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Good morning, Northwest.
While the weather across Oregon and Southwest Washington is cooling down, a dragon boat team made up of cancer survivors is heading to Taiwan for the International Dragon Boat Federation’s Club Crew World Championships.
Before the team’s trip to Taiwan — where temperatures are still hovering from the high-70s to high-80s — OPB’s Kristian Foden-Vencil spoke with members of the Rose City Rockets.
Here’s your First Look at Saturday’s news.
— Winston Szeto
Top story
Renee Henry, of Portland, paddles during a Rose City Rockets practice on the Willamette River on Thursday, August 20, 2026, in Portland., Ore.
Amanda Loman for OPB
Portland dragon boat crewed by cancer survivors heads to world championships in Taiwan
It’s 6 o’clock on a sunny Portland evening and 22 people in a dragon boat lift their paddles in anticipation. The Rose City Rockets are about to train for a 500-meter race.
Everyone on this boat is either dealing with cancer or has dealt with it in the past. But as they dig in to practice, you wouldn’t know. There are smiles all around, grunts of effort and sweat.
The Rose City Rockets are headed to the 15th International Dragon Boat Federation’s Club Crew World Championships in Taiwan next week. (Kristian Foden-Vencil)
3 things to know
Umatilla County Circuit Court Judge Daniel Hill presides over a hearing at the Stafford Hansell Government Center in Hermiston, Ore. on Aug. 28, 2026.
Antonio Sierra / OPB
- With August coming to an end and fall less than a month away, officials are reminding Oregonians that the state’s wildfire season isn’t over yet. (Bryce Dole)
- An inspection contractor found a chemical tank at the Nippon Dynawave Packaging paper mill in Longview, Washington, “not fit for continued service” 10 months before it failed in May, according to a federal report released yesterday. (Claire Rush, AP and Erik Neumann, OPB)
- Ten months after a group of unhoused Pendleton residents alleged in a lawsuit that the city had made it extremely difficult to find a legal place to sleep at night, both sides met in open court yesterday for the first time in nearby Hermiston. (Antonio Sierra)
Northwest headlines
A line of fans snake around the block for a Tim Curry memorial at the Clinton Street Theater in Portland, Ore. on August 26, 2026.
Crystal Ligori / OPB
- Federal judge sides with Oregon’s recycling law (April Ehrlich)
- Portlanders remember actor Tim Curry at Clinton Street Theater (Crystal Ligori)
- Washington pays $180K to fired head of youth prisons who alleged retaliation (Jake Goldstein-Street, Washington State Standard)
- Rural Klamath County fire district cancels ambulance service (Jane Vaughan, JPR)
- The Corvallis to the Sea hiking trail is again fully open (Zac Ziegler, KLCC)
- Carla Leite and Emily Engstler help Fire stop Dream’s 4-game win streak with 101-83 victory (Associated Press)
- Shaw and Wilson trade goals in Gotham’s 1-1 draw with the Thorns (Phuoc Nguyen, AP)
One more look
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, perhaps the path to purgatory is tarred with summer surplus
Heather Arndt Anderson / OPB
Superabundant recipe: This bumper crop coffee cake will whittle through your superabundance
If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, perhaps the path to purgatory is tarred with summer surplus.
What do you do when you have pounds and pounds of fruit to use? Bake a bumper crop coffee cake!
Find the recipe on this week’s Superabundant newsletter.(Heather Arndt Anderson)
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