The last time I posted a blog about losing sleep it had to do with my baby.   Typical new mom stuff -  newborn's not sleeping,  so you're not sleeping.    

This time - it has everything to do with someone else's baby.   Someone else's children.  

During the past three consecutive Saturdays we've covered three truly horrific stories -- each involving local parents and children.

Each story, on its own, is enough to make you lose sleep.

Three weeks ago, a mother  was arrested for murder and attempted murder.    She's accused of forcing her two young children off the Sellwood Bridge after  one o'clock in the morning.   The kids fell some 80 feet.     One of them, a girl, survived, and was rescued after screaming for help, in the black of night, from the frigid waters of the Willamette.

 If that wasn't disturbing enough, the following Saturday we learned painful details about a dad,  accused of shooting to death his two young children, then himself.    He'd taken the kids to a beautiful park on a sunny afternoon --  witnesses heard three quick gunshots.  

And then, this past Saturday, we learned why Washington County investigators took so much time on what they called a "complicated" death investigation.      They later arrested a mom --  she's accused of murdering a pregnant woman, hiding her body in the crawl space of a house,  taking the baby and pretending the child was her own.       The baby died.

What's going on here?      Sure, we report tough stories  every day.   But not stories like this -- in our community -- three weekends in a row.      I'm losing sleep over it and I know I'm not alone.

It's about a free acupuncture clinic set up to help veterans deal with the stress of returning to civilian life.

Rick De Troye is an acupuncturist who has worked with patients going through drug and alcohol treatment. When the wars started in Iraq and Afghanistan he wanted to do something to help the troops and thought his skills might be just the thing.

So he came together with a couple of other friends and set up the once a week clinic in Southeast Portland. The thing that has surprised him the most is just how many Vietnam vets still need help.

It was an honor to meet and visit with a couple of those Vietnam veterans who frequent the clinic. I wish we had done better by that group when they came home from combat. Their stories are very different but they share a common concern. They both hope the soldiers coming home today won't wait as long as they did to get help.

Rick said something that keeps playing in my head. Basically that we need to stop sending people into combat expecting them to come back the same person they were before.

If you'd like to know more about the Portland Veterans Acupuncture Project check out their website at www.portlandveteranacupuncture.homestead.com

They'd love to find a bigger place for the clinic so they can help more Veterans.

And as always... Thanks for watching.

After 20 years in the TV news business, I tried something completely new and totally exciting today.

Bright and early at 4:30AM this morning, we began broadcasting from our new studio at Pioneer Courthouse Square. We'll be here each day from 4:30-7AM, Noon. Stephanie's "Live at 7" show is here too.

The space was once Powell's Travel Books but when I toured the building last year, it had been vacant for several years and was a mess. Thanks to some incredible work by the construction crew and KGW engineers, the transformation has been incredible. Everyone has worked really hard over the last several months to make sure all the technical pieces fit together and the first broadcast went off today without a hitch, which is amazing! 

Many of you have already seen the new place for yourselves. We held an open house recently and hundreds of people stood in the rain to get a quick tour. It was great to meet so many Sunrise viewers. A few dedicated souls braved the rain this morning to stand outside and watch our first broadcast -- very cool.

As I watch the school kids and commuters from our window here on the Square, I can't help but think what a big deal this is.. not just for KGW but for Portland. You can find streetside TV studios in New York, Chicago and now the Rose City. Each morning Brenda, Dave, Michael and I will bring you the news from the heart of the city. 

I hope you'll come down and see us at the Square, say "hello" and maybe come in for a quick tour. We plan on having a lot of fun down here and it might get crazy once in a while but no matter what happens, we'll continue to bring you the reliable information you expect from Newschannel Eight.

Talk to you soon,

Russ

I don't know about you but it is hard not to get down in these troubled times. Or at the very least to spend too much time worrying about things you can't control anyway. I'm actually quite a pro at that.

So tonight something different! I'm starting a segment called "Giving Back". It's a chance to report on some of the really wonderful things people are doing in our community to help others.

