Sniper terrorizes an Oregon highway. See where it's happening and how you can protect yourself.
Right along with a police officer as he arrests a third time drunk driver.
Why was the driver still behind the wheel?
Plus a Portland man who played a big role behind the scenes of the Jackson's miniseries.
Channel 2 News is next.
In the spirit of the Northwest, serving Oregon and Southwest Washington, this is Channel 2 News at 11.
With Jeff Giannola and Julie Emmery, Jim Little, Lou Gellos and the entire Channel 2 News team.
Good evening everybody. Another potentially deadly sniper attack along the Sunset Highway is causing alarm.
The four shooting in five days occurred this morning. Understandably, the first reaction is fear.
But tonight, sheriff deputies say don't be frozen in fear. Instead, take action.
The morning commute on Highway 26 could have cost Mike Briggs his life.
A gunshot shattered his windshield in another act of random violence along the Sunset Freeway.
This one occurred near Sylvan. Just two days ago, a radio cab was fired on near the Cedar Hills Boulevard exchange.
Saturday night, a Hillsboro man was shot while standing outside an AMPM convenience store at the North Plains exit.
Earlier Saturday, near Murray Road, a Safeway truck was hit by a 9mm bullet.
The shootings began last month with the brutal killing on Cornell Road.
Portland midwife Martha Bryant was driving home after delivering a baby.
Gunshots riddled her car, forcing it off the road. Bryant was sexually assaulted, shot in the head and left to die.
Because of these incidents, motorists are changing their driving habits.
Yeah, I'm thinking about taking a different route and avoiding 26 to get to work.
Washington County Sheriff Deputies say there's reason to be concerned.
To drive down the road and think that nothing's ever going to happen is probably something that we're losing reality with to a certain extent.
We have to be more careful about what we're doing.
But Sergeant Gordon says don't live in fear. Instead, become more safety conscious.
Know your surroundings, who's ahead of you, behind you and at your side.
Let people know your traveling plans and when you should arrive at a destination.
Don't confront suspicious individuals. Instead, take down the license plate number and the naked model of their car and call police.
Mike Briggs did just that, but he's afraid to appear on camera after today's near miss.
The police basically said, Mr. Briggs, I don't think it was a rock.
I think it was a small caliber weapon probably and you're lucky to be here.
I said thank you. They left.
At this time, it's not clear if the string of shootings are related.
Sheriff Deputies are asking the 96,000 commuters who regularly use the sunset to be on the alert to help them find the suspect or suspects.
An Oregon woman accused of abandoning her elderly father in Idaho is now accused of fraud.
Sue Gifford is charged with kidnapping, theft and perjury.
Gifford's father, John Kingery, was found abandoned at an Idaho dog racing track.
Kingery had Alzheimer's.
Today, state social workers testified Gifford lied to them about a pension her father received, checks which should have gone to repay Kingery's Medicaid bills.
The trial is expected to last two weeks.
Some Portland parents will soon be getting letters, letters which could help their children stay out of gangs.
Police will send a letter to parents of children who have contact with gang members.
If the parent ignores the letter, a youth gang outreach worker will contact them, including a home visit if that's necessary.
Today, Police Chief Tom Potter and School Superintendent John Bearworth announced the program, saying the graduation rate will steadily decline if students continue to join gangs.
A truce has been called tonight between Act III theaters and black community leaders over the film Malcolm X.
The two groups ended their dispute the same day the highly anticipated film opened nationwide.
Locally, the threat of a boycott was dropped when a compromise was reached.
Malcolm X did play at the Lloyd Cinemas tonight after all.
The Portland Urban League today distributed 450 free tickets for a special screening of the film to social service agencies serving youth in North and Northeast Portland.
The free screening was part of a boycott ending agreement between the coalition of black men and Act III theaters.
The theaters had been angry over the theater's changed refusal to show Malcolm X at the Lloyd Cinemas, the theater closest to Portland's black neighborhoods.
