Mo Damtew

The Portland Trail Blazers have spent the last two months looking for their head coach of the future, interviewing upwards of 30 candidates from around the world to replace Chauncey Billups, who was arrested on federal charges related to an illegal gambling ring last October. The search came to a close. The team announced last week that they had chosen to bring in Minnesota’s associate head coach, Micah Nori, as the new leader of the franchise.

Just five years ago, Parkrose High School did not have a speech and debate team. The program had not existed for 30 years before a collaboration between the Portland Urban Debate League, a nonprofit that creates and funds forensics programs in under-resourced schools across the city, and Portland Parks and Recreation established an after-school club for the 2022–23 school year. This spring, they sent two of their most talented students to a top-tier competition.

The Portland Timbers were already going into this offseason looking to add at least one midfielder to the roster, following inconsistent play from Joao Ortiz and with Diego Chara at the latter stages of his career. That need became more pressing when they traded breakout star David Ayala to Inter Miami in a deal that drew a lot of attention across Major League Soccer, in exchange for $2 million in cash. At one point, the club had only three players under contract in the center of the pitch.