KGW Anchor Blog

Watching the coverage of the anniversary of 9-11 this morning it felt like yesterday.I find it hard to watch the images even seven years later.

 

The first tower had already been hit when the phone rang that morning. I was up in time for number two.

 

Seven years ago my parents were still alive. I called my Mom on the way to work just to make sure they were okay. She seemed disoriented and fragile as she cried on the phone asking me "What's going on sugar? Are there more coming?" Now we know of course there were.

 

Looking back I think it was especially hard for people like my folks. My parents were married three weeks after the bombing of Pearl Harbor just before my Dad was shipped out. Seeing an attack on American soil again was almost too much for them.

 

I don't know what you remember most that day. For me it was the police officers and firefighters rushing into the burning buildings while everyone else ran out. The stories of people who chose to stay with their disabled co-workers who couldn't get down the stairs. The gut wrenching scene of people wandering through ground zero carrying pictures of their loved ones asking if anyone had seen them. My mother's sad voice.

 

Surrounded by the images and the stories for ten hours a day in the newsroom, we were all pretty overwhelmed those days. Even so far away, it felt so close. I got an email a few days later from a viewer disgusted with me. He said I always looked like I was near tears on the air and it was very unprofessional. He was right. I was close to tears and felt embarrassed. From then on I would try not to look at the video when I read the stories on the air for fear I would come apart. One of our directors would try to warn me what was coming with a simple, "shields up."

 

Then as fate would have it a month later on a short vacation, we met a New York firefighter and his wife. He had lost so many friends and colleagues on 9-11 that they had been going to funerals nearly everyday for the last month. Sometimes two a day. We sat with them, and cried with them for all they had lost. For what our country lost.

 

I was thinking about them as I drove in today. I can tell you that he wasn't embarrassed by his tears. And I'm not embarrassed anymore either.

 

Remembering can be hard, but it seems like the least we can do.

 

As always, thanks for watching.

 

Tracy Barry

Any time you start something new, there are bound to be some bugs that need to be worked out. Such was the case last night, during the very first edition of our new 7:00 pm newscast. The Oregonian's political reporter, Jeff Mapes, was our scheduled 'in studio' guest.  But he was nowhere to be found, so our producers had to scramble to get him on the phone -- right in the middle of the show.  We did, luckily, and ended the half hour with a great conversation about his experiences at both of the political conventions - and his thoughts about what the Sarah Palin selection means to the landscape of the upcoming election. It was worth the wait. 

Tonight, the discussion will continue, and I don't think we'll have trouble with our 'in studio' guests showing up.  One - is radio talk show host Lars Larson, who could probably find an open microphone from 10 miles away!  He has become a popular conservative voice - for the always interesting shouting matches on the cable television networks.  Tonight, he'll join us for a segment with 'Oregonian' columnist David Sarasohn.  The topic: Is there a liberal media bias -- against John McCain?   Should be interesting.. and hopefully - there won't be too much shouting.  

By the way, Laural and Tracy are the anchors of this new show.  I'm just filling in for Laural.  She'll be back tomorrow. 

But in just one night, it was clear to me, that this is exactly the kind of newscast - people always tell me they want to see.  I hope you'll join us, tonight - and beyond, as we draw closer to what should be a fascinating election night.

 

By: Amy Troy

I'm looking at my five pound cat with new eyes. I've heard by the end of the eighth month, your unborn child is roughly the size of a small cat. Sure, my cat is cute and all, but the thought of her fitting in my growing 'baby bump' is a bit daunting.

As my husband snapped this picture today I was filled with questions. My biggest, nagging question is this -- how will I continue my demanding job with its long, odd hours and be a Mom? How do working mothers do it?

