Month: August 2017

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The city of Portland will buy property currently occupied by a strip club to tear it down and build 200 to 300 affordable apartments. The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (https://goo.gl/3ZcsKt ) Portland’s City Council on Wednesday approved spending $3.7 million on the 50,000-square foot property on Southeast Powell Boulevard at Southeast 30th Avenue. The city

Deschutes County District Attorney John Hummel released a report Wednesday that documents the results of a recent survey that gauged county residents’ views on public safety. An advisory group spent about a year going through crime data to figure out the big drivers of crime. Drug crimes were rated No. 1,and most of the public

Roads are about to be blocked in the area hundreds of homeless people living east of Redmond call home. “Where are we going? What are we going to do? People are really scared,” Debra Sue Smith said Wednesday. She and roughly 200 others are being uprooted. Deschutes County, the Central Oregon Irrigation District, Redmond School

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Authorities say a sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a goat that escaped from a Portland farm. Sgt. Dave Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff’s Office tells KPTV (https://is.gd/oAjZco) the deputy felt threatened by the goat’s size and horns, and had no other choice after making several attempts to stop it Sunday. Farmer Matt

MONMOUTH, Ore. (AP) – Officials say a baby was killed in a fire that destroyed a home in Monmouth. The Statesman Journal reports (https://is.gd/eGn77x ) the house was fully engulfed when firefighters responded Wednesday morning. Two adults and two children escaped, but a 1-year-old remained inside. Firefighters couldn’t find the baby during a rescue attempt. They found

With increased fire activity and an influx of visitors coming to Central Oregon for the solar eclipse, public land managers for the Prineville District of the Bureau of Land Management, Deschutes and Ochoco National Forests and Crooked River National Grassland announced Wednesday they will implement a ban on open campfires and Industrial Fire Precaution Level

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon Gov. Kate Brown has signed legislation that increases the legal age for using and buying tobacco products from 18 to 21. The law takes effect at the start of 2018. Oregon is one of five states to boost the age to 21, joining California, Hawaii, Maine and New Jersey. Lawmakers who approved

ENTERPRISE, Ore. (AP) – Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife authorities shot and killed two adult wolves in response to multiple attacks on cattle grazing in northeast Oregon. Department spokeswoman Michelle Dennehey said one wolf was killed Sunday night and a second was shot Tuesday morning. She says one was shot from the ground and one

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson has rejected an initiative petition that sought to make it easier to boost taxes on businesses to pay for public education. The Republican based his decision on an Oregon Department of Justice opinion that the ballot measure didn’t pass legal muster because it tries to make

KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) – A former southern Oregon sheriff convicted of using excessive force against three suspects has quickly completed his sentence. Former Klamath County Sheriff Frank Skrah was found guilty less than three months ago and sentenced to a full year on probation. The Herald and News reports (https://is.gd/fDDe3h ) his probation ended early

The Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District has placed a new water tender in service at the Camp Sherman fire station. The water tender is a 2005 model that was previously used at the Kandahar Air Base in Afghanistan. The water tender replaces a 1968 model that had reached the end of its service life. The new

The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department is removing hazard trees on the Deschutes River Trail upriver from Tumalo State Park’s day use area. This trail segment will be closed on Friday, from approximately 7:00-10:00 am, for the work to be safely completed. “We appreciate everyone’s support by avoiding the area during that time,” the agency

(Update: Rain eases threat, task force call-up canceled) Welcome rain on a new, threatening fire in southwest Oregon means a calling off of outside resources that were about to be deployed under the state Conflagration Act, the Oregon State Fire Marshal’s Office said Wednesday. The OSFM received a conflagration request for the Flounce Fire in

COOS BAY, Ore. (AP) – Police arrested a Coos County sheriff’s deputy accused of beating his wife.   The World newspaper reports (https://is.gd/Ur7HAg ) 39-year-old Klayton Wilson was arrested Sunday after Bandon police responded to a report of a disturbance and found the woman in the front yard. She was shaking, and her hands and

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A Portland industrial shop has been court ordered to pay nearly $300,000 for failing to trim tree branches that blocked a stop sign and contributed to a fatal car crash. In June 2013, driver Jason Rodriguez ran the stop sign and ended up crashing into cross-traffic, killing one of his passengers, 33-year-old

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Health Authority director has resigned at the request of the governor after a communication plan became public detailing how the agency intended to damage the reputation of a Portland health care agency., The Oregonian/OregonLive reports (https://goo.gl/Wxt3Es ) Lynne Saxton insisted that she never implemented the bare-knuckled tactics advocated in the

The nation is facing a shortage of police officers, and Central Oregon’s largest city is not immune to the problem. With high risks, a challenging schedule, less-than-desirable pay and a bad reputation, recruiting people has never been more difficult. For the last few years, the Bend Police Department has struggled to stay fully staffed, and

The number of visitors to Central Oregon’s public lands keeps growing. “We’re estimating this year we could approach 4 million visitors per year on the Deschutes National Forest,” Supervisor John Allen said Tuesday. All that added traffic is taking its toll. “We’ve seen a four-fold increase in the number of visitors into the wilderness in

RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) – State health officials say radioactive plutonium and americium have been found in air samples collected where workers enter the secure area of the Hanford nuclear reservation in southeastern Washington. The Tri-City Herald reported Tuesday (https://goo.gl/4km3jM ) that the air samples were collected by the state Department of Health on June 8 at

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – Former Oregon receiver Darren Carrington pleaded “no contest” to a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence. The Register Guard reports ( http://bit.ly/2ulIfPP ) that Carrington, 22, had been scheduled to appear Tuesday in Eugene Municipal Court to resolve a case filed after his July 1 arrest. He instead made an unscheduled