My first report profiles a Lake Oswego High School senior named Griffin Gaffney. He is a wildly talented viola player who started out on the violin in the 4th grade.Griffin can't imagine a world or even a school without music though that is the reality in many districts. So he came up with the idea of giving free lessons to children who wouldn't get them otherwise.

He organized a charity concert with Tom Grant and Rebecca Kilgore and some student musicians. And with the 22-hundred dollars he raised he was able to buy 10 violins. Now every Tuesday he races to the Friendly House Community Center in Northwest Portland to give lessons.

It's delightful, hopeful, encouraging and fun. I hope you'll watch it and that it will be a bright spot in your day. It certainly was in mine.

And as always, thanks for watching.

Tracy Barry

Oh my gosh do you have spring fever today? All the bulbs are poking through and it seems so warm.

Especially since the Northeast is getting hammered with one of the biggest storms of the season. The video in our early shows of all the snow and ice is amazing. Looking out the window it's hard to believe you could be in all that in just a few hours by plane. That's not counting the delays and tarmac time of course J

My husband is home trying to put the fence back up that came down with a tree during the December storms. The girls skipped the heavy jackets today and headed off to school in sweatshirts.

My other favorite story today is the "new study" on red wine. I promise you that just last week we had a story on saying drinking it could increase your risk of cancer, including esophagus cancer. Guess what... tonight's story says it can drop your risk dramatically! Believe what you wish and enjoy our first taste of spring. It's probably just a tease.

And as always, thanks for watching.

Tracy Barry

This doesn't have a thing to do with the news really, but I've been laughing at myself all day so I thought I'd share.

Last night during the 5 o'clock news I was having a terrible time seeing the teleprompter and my scripts didn't look much better. Keep in mind my eyesight isn't the best. I wear one contact for distance and one bi-focal lens so I can still read a script.

When I work on the computer I actually wear reading glasses over my contacts. I'm doing that right now as a matter of fact. Anyway, last night everything looked fuzzy and doubled. I'm embarrassed to admit it took half the show for me to realize I did not have a brain tumor, I had simply put them in the wrong eyes.

And since we're on the subject of being embarrassed... I agreed to read to some classes at an area grade school. It's part of a program to get kids excited about reading. I thought instead of reading from a book I would put together a special newscast just for them. That way I could show them how I using reading and reading comprehension skills everyday.

Luckily Time magazine has a really good kid's website and so does National Geographic. I mixed in a few of the kid friendly headlines of the day and was pretty excited about the whole thing. And I must say they could not have been nicer at the school... when they told me I was a month early. It's in March.

I'm blaming it all on sleep deprivation.So instead of doing the housework or the grocery shopping I went home and took a nap. All better now. Please tell me you've had days like this!

And as always thank for watching.

Tracy Barry

Who thought I would ever be blogging about another blog? It makes me feel so "new media"!

Impressive only because my ten year old loads my I-pod and burns discs for me. My husband uploads and prints our pictures and when I read the plug for kgw.com about "send us your video... it's easy" I really should add... unless you're like me then there is nothing easy about it. 

I'm sure all of that is about to change though because the other day at Target I found something wonderful in the dollar bins! Very small, very short versions of the "Dummies" books just right for me. So I got the one on I-tunes for Dummies, Mac for Dummies, Windows Vista for Dummies and one about cocktails for Dummies. I did go a little off theme there and I think you know which one I plan to read first.

So while I'm reading those, maybe you would like to read my other blog about Oregon's upcoming 150th birthday. The nice folks organizing the celebration asked me for a contribution and I was delighted to submit one. But it won't be any fun unless you play along and add your comments and suggestions. I don't want to give it away but check it out at www.oregon150.org . It will go up on February 9th under blogs.

Just think how "interactive" we'll be!

And as always... thanks for watching.

Tracy Barry

I think I fall into the habit of focusing on the comments of the few mean or perhaps angry people who write when I should pay more attention to the majority of people who are genuinely kind.

This is why I wanted to share an email I was handed when I walked into work today. It's much less about me than about the person who took the time to write such a sweet note while dealing with her own loss. It's about kindness.