Because I'm both a television news anchor and a reporter, I'm out in the field a lot. I've worn both hats, and loved it, since I was a 21 year old University of Oregon Journalism school graduate. Some days are long. It's not uncommon during a winter's day to roll into KGW a little early and hear "Yeah, Amy, we need you at Mt. Hood, 'live' in the snow storm for the top of the Noon and at 12:30, for the 5pm news, 6pm and for the 6:30pm as well." You're hustling, gathering the story, you're lucky if you eat something or find a bathroom - and you're lucky to get home after 12 hours. It's all part of the job. Part of the expectations of the job. And of course it's easier to do when you don't have little ones at home waiting for you.

Then I consider this. Even my longest days on the job have an end. I'm not a mother of five and running a state and running for one of the top offices in the United States. As a soon-to-be Mom I've been watching Senator John McCain's VP pick, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. Sure, I'm following the race and the issues. But for the purpose of this blog I'll stick to the 'Mom' angle. I have no idea how she balances Motherhood with all the other titles she wears, but I am inspired by it. If she and her husband can rear five children while she holds office and now travels the Presidential campaign trail, my husband and I should certainly be able to lovingly and responsibly rear our daughter on a Journalist's hours.

So back to that cat - I can't believe my unborn daughter is nearly that big.   It's the last comparison they give you before your due date.   As they say --- by the ninth month the unborn child is roughly the size of ... a baby.  

By: Amy Troy

When you're expecting, you'll hear this comparison. At seven months into your pregnancy your baby is, statistically, the size of a football. Well, we've hit that mark. Seven months along. (Yep, the suit coats are getting snug - and some of the camera shots are even snugger.)

So I pulled a football out of our basement - just to get a feel for the size of our unborn daughter. It's mind-boggling how fast they grow and develop.

Just a few months ago she was, again statistically speaking, the size of an olive. My husband, Damien, and I are experiencing what other first-time parents have already shared - sheer giddiness as that magical "birthday" nears.

Our baby girl is due on Election Day. Presidential elections are always memorable, but for this first-time Mom, this one is shaping up to be extraordinary.

Got a nice post to my last blog from Lane. He wrote:

"Wonderful job, morning crew at KGW Newschannel 8. You really stand behind what you mean when you say, "Where the News Comes First". I will NOT watch any other news station in town, you cover everything that I need to know in the morning to start my day. Plus, when your reporters aren't in front of the camera, they're just as goofy as the rest of us, makes me feel right at home. Keep up the great work!"

I know I speak for everyone at Newschannel 8 when I say "thanks" for all the kind words and your loyalty to our station. Lane's not on the payroll (I promise) but he's definitely a walking promo for KGW :-) Coincidently, I met Lane shortly after he posted that comment on my blog yesterday. I'd taken my daughter and a friend to the Clackamas Aquatic Center. I was just chillin' reading magazines and watching the girls swim when a young man came up and introduced himself. Dave Salesky-- are you listening? Lane has just one request. He wants you to put Estacada back in the Metro cast. He lives up that way and wants to see those temps before he heads out the door in the morning! Gorgeous scenery out Lane's way. He sent me some pictures he took while he was out and about. Enjoy!

Lane Sunset  

Lane Stream
 

If you have pics you'd like to send me-- feel free! I'd love to see them.

                 Brenda

  

Wow! This morning's thunder and lightning was a little too close for comfort for our Newschannel 8 reporters and photographers. One place you don't want to be during a storm is outside doing a live shot. The microwave vans broadcast with their masts sky high-- creating the ultimate lightning rod. Shortly before 7am during our Sunrise show the lightning sent both of our crews scrambling for safety. I just talked to the reporters involved so I could share the behind the scenes story with you.

First Erica Heartquist. She was in North Portland covering the weather related fire danger in the region. She says the morning started out windy and a little cool but nothing remarkable. All that changed about 6:55am as she was getting ready to do her final hit for our Sunrise Quickcast. She and her photographer noticed HUGE raindrops hitting the ground. It wasn't a downpour.. she says the drops were falling in a weirdly random pattern. Then-- all of a sudden--- lightning materialized right over their heads (and right over that mast!) Startled, Erica had just seconds to warn our producer that they were breaking down the live shot and heading for cover. The weather didn't keep them out of commission for long, though. Once the worst was over.. our photog was back out shooting video of the storm!

