolished football stadium with their owners”
–“Prisoners Take Care of Orphaned Lambs to Assist Drought-stricken Farmers and Learn Trade Skills”
–“Dog Refuses To Leave Mom’s Hospital Room After Saving Her Life”
–“University football player Nile Harris also plays Cello in orchestra”
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Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! Or…Joyeux Action de Graces! Let’s Be Joyous!
Portland's Daily Drip 