OPB’s First Look: Women’s sports could be an economic win for Portland

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Good morning, Northwest.

The continued success of the Portland Thorns and growing excitement around the city’s future WNBA team, the Portland Fire, are converging at a moment when local and state leaders are searching for an economic boost.

OPB’s Kyra Buckley reports on Oregon’s efforts to redefine its post-pandemic economy — and how women’s sports could play a key role.

In other news, organizers of the grand menorah lighting event in Portland’s Pioneer Square added extra security following a deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration in Australia.

Here’s your First Look at Monday’s news.

—Chrissy Booker

Oregon’s economy is struggling, but its women’s sports industry could be a lifeline

Months before Oregonians learned that professional women’s basketball would be returning to Portland, seven-time WNBA All-Star Nneka Ogwumike made a prediction.

Ogwumike, sitting alongside six-time Olympic gold medalist Diana Taurasi, predicted that Portland’s grassroots support for women’s sports – including at the high school and college levels – would convince an investor to bring a WNBA team to the Rose City.

It would take less than a year for that prophecy to come true.

Women’s sports could become a crucial piece of the city’s reckoning with a post-pandemic economy. (Kyra Buckley)

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3 things to know this morning

• A person of interest detained after a Brown University shooting that killed two students and injured nine will be released, authorities said last night. (Associated Press) 
• Two gunmen attacked a Hanukkah celebration on a Sydney beach Sunday, killing at least 15 people in what Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called an act of antisemitism and terrorism. (Associated Press)
• Oregon Jewish groups introduced last-minute additional security protocols to an annual menorah lighting in Portland’s Pioneer Square last night after the Australia shooting. (Lillian Karabaic)

Environmental hazard, someone’s floating home, or both?

What happens when boats are abandoned in the water and start falling apart? “Oregon Field Guide” producer Noah Thomas joins us abandoned and derelict vessels. (Julie Sabatier and Noah Thomas)

Listen

Headlines from around the Northwest

• Is the Pacific Northwest ready for a wave of climate migration? (Monica Nickelsburg) 
• Judge pauses Trump administration’s noise restrictions against Eugene protesters (Nathan Wilk) 
• Long path to recovery ahead for areas hit by Washington’s record floods (Jake Goldstein-Street and Jerry Cornfield) 
• 150-year-old seed company in Washington helps reforest in the face of climate change (Bellamy Pailthorp)
• Grant and Sharpe each score 35 points to help the Blazers beat the Warriors 136-131 (Anne M. Peterson)

Listen in on OPB’s daily conversation

“Think Out Loud” airs at noon and 8 p.m. weekdays on OPB Radio, opb.org and the OPB News app.

Hanukkah Rave lights up Portland ahead of the Jewish Festival of Lights

The evening before the first night of Hanukkah, a several-foot-long blow-up menorah glowed in the corner of the dance floor inside a downtown Portland bar.

Electronic music, weaving Hebrew songs into the mix, blared as dozens of people danced all over the room.

This “Hanukkah Rave” was Assaf Mevorach’s way of celebrating the Jewish festival of lights this year.

For many, lighting the menorah is probably what first comes to mind to commemorate the storied miracle of just one vial of oil lasting eight full days after the Jewish Maccabean Revolt in Jerusalem.

While a rave isn’t traditional by any means, Mevorach says that people coming together on the dance floor can glow brightly in dark times, just like the collective light of the menorah candles. (Crystal Ligori)

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