Good morning, Portland. Enjoy your coffee and click on these links:
ICYMI: “Mayor Charlie Hales Says The City Should Take Control of ‘Zombie Houses’“:
Mayor Charlie Hales’ office is proposing the city dust off a foreclosure process that hasn’t been used in more than four decades, snatching homes away from owners who’ve abandoned them. Another proposal would place zombie homes in the hands of local housing nonprofits, to be fixed up and put back into use.
Country music legend Merle Haggard died on his 79th birthday. That’s a bummer.
Customers of an Estacada food truck covered the truck with cash to help with medical bills.
The Trail Blazers beat an undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder team last night to clinch a playoff spot. Nice.
Staying in the NBA world, controversial (i.e. “bad”) Philadelphia 76ers GM Sam Hinkie resigned yesterday with an odd 13-page letter:
Link to the full 13-page letter Sam Hinkie sent to the Sixers explaining his exit as obtained by @espn this evening: https://t.co/zqETxz8ybq
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) April 7, 2016
Rolling Stone: “The $100 Million Hunt for Alien Life: A Russian billionaire and his renegade scientists are launching the most advanced search for extraterrestrials in history”
Washington Post: Whole Foods will start rolling out new budget grocery stores in May:
We’re inching closer to the launch of 365 by Whole Foods Market, a new, lower-priced grocery store that the organics giant is betting will help pull it out of a rough patch. Whole Foods has been under siege lately as supermarkets and big-box stores are dedicating more shelf space to organic food, and often doing it at lower prices. With 365, they hope to fight back and broaden that kind of customer they cater to.