This is a message for Tracy Barry.

I just wanted her to know that she touched the heart of my Father-in-Law, Virgil. He passed away last week and as we were writing his eulogy her name came up. In the last 10 or so years of his life, one of his main sources of entertainment was TV; he loved watching the Blazers and Channel 8 news. If you asked what he was doing, he'd say "Watching his girlfriend", and that was Tracy Barry.

Well, anyway, it was a cute story and I just wanted her to know that she made an old man happy, and gave him something to look forward to each day.

I pray that Virgil is at peace in a wonderful place tonight. And Rose I hope to be as thoughtful as you, and make someone else's day... like you made mine.

As always, thank you for watching.

Tracy Barry

What's wrong with your face? Unfortunately that's a question I've been getting a lot lately. And while we could just start at the aging neck and work our way up J the main issue currently seems to be my lips.

Some of your emails have been extremely kind...asking questions and voicing concern.

Others, not so much. For the most part I "just don't go there" often on personal issues. Sometimes I can't resist a mention of my sweet kids but I know it's not always easy for them or my husband to have their mom and wife on t-v and I respect that.

However this latest rumor seems to have taken on a life of its own. What started as snickering about "lip plumping" has accelerated into all kinds of wild speculation. Since you all have to look at me each night and I don't want my lips to distract from the real news I thought I would offer an explanation. So here's the deal for those of you who care. If you don't...feel free to skip on to something more interesting...you won't hurt my feelings a bit.

A few months ago I noticed a small hard nodule under the skin of my upper lip.

I didn't think much about it. But it didn't go away and in fact there seemed to be a little cluster of them. Since I have had Melanoma in the last couple of years I had the lumps looked at. Turns out the "granulomas" were nothing to worry about. But the painful and repeated process of removing them left my lip swollen, scarred and uneven. All in high def I might add! Clearly it looked worse than I thought.

Can I have it fixed? I'm not sure. Will I have it fixed? I'm not sure about that either.

I keep having visions of Goldie Hawn in the "First Wives Club". J

So thanks for listening and as always thanks for watching.

Tracy

First off, it's amazing how much money you save when you can't get to the stores.Bad for business but good for the budget. We planned to cut back this holiday and Mother Nature certainly did her part to hold me to the plan.

And now it's almost Christmas Eve....although to be honest I am no longer dreaming of a White Christmas. Our neighbor keeps track and says that since the first storm on the 13th or 14th (it's all starting to run together) our neighborhood has gotten 32 and a half inches of snow. But I saw the 2 foot icicles starting to melt a bit this morning so it appears the thaw has begun. The kids have made the most of it and it's a joy to watch them build and slide and eat the icy delight.

I would like to enjoy it more, but I spend a fair amount of time worrying how I will get to work or get home from work. I'm sure our boss wishes we all lived next door to the station but we don't and it can be a challenge to get here. Especially when you note (as mentioned in a previous blog) I am a danger to others on icy roads. Still most of us have made it due to the kindness of friends, family even strangers. And how can I possibly make a peep when I am sitting in a warm studio? I can't. Our reporters and photographers deserve the sympathy and the credit. As well as all the others who worked so hard to clear roads and keep power on 24-7.

So this Christmas I hope that you too are warm and safe and with people you love and love you. I hear a song on the radio sometimes called "My grownup Christmas wish". I don't even know who sings it but it's very sweet. The wishes are for peace, an end to hunger and all the big wishes most of grownups have.

I think it's a good question to ask yourself. What would you REALLY like for Christmas? You know the things that don't come from a store. The answers can be revealing.

For me it would be one more day with my Mom and Dad, just so I could be certain they really knew how much I loved them. And to tell Mom I'm so sorry I wasn't with her when she died.

 I'd like a promise that my kids will grow up happy and healthy. That they will find a way to understand the circumstances that brought us together as a family and believe it was God's plan for them.

 To hold my husband's hand more.

 To worry less about the future. To live more in the moment and appreciate all I've been given in this life. And time. More time for family, friends, work and helping others. Some of those things I can do, others are just wishes.