But from now on, the coalition says a community advisory committee will advise Act III regarding sensitive black films playing at Lloyd Center.
To this body, which is the unity form again, working with the president of Act III, we will have dialogue and discussions about those films and the rationale for them not or for those appearing at the cinema.
The coalition says it now understands Act III refused to show Malcolm X at Lloyd Center because of financial reasons, not because of racism.
The movie did open at three other Portland theaters today. Those who saw it say it makes an important statement.
I really loved it. It said a lot, I think, to our society that we've got to stop the hatred and the violence and we've got to work together.
Also, as part of today's agreement, Act III says it will try to increase the hiring of African Americans, especially in management, and theater employees will participate in diversity training.
President-elect Bill Clinton toured his new office today and was given some helpful advice by his predecessor.
Clinton was welcomed to the White House this morning by President Bush. The two met in the Oval Office for an hour and 45 minutes discussing a number of topics.
It was a terrific meeting. The president was very helpful to me. We talked about a couple of domestic issues and we talked about more than a dozen actual or potential trouble spots in the world.
After the meeting, Mr. Clinton toured one of D.C.'s crime-plagued neighborhoods.
Today was the first of a two-day visit filled with meetings and social engagements, including a dinner tonight at the home of transition team leader Vernon Jordan.
Tomorrow he'll meet with congressional leaders on Capitol Hill.
And, Julie, a probe into the Bill Clinton passport file scandal has concluded no laws were broken.
However, the State Department's inspector general says plenty of bad judgment was used by those involved.
That is a very heinous activity and shame on the Department of State that it happened.
The report concludes officials at the White House, including Chief of Staff Jim Baker, knew about the file searches.
Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Tamposi has already been fired because of the activity.
The report also recommends the disciplining of ten other employees.
More than half of the drunk drivers involved in accidents have run into trouble with the law before.
And despite the fact that it's a felony to drive on a suspended license,
Monoma County doesn't prosecute the crime because there is nowhere to put the offenders.
Sheila Hamilton reports on what it's like to get arrested for DDUI, a time and time again.
Officer Mark Flippo works the night shift in Traffic Division.
He knows that much of his night will be spent arresting and processing drunk drivers.
Ten minutes into his shift, he gets his first call.
Flippo is called to an intersection in northeast Portland where he meets Gary Scott Locati.
Locati says he turned in an intersection and was hit by an older man.
Flippo suspects he's drunk.
Flippo takes Locati through an exhaustive series of tests, the alphabet, counting backwards, finger dexterity moves.
After Locati wavers on a line rock, Flippo makes his move.
Chance on your back.
You're under arrest for driving under the influence of intoxicants.
Flippo stays on the scene to investigate, to make sure he's got all the facts when he's called into court.
He predicts Locati will fail the breath test.
He also predicts Locati is a repeat DUI offender.
Locati is transferred to Central Station and waits in a holding chamber while Flippo runs his record.
This shows here on his Portland record that he's got a DUI.
He had alcohol of.15 to.19 and that was on 514 to 91.
The record doesn't show Locati went into a diversionary program to avoid the DUI charge.
But a month later, he was arrested and convicted for driving on a suspended license.
This will be the third time he's run into the law, either for drunk driving or driving while suspended.
There you go.
Okay, you have a little.10.
.10.
Flippo's second prediction was right.
Locati fails Oregon's.08 legal limit.
Is there possible jail time involved with your second DUI or do you know?
I don't know. I don't think so.
I know a lot of people that have three, four, five DUIs haven't spent any jail time at all.
So you feel like you probably can get away with?
No, I don't feel like I can get away with anything. I deserve it.
The reality is very few drunk drivers in Oregon ever see a prison cell because of overcrowding.
It seems as if the only thing that will stop this person from driving or some others like them is being in jail.
And we're not in a position to jail all of the offenders who continue to drink and drive and drive while suspended.
