Storm Passes Over Estacada

My photographer Sean and I were storm chasing yesterday and got caught up in this severe thunderstorm outside of Estacada. Just listen to the hail.

The Vault

It's really quite surprising the things you find when you're doing research... especially neglect.

These are the stairs to our basement. There is a bit of a creepy aura down there.

Some of our old film reels are well preserved and organized, this shelf goes through 1978, but I needed Trail Blazer film from 1960.

So I decided to look at what was behind door number 3.

This is the mess and disarray I found.

This garbage can was holding up a table top once used as an editing station. There are film reels everywhere, and the room reeked of chemicals.

But what was most disheartening was this pair of reels I found lying on the floor.

They're reels #4 and #5 of the JFK assassination. No protection, no care, just complete disregard to history and one of the darkest hours in American history. Finding these in the state they were in was a dark hour for KATU.

PDX No H8 Rally

"Stumptown," a city known so well for it's vocal activism, let me down on Wednesday. While the effort to speak out against the California Supreme Court's ruling over Prop 8 was admirable it was highly disorganized.

Fellow journalist and former JustOut writer, Stephen Marc Beaudoin, summed up my feelings about the rally. (I don't know about the intoxicating part lol.)

http://blogtown.portlandmercury.com/BlogtownPDX/archives/2009/05/26/so--about-that-strange-prop-8-rally

Statistics Anyone?

This I found quite random. I was in Silverton, OR today doing a story on their mayor, Stu Rasmussen. Stu is the first transgendered mayor in the country and is entertaining the idea of a reality tv show on his town. Film crews were in town today, so we talked with the mayor and people living there about a possible reality show. I interviewed a guy at a local bar and at the end of the interview I had him spell his name. He says, "Louis, L-O-U-I-S, Jaeger, J-A-E-G-E-R." Same spelling and pronunciation but absolutely no relation... what are the odds of that?

Favorite Things

Magnolia blossoms are on my list of favorite things.

Gone Fishin'

How better to spend a beautiful day than to go fishing? Well that wasn't my original thought for the day, but it unexpectedly turned into a fishing trip. My photographer Sean and I arrived at the Washington County Jail to do a story on a man, who talked to us about his girlfriend that had been missing since the 10th of March, and confessed to murdering her. As I'm get out of the car I forget my keys are in my lap and as luck would have it, there's a storm drain on the passenger side of the car. Murphy had his way today.

Thankfully the Sheriff's Office had an extendable magnet.

Fishin' Accomplished!!

Spring is Here

After two absolutely gorgeous days of sunshine in the Rose City, flowers and trees were in full bloom.

Crossroads

How convenient that I was at this intersection.

Who Are The People In Your Neighborhood

I just love sociology.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n79jSzKA0L8

History Lesson

So I was doing some digging in our archives at work to try and find some video from the early 70's (yes I realize it would be film at that age but stay with me). I enter into this locked room with beta tapes from floor to ceiling, round the corner under the stairs to this stack of card catalogues. They're not the cool old wooden ones like you'd see at the library, but they resemble miniature metal file cabinets. While rifling through the individual cards trying to understand just how stories were labled and filed nearly 40 years ago, I stumbled across a few interesting cards that you'll see below.

But the next one was quite surprising, especially how it was labled.

A closer look.

But then found it quite ironic that the next drawer I pulled out had this card.