I'm sure you have plenty of your own. So Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and I hope all your wishes come true.

And as always thanks for watching.

Tracy Barry

It's Tuesday about 10am and I'm looking out the newsroom window right now seeing the beautiful blue sky and a dusting of icy white on the campus of Lincoln High School next door. You've seen a ton of me and Russ and Dave over the past few days (too much if you were looking for regular programming on Sunday or Monday-- sorry!) But here's what you didn't see. Just a little slice of life from a morning news anchor:

  Friday, Dec 12th-- Sometime late afternoon/early evening got the call from the Executive Producer to come in and work Saturday and Sunday mornings. Dave didn't expect any heavy weather Saturday but we were previewing what was to come.

 Saturday, Dec 13th-- Up at 4am.. into the newsroom around 5:15am for a 6 o'clock start. Show went fine.. done by 9am. Afterwards, Salesky convinced me to go to breakfast at one of our favorite haunts-- the Bijou. We used to go there all the time but hadn't been there together in years! LOVE you guys-- and breakfast was fantastic. Left to drive home in COLD rain but Dave SWORE the snow was coming-- starting around 10pm. Went to bed early but woke up around 2am.. hopped up to peek out the window and saw DRY PAVEMENT!! What the heck? It should've been snowing for the past four hours according to the forecast. Didn't sleep well after that. 

Sunday, Dec. 14th: My car was chained up for the "storm" but when my alarm went off in the morning--- still NO SNOW! Jeez. As I recall, when I arrived at work no one in the newsroom was very happy with Dave. He was in the weather center--  secretly sweating bullets-- but still insisting the snow was on the way. We went on the air at 6am and our field crews didn't have much to show-- but about 30 minutes later, it was a different story. It snowed and snowed and snowed. We were on the air for 5 hours. Dave was right-- and very relieved :-)

Monday, Dec. 15th: The Sunrise show started at 4am (30-minutes early.)  I was up at 2am and out the door an hour later. Guess what I found when I hopped in my SUV? No 4-wheel drive! Really?-- it chose to break down on this day-- at this hour? I couldn't even make it up the slight incline out of my neighborhood without losing traction and sliding sideways. It's now 70-minutes 'til news time and I'm nowhere near the station. To make a long story short.. I backtracked and tried to find the flatest route to work. My commute typically takes about 15-minutes.. but on this day it took almost 40! Now-- fast forward through more than six hours of storm team coverage (and a voice mail from a friend who wanted to know why we couldn't just cut in every half hour so she could see her shows) and I'm en route to drop off my SUV at the shop to see about this 4-wheel drive mechanism that no longer works. I'm borrowing my mother in law's SUV until mine is fixed. Picked it up and drove it home around 4:30pm.. then crashed ( I mean "crashed" as in fell into bed) by 6pm. My night time reading?-- her owner's manual so I would know exactly how to engage the "4x4 Hi" for my Tuesday morning commute! "Night Night."

Tuesday, Dec. 16th: Up early-- just in case I hit an icy snag again. Conditions are much better but at the hour I'm driving there's no room for error! Hop in my mother in law's rig.. pull out the owner's manual--- engage the 4x4.. and NOTHING! The panel indicates it's not engaged. Two different cars in two days with the same problem? Arrrgghh... The weather gods don't love me-- but I made it in anyway :-) Wooo--Whoooo!  

So--- that's the back story. And based on the forecast, my future (and yours) includes more slippin' and slidin' before the weather warms up enough to give us some plain 'ol December rain!

                 See you in the morning.

                    Brenda Braxton

Here are my snow angels!

My other angels today are Joe Donlon who chained up and drove us into work and Scott Burton who is giving me a ride home! Trust me folks it's better this way.The last time I drove into work in the snow I made it all the way to KGW and hit a parked car directly in front of the station.No kidding! My husband couldn't believe it either. Not to mention my insurance company.And the people who owned the car? They were just happy I left a note. Anyway, it's slow goin' out there folks. I hope you are all home safe and warm tonight.

And as always, thanks for watching!

Tracy Barry