The Daily would like to see more alternative sentencing, more restitution centers where drunk drivers could live while repaying their debt to society.
But for now, people like Gary Locati too often escape severe penalties and end up back on the road.
When we saw Gary Locati last, he was taking a cab home from the police station.
Officer Flippo made a third prediction, that it won't be long before Locati's back behind the wheel.
Sheila Hamilton, Channel 2 News.
Last year, Oregon police made nearly 30,000 arrests for drunk driving. More than half were repeat offenders.
Tomorrow night, we'll introduce you to a young girl paralyzed by a repeat drunk driver.
We'll see how she's trying to make changes in the system and in the minds of her peers.
The threat of a potentially explosive car theft has fizzled.
Portland police today found a stolen car that the owner claimed was carrying dynamite.
Well, police stopped the car early this morning and arrested the driver.
32-year-old Randy Lynn Chandler of Lake Oswego. But when they popped open the trunk, there were no explosives to be found.
Get out your heavy coats. Looks like cooler weather is moving in. Jim Little's next with the forecast.
And later, we'll take you behind the scenes of the Jackson's mini-series with a local choreographer who taught the actors all the right moves.
Well, it's raining out there now.
Rain here, rain on the coast. Rain pretty hard on the Washington coast. We've had some thunderstorms reported.
Weather watcher called from Toledo said she let her dogs out tonight. They nearly blew away. So it's kind of blustery as well.
Especially along the Washington coast. We're getting some pretty good winds there.
We'll see some blustery winds overnight tonight as this front moves through the Willamette Valley.
And as it moves into the Cascades, it will usher in some cooler air.
And we're looking for snow down to some very low elevations.
There are snow advisories out for both the Oregon and the Washington Cascades as well as the Olympics in Washington.
Here it is on satellite picture. You can see the system moving on in.
Front itself is right along the coastline, just past the coastline it looks like.
And then back in here, that's where we're seeing the showers. And some of those could be thundershowers.
Already one embedded moving across Hoquiam, Washington. They had some heavy rains there.
Some heavy rains up at Quileute, Washington on the northwestern tip as well.
Nearly an inch of rain just during the evening hours tonight.
There's plenty of moisture, plenty of cold air back here. And that will drop the freezing level.
And that's the reason we expect snow in the Cascades.
Here's what it looks like on radar. You can see the activity moving on in. Individual rain areas moving generally from southwest to northeast.
But the whole pattern is moving to the east.
Here's a close-up view. And you can see some darker green here and even some yellows, which indicate some locally heavier rains.
And all of that is moving in. So we'll see some good rain overnight tonight.
It'll turn a little more showery during the day tomorrow.
And temperatures won't be quite as warm as they were today. They'll be down closer to 50 degrees.
We were in the low 50s through the Willamette Valley today.
East of the Cascades, temperatures in the 40s and 50s, generally mid-50s along the coast.
Around the Portland metropolitan area, high temperatures today included 55 degrees here at K8 to U56.
And west wind camas topped out at 54. And 51 was the high temperature from our weather watcher in Hillsboro.
Light rain falling at the Portland airport right now. The temperature's down to 48 degrees.
93 percent humidity southeasterly winds at 10.
The barometer is falling, so the front hasn't reached us yet.
It'll start to come up a little bit as the front passes on through.
53 was the high today. 44 the overnight low.
Three hundredths of an inch of rain at the Portland airport up through 4 o'clock.
And the freezing level, 4900 feet. That freezing level is what will be coming down once this front right here pushes on through.
Cooler air over the northern plains. Some light snow. Nothing really very serious.
We did get some thunderstorms developed through central Texas tonight.
Fair skies down through the southeast this evening. And it'll stay fair again there tomorrow.
And generally fair in southern California. Windy weather, of course, up along the Washington coastline.
54 the high in Seattle today. Omaha topped out at 40. It was 71 in Atlanta.