At almost the same time, Northwest Cable News reporter Teresa Yuan-- who was over in Northeast Portland--- saw a huge, white flash of lightning. Seconds before she was to begin her Quickcast report.. it became apparent the risk was too great to proceed. Her photog powered down.. and they stepped away from the live van because that lightning rod of a mast was still up. Teresa said the weather turned very suddenly. She said just as Dave Salesky started talking about that nasty system-- the storm hit her location with thunder, lightning and heavy rain. Crazy!

  When we lose live shots, the producer only has a few seconds to relay that information to us. As anchors, our job is to keep the show moving regardless of what else happens. As I recall-- the rundown had Dave leading the Quickcast followed by Erica and Teresa. We got word about 30 seconds before the Quickcast started that Erica was out. And while Dave was explaining the storm on Doppler.. we learned Teresa's shot had gone to black and she was out, too. I was shuffling papers and floating scripts left and right trying to keep up with the changes :-) At the end of the show we had extra time to fill so we talked about the lightning's impact on our coverage and our news crews!

Kudos to everyone in the field this morning. You're true professionals and grace under pressure. From now on, I think our meteorologists will have to share the "Storm Team" label with YOU!

               Brenda

 

I think there are a lot of us with Olympic hangovers every morning.

We're drinking up these 2008 Beijing Olympics and hanging in there until closing time each night.

We're groggy the next day, because we've bellied up to NBC's beautiful HD coverage of all the excitement and drama and we can't back away.

Who can turn down another round of Michael Phelps going for an indelible place in history as the first person to win eight individual gold medals in one Olympics?

As I write this, I am at my desk in the newsroom waiting for our Late, Late newscast after the Olympics at 1:17am.

I'm waiting to see Michael Phelps' bid for Gold Medal number six... in the 200 meter individual medley... and waiting for the women's individual gymnastics all around competition. Will the American women do better than the American men did last night?

Will Shawn Johnson or Nastia Liukin realize their dreams of Olympic Gold?

I know I have plenty of company in my Olympic addiction. The Portland/Vancouver market is consistently in the top two or three markets in viewership every Olympics whether it's summer or winter.

Even celebrities are hooked...New Mom, Jessica Alba is so addicted she's blogging about them.

She blogs, "The men's 400M relay was insane. We were down by almost a half body length going into the final turn and then next thing you knew it was closer, closer, closer, until we touched the wall first. I went crazy!"

Jessica, so did we all! We may never again see such an amazing Olympic comeback!

If you want more Olympic drama and behind the scenes info, join Joe Donlon and me each night during the Olympics for the "Olympic Zone" at 7:30 p.m. right before NBC's Prime time coverage.

Because, who doesn't need another serving of the Olympics from Beijing? 

Hurry and get your fill before it's last call...

At least until the Winter Olympics in Vancouver,B.C in 2010!

Zai Jian, (Good bye for now)

 Laural Porter

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Let me put my own twist on the old joke-- "a funny thing happened on my way to the....."

In my case, the "funny thing" happened on my way to see an outdoor concert at the River House restaurant in West Linn Sunday. Dan Reed was there playing a low key acoustic set (after flying in from New York to play The Bite of Portland the night before.) He's a long time friend-- he and my husband Blake played together back in the day in the Dan Reed Network-- so we came out to see him and had our two kids in tow.

If you've never been to the River House (formerly the Footpath Cafe) it's a renovated home with a nursery on the property and a view of the river. We know the new management.. my husband helps book music for the outdoor stage-- our teenage son is even lending a little muscle this summer setting up tables and chairs for the shows. It's as relaxed and family oriented as it gets. I guess that's why when I arrived Sunday afternoon and saw that a swarm of customers suddenly outnumbered the wait staff (whom I also know).. my first question was "What can I do to help?" The answer-- plenty!  I grabbed my 10-year-old daughter and we started bussing tables, putting out place settings, delivering menus and I started taking people's orders! I'm sure I didn't need to tell the customers it was my first time waiting tables :-) More than a few of them recognized me as the "news lady" and got a good chuckle when I explained what I was doing there.
A friend snapped this picture of me in front of the kitchen "pick up" window!

