Maybe you guys missed the cable news dust-up last week about the 3-year-old left stranded on a MAX platform as the train bearing his dad left the station. The poor kid accidentally pressed a button that closed the door behind him as he left the train, separating him from his dad. As the train pulled out of the station, the dad pressed the train's emergency call button repeatedly, but there was no response from the driver.

Hero of the day is 22-year-old Portland State student Orianne Greene. When Greene saw the boy separated from his dad, she rushed to comfort the kid and stayed with him for the seven minutes it took his dad to catch a train back to the fateful station. News of this incident went national over the weekend, climaxing in Bill O'Reilly calling Green a "patriot".

I'm not exactly sure how helping a crying kid on a MAX platform has anything to do with loving or defending America, but kudos all the same to Greene for being a good and decent human.

Not to be a Grinch about this, but I think the avalanche of coverage of the small incident kinda outweighs its importance. Google News lists 116 articles about the story. The Oregonian described the incident as the "drama that has captured the nation's hearts and TV news shows", a welcome positive news story to run alongside stories of a "tanking economy" and "two unsuccessful wars".

After all the publicity and an investigation that showed the train driver had not responded to a fully-functioning emergency call button system, TriMet today announced it had placed the driver on paid administrative leave pending a disciplinary hearing. They also gave the father and kid annual TriMet passes... but no word yet on whether there'll be a "reward" larger than becoming an O'Reilly-christened patriot for Greene.