Here's our satellite picture once again. This is the weather system that's moving in.
Lots of showers behind it. There's cool air back here.
The split in the jet stream that was out in the ocean and kind of splitting systems apart is to the east of us now.
So those systems will remain quite strong as they move on in.
A forecast first along the coast. Look for rain overnight tonight.
Showers, possible thundershowers tomorrow.
Coastal conditions, small craft advisories flying. Winds south, south winds 15 to 30 knots.
They'll turn westerly though as the front passes on through.
East side, steady rain in the morning turning to showers in the afternoon with partial clearing.
The rain or snow, the rain or showers will be snow above about 3000 feet east side.
Snow advisory out in the mountains. Rain and snow overnight tonight.
Snow showers tomorrow. Rain overnight through the gorge. Changing to showers tomorrow.
Western valleys. Rain overnight. Showers, possible thundershowers tomorrow.
Same thing for the Portland, Vancouver area.
Showers, possibly a thundershower tomorrow.
Only 50 degrees for a high temperature.
Back with a five day forecast right after this.
Weather system moving in tonight. Rainy and windy tonight.
Looking ahead for the next five days.
We'll see a chance for showers still on Friday. Partly cloudy skies.
Then another weather system moving in. It looks like later on on Saturday.
Kind of windy weather with that.
Still some showers around from that one on Sunday.
Monday, partly cloudy but cool.
High temperatures by Monday only in the mid 40s.
And lows dropping down to the mid 30s.
What's that time of year? It's getting colder.
Yes, thank you Jim.
Earlier many of you may have seen tonight's conclusion to the Jackson's mini-series.
A movie that required a lot of dancing from its actors.
Well tonight Channel 2's Al Sagala takes us behind the scenes of the movie.
With a local man who taught the actors all the right moves.
This is what most of us who watched the movie saw.
A set of actors who closely resemble the Jackson 5.
But it didn't come easy.
This is what actually went on during the shooting of the movie.
Hours of practicing to dance like the Jackson's.
It's pretty intense. I mean it's fun.
You know I mean we all have a good time. All the guys. We have a great time.
But it didn't always work out.
I'm the one who loves you. I'm the one you need.
Through the help of a Westland choreographer.
These actors were able to become the Jackson's and more.
Bill Holden spent days teaching them how to dance Jackson's style.
We choreographed the Jackson's to be much better than they were.
To make them look very very good.
Because the original Jackson's choreography was more of like step step step touch.
I do have to say though you know Michael Jackson is phenomenal.
So with the help of a Westland man.
The Jackson's movie gave us a glimpse into the lives of the Jackson 5.
In Portland, Al Sagala, Channel 2 News.
And I had promised Julie I would moonwalk.
But I brought the wrong shoes.
It does kind of make you want to shake a leg or something doesn't it?
Yeah.
It kind of looks like he's on skates when he does that moonwalk.
Guess what we're going to start with.
Hockey ice skates at stake tonight at the Coliseum.
First place in the Western Hockey League.
Portland and Seattle tied for second.
The winner with a chance to pull even with division leading Tacoma.
The Winterhawks did not start on the right foot or skate.
Scott Lindsay posted at the doorstep there for Seattle.
Not too tough for him.
Seattle grabbed a one to nothing lead.
Still the first period.
Dwayne Marischuk waiting out front of the Portland net again.
For the players circling behind the net.
And Seattle grabbed a two goal lead.
Not until the waning moments of the game did they score again though.
Scott Lankow there with 32 saves.
Colin Foley with two goals.
And the Winterhawks moved into first place tie with Tacoma tonight.
By winning 6 to 5.
In the Bigs the Oilers doubled the Canucks.
The North Stars edged the Capitals.
The Whalers stopped the Blues.
And the Devils dulled the Sabers.
The Utah Jazz historically have been nearly unbeatable at home.
And miserable on the road.
Utah won its fourth straight road game tonight.