 

 

Photo courtesy of "Kevvy Metal!"

I'm retiring my order pad for now :-) But here's a "shout out" to all the waiters and waitresses who've given me excellent service over the years. I don't know how you do it all---
but THANK YOU for doing it soooo well!
                  
                              Brenda

 

His name is J-R Mcdowell and while he was here with us, he taught those lucky enough to know him much about grace.

I only spent a few hours with J-R earlier this summer when we met him at the Providence Center for Medically Fragile Children.

We were there to do a story on his many accomplishments in his young life.

But, in just those few hours, I, too was touched by J-R's gentle spirit, compassion, sense of humor, humility and faith.

J-R suffered from a nerve crippling disease, neurofibromatosis. Just getting up in the morning was a daunting challenge.Yet, J-R went to Franklin High School determined to graduate with his class.

In the final months, he couldn't attend class, but he continued his classes with a tutor at the hospital.

He was too ill to attend graduation, so the ceremony came to him.

The school awarded him its coveted "Franklin award" for inspiring classmates and teachers.

In addition, J-R became sort of the informal spokesman for all the kids at the Center for Medically Fragile Children.

None of them can speak, but J-R spoke with them.

And they communciated with J-R. He cared for each and every one of them.

At the celebration of J-R's life, parents of some of those children spoke of how J-R helped them endure their own hardships.

J-R loved video games...

He was a master video game player... but the disease robbed his hands of their dexterity and he had to have others use the video controls.

It was J-R's dream to design his own video game based on Bible stories.

A Microsoft game designer had planned to come visit J-R to hear his ideas and show him how games are designed, but J-R never got the chance.

He died just days before the visit. J-R passed away on July 28,2008 at just 19-years old.

J-R touched so many, even those he never met.

The Microsoft game designer, Matt, had seen our Newschannel 8 report on J-R.

After J-R's death he wrote me this email about J-R:

"He is so inspiring to me on so many levels and such an encouragement in the plain old business of daily living. I was really excited about meeting him simply because his is the kind of creative energy that is so rewarding to engage with. I've appreciated your expressions of gratitude but I cannot possibly convey how much I feel that this was as much an opportunity for me as a favor for someone else.

My thoughts are with you both, with J-R's mom and family, and with all the kids that J-R inspired so much and who must really be missing him terribly."

J-R is missed terribly.

However, all of us who knew him, even briefly, are so grateful for the gift of having known him.

J-R has touched us and we are changed.

 

If you missed the story we did on J-R, you can watch it on kgw.com under News video/special reports.

 

Fondly,

Laural

 

Hi everyone. Thank you for checking out our Race for the Cure page here on Kgw.com.

This is a cause I very much believe in.

I lost my Step-mother,Suzan Porter, last year. She was a courageous breast cancer survivor for many years.

In Suzan's memory and as the mother of four children, I am determined, as I know you are too, to help find a cure for breast cancer in our lifetime.

I want to thank all of you who took part in the 2007 Race For the Cure.

You helped us set all kinds of records... most people ever participating in the Portland/Vancouver Race for The Cure... most money raised (2.93 million dollars)... and most number of teams racing.

That made us the largest race of any kind on the West Coast and the third largest Komen Race For the Cure in the country.

Way to go. Because of you we were able to provide 7,000 mammograms to local women who are uninsured.

We also teamed up with other Komen affiliates to fund an all time high of 100 million dollars for breast cancer research in 2008!

That is truly amazing.

Give yourselves a big pat on the back!

Now, we must raise the bar, if we are indeed going to find a cure for breast cancer.

