Jerome Kersey, who famously wore No. 25 for the Portland Trail Blazers during what was arguably their apotheosis, was a legendary link to the Portland that lived and grunted before all the complaints about transplants and bike investments and gentrification. More important, after he quit basketball, he was a good and giving neighbor and communitarian. He died suddenly last night. He was 52.
Oh! So you know Oregon can't impeach its governors? A Republican lawmaker from Salem, Jodi Hack, has introduced legislation in hopes of changing that.
The John Kitzhaber scandal is still giving us headlines, meanwhile. Cylvia Hayes, Kitz's fiancée, has indicated she'll head to court to fight the state and the Oregonian over an order that says she was a public official and that her emails ought to be treated as such.
In what's mostly a good idea, Portland City Council yesterday definitively banned smoking, vaping, marijuana-huffing, and tobacco-chewing at all Portland parks and nature areas. But the ban wasn't unanimous. Dan Saltzman correctly fretted that cops might harass smokers—some of whom, in certain parks, might also happen to be homeless.
The case of the missing trees at the Gateway Trimet station has been solved. The transit agency says it yanked them all out to discourage malingering lurkers while improving security camera sight lines.
Russian bombers crept close to Britain—another in a series of provocative maneuvers (and not the good kind) over the past several months—forcing British officials to muster a pair of fighter jets to swing by and say hello. And then good-bye. Politely.
And, yep... sounds like the Ukraine ceasefire isn't sticking. Mostly because it never really started.
In case it matters to you, Rudy Giuliani still dislikes President Obama:
"I do not believe — and I know this is a horrible thing to say — but I do not believe that the president loves America,” he said at the 21 Club, a former upscale speakeasy in Manhattan, Politico reported. “He doesn’t love you. And he doesn’t love me. He wasn’t brought up the way you were brought up and I was brought up through love of this country.”
Walmart figured out the makings of some good PR: It's giving its workers a raise, instituting a $10 minimum wage.
In California, lawmakers have decided to pick a huge fight with the people who sell sugared and/or chemical fake sugared beverages. A bill up for debate would require obesity and tooth decay warning labels on soda pop vessels.
I'm almost immune (ha HA!) to the nervous feelings that come with reading stories about a hideous and incredibly fatal antiobiotic resistant superbug inadvertently spreading through places like a Los Angeles hospital.
Afroman apparently punched a woman who got up on stage with him in Mississippi. He's facing charges.
Former rap sensation Vanilla Ice, currently hosting a show about home renovations on semi-basic cable, was arrested on suspicion of burglary after allegedly clearing out a bunch of junk from a foreclosed house near one of his job sites. He swears it's a misunderstanding.
Norm Macdonald briefly justified Twitter's increasingly dubious existence yesterday, spending a couple of hours sharing his thoughts on Saturday Night Live's 40th anniversary circle-jerk last Sunday. Norm let everyone know that Eddie Murphy, who saved the show in the 1980s, had been asked to play a creepy, drink-mixing Bill Cosby during the special's "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketch—only to refuse because he thought it uncool to kick a man accused of raping 30 women over several decades while he was down.
WHATEVER EDDIE MURPHY BECAUSE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN GENIUS
