Today might very well be the most busy day in terms of breaking stories I've had in a LONG time. I know that normally I stick to only one story per blog entry . . . but this blog is designed to give you a behind the scenes look at reporting . . . so I'm breaking with tradition for this one and giving you all three as I experienced them. If you'd like to skip ahead, I've highlighted the stories in BOLD.

Landslide on 99E

Right off the bat, I shot out to Highway 99E just south of Oregon City where countless boulders crashed onto the road during the morning drive in a landslide. At the scene, there were rocks the size of beachballs (we're told some weighed in at a quarter of a ton . . . and I believe them). one car had been struck, but everyone inside should be OK.

There are about 125 active slide sites in the Portland area that ODOT is keeping an eye on . . . because this is a brand new location, crews had to scale the twenty or thirty foot hillside to make sure there wasn't more debris on top before they could clean out the bottom. Traffic on 99E will slim down to only one lane in each direction (normally there are two) through the weekend while crews clean up.

Once we had a handle on the landslide, I prepared to head back to the station but immediately diverted to Happy Valley because of the . . .

Elementary School Gun Scare

Word leaked today that a ten-year-old at Mount Scott Elementary brought an unloaded (and by unloaded we mean empty chamber, empty magazine, just a pistol with no ammo) 9 MM semi-automatic handgun in his backpack Wednesday. Classmates got word and told staff who immediately separated the child from the weapon and called police.

The school's Principal was in conferences all day so we didn't get a chance to talk, but parents at the school say they aren't TOO concerned . . . students describe it more that the ten-year-old was just showing the pistol and wasn't threatening anyone.

Regardless, the pre-teen is in Clackamas County Custody facing several charges.

Literally moments after I wrapped up my chat with the Mount Scott Parents I had to bolt to Lloyd Center because of the . . .

Northeast Portland Bomb Scare

Some visiting dignitaries were scheduled to stop at the Doubletree Hotel by Lloyd Center this afternoon as part of the ongoing Top Off terrorism drill. Portland Police Bomb Sniffing dogs were sweeping the hotel's parking garage when one of them alerted officers to a vehicle. The second dog also raised the same alert when it was brought over.

Officers immediately locked down the neighborhood (from 9th to 13th and Multnomah to Holladay) with yellow police tape (I've honestly never seen so much tape used at a single incident) and brought in a second batch of sniffer dogs.

Here's the FIRST problem investigators ran into. It turns out PPB dogs are trained to sniff for both bullets AND explosives. One of the rules of Top Off is no live firearms are allowed in play, so some officials had to leave their weapons locked in their cars . . . many of which were parked in the Doubletree lot. In order to make sure the PPB dogs weren't picking up on bullets, dogs from the Port of Portland were brought in (they, apparently, can focus STRICTLY on explosives).

We're told that at least ONE of the Port dogs picked up on the same scent. To complicate things further, the parking garage is open air and we were in the HEIGHT of this week's gusty winds . . . so the scent that was triggering the dogs was being swirled around the garage making it tough to pinpoint ONE search location.

Crews had to search the whole level before coming to a conclusion: many of the law enforcement vehicles on hand as part of Top Off have been around explosives in the past. The smallest residue from an explosive can set off a sniffer dog. So investigators, after searching a total of three levels of the garage and coming up empty, ruled that the scare was triggered by explosive residue on those vehicles.

Side notes:

*In all today we went from downtown PDX . . . to outer Oregon City . . . to Happy Valley . . .to NE Portland . . . back to Downtown

*During the bomb scare, federal officials were on hand to assure the media that this was NOT part of Top Off (rumors have swirled that unexpected incidents may be thrown in to give the simulation more realism)

*This is the second time in a week the Lloyd Center Max has been shut down (last week they caught a bank robber on one of the cars

** CR