PORTLAND – It was a bleak news year in Oregon. The jobless rate was persistently one of the worst in the nation. Bankruptcies and foreclosures rose as a result, and few thought the economy would improve soon or quickly.

The year also saw a number of high-profile murders, including an office park shooting, a pregnant woman whose baby was cut out of her, and two children forced off a Portland bridge.

And near year’s end, three young climbers died on Mount Hood, almost exactly three years after another trio of experienced climbers died on the highest peak in Oregon.

But there were also reasons to celebrate in 2009.

The University of Oregon Ducks won the Pac-10 Conference to go to the Rose Bowl for the first time since 1995. The Portland Trail Blazers made the NBA playoffs for the first time since 2003.

The university was also the host for the 2009 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, which will return to Eugene in 2011.

Oregon State University marine biologist Jane Lubchenco was tapped by President Barack Obama to head the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, leading to action on commercial fishing, ghost crab pots, climate change and salmon restoration.

The agency also decided to move the Pacific base for NOAA ships from Seattle to Newport on the Oregon coast, although the decision was appealed by a Washington state port that also bid for the base.

And a potential tragedy was averted when a Medford couple on a Christmas tree hunt returned safe and sound after spending a couple of nights in their Subaru stuck in the snow in the mountains near the California border.

But happy endings were rare in many of the other major Oregon news stories, many involving murder and other crime.

The year began with the worst mass shooting in Portland history when a young gunman opened fire on a crowd outside an under-21 nightclub on Jan. 24 and then killed himself. Two teenagers were also killed and seven people were wounded. The shooter, Erik Ayala, had been diagnosed as a potential schizophrenic and blogged about his dislike for “preppies” and “pop tweens.”

In Corvallis, five years after 19-year-old college student Brooke Wilberger disappeared, the man arrested in her abduction pleaded guilty to aggravated murder and pointed police to the spot near the Oregon coast where he dumped her body. With the plea, Joel Courtney avoided facing a death sentence.