For the record, I have 'princess' tendencies.

And diva tendencies. But only with the best of intentions.

I mention this in the context of tonite's 5pm story on our wonderful Dr. Bradley who we've followed for the past few weeks. His story completely moved me and I wanted to do him (and the children he's fighting for) justice. The last thing I wanted to do is cut-down my story because it was longer than the producers could work with. So, when I had to do that last time.. in May.. when we first introduced you to him.. I had both a diva and princess moment that ended with me in tears. No, I wish I could say I was kidding. I'm not. Picture me.. a woman in my 30's all sniffly and red-eyed storming around the newsroom.. I mean, ridiculous. But hey, I got over it. It's just that I really, really cared about telling his story the way I felt it needed to be told. And for the record, I'm an infrequent cryer around this place. I don't want to give anyone any ideas that I'm walking around this joint in a permanent state of 8000 rpm.

:-)

But with that, let me show you the first story in full-- before we cut it down. It runs 2 and a half minutes.

 Watch Part 1

We ran this part one full-version on the weekend morning show, while the shorter version ran during the weekday evening 5pm. And we're doing the same thing again today with part two (no tears this time.. I'm feeling nice and rational, thank you very much). Tonite's part two story is a trimmed down version. The Sunday producer Craig was nice enough to let me run the long version in his weekend morning show this Sunday in the 7am hour. YAY CRAIG!!

Here's a link to Shriner's Hospital for Children here in Portland: http://www.shrinershq.org/Hospitals/Portland/

The photographer I worked with on this story is one of the best in the country. His name is Kurt and the moments he captures on tape blow my mind. Here's a photo of the two of us at the recent National Press Photographers Association summit that came to Portland. It was snapped on the fly-- and I'm sure he will love love love the fact that I'm posting a photo that is a) out of focus and b) has him with his eyes closed.

That conference got me all fired up for quality story-telling. I actually skipped the Emmy's up in Seattle (which fell on the same weekend) because I was stoked to watch the work of stellar photographers and reporters.

Two of my fav's (phojos and reporters) are pictured here:

On the left is Scott Jensen. He's pretty much won every award that's out there for phojos and used to work here at KGW. He has this gift for bringing you into someone's life-- telling the story through these wonderful moments he gets on tape. He's now up at the NBC in Alaska.. his blog is one of those I like to check: http://www.ktuu.com/Global/category.asp?C=90618&nav=menu510_5_1_2. You can watch his stories there too and see for yourself why I think he's fantastic.

And on the right is the best feature reporter in the country (period) and my professional idol-- Boyd Huppert. I'd start a fan club or something but he'd probably take out a restraining order. Seriously, if you have some time-- check out his stories here: http://www.kare11.com/news/investigative/extras/stories.aspx

Oh man.. time flys. Gotta go: Click here to email Stephanie Stricklen who is currently not in tears.