This year, our goal is to have 50,000 people participate in the 2008 race on September 21st and to raise a whopping THREE MILLION dollars.

Together, I know we can do it.

Even though we provided 7,000 mammograms, there is a documented need in our area for 44,000!

The fact still remains that Oregon and Southwest Washington have the highest breast cancer incidence rates in the nation.

Although, we don't know why, that should empower us to be advocates not only for our own health, but also for those who are in desperate need of access to health care, education,and support.

We had a tremendously successful race in 2007. But, we want... we need to do even better.

Together, we must discover and deliver the cures... if we are going to end breast cancer forever.

Thank you for being a part of our team.

Please form your own team by going to the Komen website.

You can also donate on my behalf to my team Team KGW.

Let's go team!

Fondly,

Laural

Were you at a soccer tournament (or baseball game) cheering on your son or daughter this weekend in the triple digit heat?  I was in Hillsboro Saturday afternoon where the thermometer hit 101 degrees. My soon to be 10-year-old daughter is playing classic soccer for the first time this year and I volunteered to be co-equipment manager for the team. My job? Cart in lots of extra water for our tournament matches! Actually-- I must confess---  my husband rigged up the "hydration station." It was low tech but effective. It consisted of a multi-gallon cooler chock full of ice and H2O.. strapped to a hand truck so he could roll it from the car to the field and back : ) He made 8 trips between 4 games Friday through Sunday.

I was watching the weather forecast like a hawk but I don't think you can really be prepared to be outside in record breaking heat. We started hydrating the girls on Thursday pushing water, water, water. I know my daughter must have felt like she was about to pop! During the matches, we had parents on the sidelines with cups and bottled water coaxing the kids to grab a swig every time the action stopped or the coach made substitutions.

Now that I'm a full fledged "soccer mom" I'm learning the game goes on-- rain or shine. But I have to say after this weekend of scorching temperatures I'm seeing the upside of those cold, wet fall mornings spent shivering under a golf umbrella on a muddy field. Don't hold me to that, though. I'm sure my story will change come October!

Whatever sport your child plays-- here's to a great summer season! Who knows? Maybe I'll see you on the field.

                   Brenda

 

 

I've been looking through graduation quotes.
I hoped somewhere in the lists of commencement sayings and advice for graduates, I would find some advice for Moms of graduates.
What do we tell our kids as they get ready to leave home after 18 years?

I found some of the inspiring and often used quotes from Oscar Wilde, Benjamin Franklin, and Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Quotes such as: "Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail."
                                    Ralph Waldo Emerson

Or how about this quote?

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant."
                                             Robert Louis Stevenson

Former NBC News anchorman Tom Brokaw said this:
"You are educated. Your certification is in your degree. You may think of it as the ticket to the good life. Let me ask you to think of an alternative. Think of it as your ticket to change the world."

My second daughter, Kate is about to graduate from high school.
You'd think the second time around would be easier. But, it's not.

I am excited for all the paths Emerson talks about she may follow and all the trails she may leave.

And she'll leave them.

I can't wait to see the seeds Stevenson's quote prompts her to plant.

And I know she will.

And I muse about the ways Tom Brokaw would have her change the world.

And I believe Kate can.

So, my Kate the almost graduate, you "hitch your wagon to a star", and "wherever you go, go with all your heart", and "shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you'll land among the stars."
(Emerson again, Confucious, and Les Brown).

And Matt Zaffino would like this quote for the graduate from Anthony J.D'angelo.

"Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine."
(Great advice this winter and spring in the northwest, isn't it?)

 Fortunately, I have two more teenagers, graduating every two years until 2012, so maybe I'll find the perfect quote by then.

There is one thing I can say that is not poetic or unique, but very heartfelt.

I love you and am so very proud of you.

Congratulations to all of our 2008 graduates!

Anyone else have some words of wisdom?

You can email me at:
<a href="lporter@kgw.commailto:lporter@kgw.com">lporter@kgw.com</a>