🐮Wednesday's looking hot again, low 90s before a real cool-down arrives Thursday. The Blazers finally found their guy in Micah Nori, a Northeast Portland church just gave its land back to NAYA, and somebody set four Amazon vans on fire near OHSU.
RIP Zane Sparling, writer for the Oregonian, who died from cancer Sunday at age 33.
🚨 THE NEWS
A Church Gives Its Land Back
A Northeast Portland church closed two years ago when its dwindling congregation called it quits. This week Bethany Lutheran Church handed its building and land to the Native American Youth and Family Center, part of a quiet but growing trend of churches giving land back to the people it was taken from. NAYA hasn't said exactly what goes there, but for an organization that's spent decades serving Native youth and families out of borrowed spaces, owning the dirt is its own milestone. It's not flashy. Nobody's cutting a ribbon. But land changing hands quietly, on purpose, in a direction that corrects something, is rarer than it should be around here. OPB
Four Vans, One Very Bad Night
Four Amazon delivery vans burned to the frame early Monday near OHSU, and Portland Fire and Rescue says someone meant it to happen. Investigators have video they believe shows the fire being set on purpose, plus an accelerant dog that flagged one spot near the vans. It took five engines, two trucks and two chiefs about 90 minutes to handle, because lithium batteries don't quit when you spray them, they just reignite until they burn out. Nobody got hurt, which counts as a small miracle in this heat with dry trees everywhere. Police are still hunting whoever did it, so if you were near First and Arthur with a lighter at 2:30 a.m., they'd like a word. KATU
Blazers Pick a Coach, Hours Before the Draft
The Blazers finally have a coach, and it's Micah Nori, Minnesota's longtime lead assistant, hired Tuesday morning hours before the NBA Draft. He gets one guaranteed year and two team options, which is new owner Tom Dundon's way of saying prove it before I pay for it. Nori spent five seasons next to Chris Finch in Minnesota and is known leaguewide for halftime interviews that sound like Ted Lasso wrote them. Senator Ron Wyden welcomed him to Rip City on social media, because that's apparently a thing now. Nori inherits real talent and a real question mark in Damian Lillard, who isn't getting younger. One season to prove it. Rip City, please be patient for once.
📚 ON THIS DAY
On June 24, 1992, the NBA held its draft right here in Portland. Today the Blazers picked a coach instead of a player, but the timing checks out.
🥳 UPCOMING EVENTS
