Bladine: Waves of stories crashing together

Scientists and news media called it a “bomb cyclone” this week when a nor’easter on steroids shut down power to more than 600,000 New England homes and businesses. That attention-grabbing description was applied in March to a massive snowfall with hurricane-force winds in Colorado, but it dates back to a 1980 description of storms producing a drop of at least 24 millibars within 24 hours.

What is a millibar, you ask? Well, as per Britannica, “a unit of air pressure ... equal to 100 pascals, 1,000 dynes per square cm (about 0.0145 pounds per square inch), or slightly less than one-thousandth of a standard atmosphere.”

No, this isn’t the Weather Channel. But when it comes to reporting meaningful, interesting and evocative information, the forecast for this week can only be described as a News Tsunami.

It started with Monday’s surprise announcement that former Linfield University Trustee David Jubb would have a “plea/sentencing” hearing Thursday afternoon. That’s after deadline for publication of this column,  but presumably high-profile news in the main section.

That first wave led a barrage of news stories onto the local scene.

Nick Kristof’s formal announcement of his candidacy for governor ended months of speculation and drew our managing editor to Portland for in-person coverage. We doubt Yamhill County ever had two candidates in a governor’s race, but acclaimed journalist/author Kristof now joins county Commissioner Casey Kulla seeking the Democratic nomination in 2022.

Next came confirmation of the long-rumored sale for the historic Mack Theater / Yamhill Hotel complex. Local buyers with a focus on revitalization of buildings and businesses produced a feel-good story that will play out for years to come.

Back to politics: supporters of the long-running effort to recall county Commissioner Lindsay Berschauer report today that have enough petition signatures to trigger an election. They will keep collecting buffer signatures until the Nov. 1 deadline. In less prominent, but still interesting news, Yamhill County’s gun sanctuary law is intertwined with much-reported controversies involving Newberg School District.

This week’s News Tsunami placed newspaper reporters and editors into a Thursday dash-to-deadline, and should give readers a lot to digest from Thursday night’s E-edition, Friday’s printed paper and the updated newspaper website.

Beneath that large wave of news — as always — are the calm, smooth ripples of community information about the people, families, governments, organizations, businesses, history and culture of McMinnville and Yamhill County.

It’s the best kind of tsunami: interesting to watch; passing without a broad trail of destruction; and dissolving into a continuing steady flow of community-connecting information.

Much better than a bomb cyclone!