They haven't lost yet on the road.
Ending a string of 21 straight losses in Boston.
You've got to go back 18 years when they used to be the New Orleans Jazz.
To find that last win in Boston.
Carl Malone with a turnaround here.
The Utah Jazz hung in there.
But Utah really hustled on defense.
Boston on the break here getting the ball ahead to Joe Klein.
But David Benoit blocked him.
Then Larry Kristoliak blocked him.
And then Benoit blocked him again.
The Jazz tried to run.
But Boston stopped that most of the time.
But with John Stockton pulling the strings to Benoit there.
Utah grabbed the lead.
Came down to this.
Boston down by one.
Time running out.
Reggie Lewis missed.
And Utah won by one.
Who is the most dominant player in the NBA?
It's easy.
Shaquille O'Neal.
Three Shaq shots for you tonight.
But don't watch him.
Watch the defense.
Double teaming this time.
But O'Neal took a look and hooked over them for the bucket.
This time one on one with Andrew Lang trying to contain him.
Couple of hip fakes.
Lang right in his face.
But how do you stop that arching jumper from a guy who's seven feet tall?
That was good defense.
Well maybe you surround him with four guys.
Count the white shirts when O'Neal scores here.
His teammates are heading the other way.
Four sixers surround him there.
But O'Neal still scored.
And the Magic won by ten.
Sacramento Kings began the season on an up note.
But now just before they're about to face the Blazers on Friday,
they look like the Kings of old.
Lousy.
In Phoenix, they batted the ball away from Charles Barkley here.
Great save to keep the ball in play.
And Randy Brown was not even challenged on his way down the lane.
Nigel Knight just let him go right by.
Kings hung close for a while.
But then that kind of defense disappeared.
Dan Marley split the wickets here.
Absolutely no challenge from the Kings.
Cedric Ceballos with 30.
Tom Chambers 20.
And Gary St. Jean's team didn't look ready for Portland.
They lost by 16.
For the second time in his career,
Barry Bonds is the National League most valuable player.
You can bet he's happy about that because he's also a free agent.
It's hard to explain the hard work, the accomplishments,
setting out goals and fulfilling your dreams.
Some of my kids and my wife, my dad over here.
But I think this one is probably the most important one to me
because this one I'm giving to my mom.
My wife and I and my kids will be together forever
and we might have a couple more opportunities for this.
But this one's going to go to my mom.
She deserves it more than anybody.
Nice gesture by Barry.
In East Portland tonight, they're taking on all comers tomorrow and Friday, too.
The Yukon Jack Arm Wrestling Championships.
Providing anyone really to come challenge the touring arm wrestlers
who've made a career putting them down.
And as you can tell, you not only need a strong arm,
but a pretty good buildup, emotion,
what can be a very quick experience.
What those people need though is this.
Dennis Sester stands 6'5", weighs about 435 pounds,
and boasts the largest biceps in the world.
Yes, that's not a misprint there.
Sester's biceps measure 28-1-8 inches around.
Because of that, the 40-year-old has muscle his way
in the Guinness Book of World Records.
His next goal, the world's largest chest,
and he's only 4 inches away from that record, which is 71 inches.
28-1-8 inches around.
Can you believe that?
That's about your waist.
That is so big.
Yes.
Yeah.
Come on, Julie, right here, right now.
All right, a last look at tomorrow's cold forecast when we come back.
Okay, here's Jim to take a last look at the weather.
Okay, here it is.
We have a weather system moving in tonight, rain overnight tonight,
continuing into early tomorrow morning.
It'll switch to showery weather during the day, not get very warm.
It's a cold front that's moving in.
It will dump lots of snow in the mountains.
Only about 50 degrees here locally.
Well, good for skiers.
We want to remind you, Nightline is next.
Ted Koppel goes one-on-one with Lee Iacocca.
Very interesting interview.
That's our news, everybody.
Good night.