Month: June 2017

Jefferson County residents are being encouraged to prepare their homes for the impending wildfire season and the expected increased risk of wildfire activity — and if they do, they could get some money as an incentive. The county is giving you $300 if you clear flammable materials from your yard. In order to be eligible

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Two members of an Oregon church that embraces faith healing have been arrested in the death of their premature baby. The Clackamas County Jail roster shows 24-year-old Sarah Mitchell and 21-year-old Travis Lee Mitchell were booked Monday on charges of murder and criminal mistreatment. The two have been under investigation since

Several RVs and trailers in Bend have been broken into and vandalized at The 9th Street RV Storage Center. “Last Tuesday night, sometime near midnight, we had a break-in here where they cut the fence and they broke into a number of vehicles, probably six or eight vehicles, (maybe) nine,” owner Rob Kirkpatrick said Monday.

MILWAUKIE, Ore. (AP) – One of the two men fatally stabbed while trying to stop a man’s anti-Muslim tirade against two teenage girls on a Portland light-rail train is being laid to rest after a funeral service attended by hundreds. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that (http://bit.ly/2sKPWha ) Ricky Best was remembered Monday at Christ the King

While the Aug. 21 solar eclipse is months away, ODOT highway managers in Central Oregon said Monday they are already planning how to keep traffic moving on Highway 97. Much of Central Oregon, from about Madras through Prineville and Mitchell, will be in the path of totality during the eclipse. Those communities will be magnets

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon lawmakers have rolled out two proposals aimed at reining in government spending and close the state’s upcoming $1.4 billion deficit by at least $141 million over the next two years. The cost-containment bills introduced Monday, Senate bills 1067 and 1068, come with just a month or so remaining in the

SEATTLE (AP) – The Seattle City Council has approved taxing soda and other sugary beverages to pay for nutrition and education programs. The ordinance passed on a 7-1 vote Monday calls for a tax of 1.75 cents per ounce on major distributors of beverages such as Pepsi and Coke, sports drinks, energy drinks and other

The Ochoco National Forest announced Monday it is embarking on a new strategy for monitoring its wild horse population for the Big Summit Territory. This year, two wild horse census efforts are expected to provide a more complete picture of the herd’s condition, demographics and location. A herd count has been done annually for many

BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) – TriMet says a pedestrian has been struck and killed by a light-rail train in Beaverton. Authorities have yet to release the pedestrian’s name or say how Monday’s collision occurred. TriMet says the crash disrupted service on the Blue Line. Shuttle buses were called to transport passengers.

An international team of scientists has concluded that “highly protected” marine reserves can help mitigate the effects of climate change and suggests that these areas be expanded and better managed throughout the world. Globally, coastal nations have committed to protecting 10 percent of their waters by 2020, but thus far only 3.5 percent of the

Hey Kids and Teens! Join Crook County School District for Free Nutritious Summer Meals. Free summer meals will be served to all children between the ages of 1 – 18 on a first come first serve basis at the following places & times: Barnes Butte Elementary School Cafeteria Monday – Friday June 12 – August

Walton Lake Campground, located east of Prineville, reopened for the season last month with new access restrictions due to a disease affecting many trees in the area, Ochoco National Forest officials said Monday. The concessionaire-operated campground, located east of Prineville, opened May 15 and is a popular spot for recreating on the forest, officials said.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Miners rejoiced after the Josephine County Board of Commissioners ruled that a man doesn’t need county permission to mine for gold on a property in the Sunny Valley near Grants Pass. The Daily Courier reports (https://is.gd/WHhGFg ) the latest round of mining controversy in southern Oregon brought about 100 people

Eight computer science professors in Oregon State University’s College of Engineering have received a $6.5 million grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to make artificial intelligence-based systems like autonomous vehicles and robots more trustworthy. The success of the deep neural networks branch of artificial intelligence has enabled significant advances in autonomous systems that

Three engine crews and two helicopters responded Sunday to a small new wildfire in the Deschutes National Forest north of Sisters, stopping it at less than three acres, officials said. Crews responded to Incident 256 shortly before 4 p.m., 1 1/2 miles southwest of Geneva and 11 miles north of Sisters, officials said. The fire

A tip from a concerned citizen on Saturday led to the arrest of three 13-year-old Sisters boys, accused of using gasoline and a lighter to start a fire that damaged a baseball field’s “snack shack” several days earlier, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said Sunday. The sheriff’s office and Sisters Fire Department responded around 3 p.m.

The well-known electronics retailer RadioShack has closed more than 1,000 stores around the nation since Memorial Day weekend, including the one at 1620 NE Third Street in Bend. The store, buffeted by other electronics chains and the move to online buying, said when the cuts are over, it will only have 70 company-owned stores and

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) – Shay Knighten singled in two runs in the fifth inning to help defending champion Oklahoma beat Oregon 4-2 on Sunday in the Women’s College World Series semifinals. The Sooners (59-9) will play top-seeded Florida on Monday night to start the best-of-three championship series. The teams have combined to win the past

The renovation and expansion of the Bethlehem Inn homeless shelter that is underway along Northeast Third Street in Bend will result in an underground blast early Monday, officials have confirmed. A message to volunteers Friday indicated no parking on-site between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Monday due to the blasting work. The new facility being

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Hundreds of people are expected to gather in Portland on Sunday for competing rallies following the fatal stabbing of two men on a light-rail train by a man police say was shouting anti-Muslim slurs. A pro-Donald Trump free speech rally had been previously planned for Sunday afternoon by a conservative group.