Month: September 2017

Oregon employers will see a key portion of their workers’ compensation costs drop by an average of 14 percent in 2018, the state Department of Consumer and Business Services announced Monday. This marks the fifth year in a row that businesses will experience an average decrease in the “pure premium.” Altogether, the rate has declined

The Redmond Municipal Airport will proudly unveil a 100-by-60-inch hand-stitched American flag quilt Thursday morning. The American flag quilt was lovingly stitched together by eighteen local women artisans and crafted using various hand-quilting techniques learned from Alabama Chanin. The quilters logged hundreds of hours creating and assembling each unique piece, when stitched together, created a

Central Oregon Partnerships for Youth (COPY), a program of the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office, is offering a class to prepare volunteers to become mentors for children with an incarcerated parent. After initial training and comprehensive background checks, volunteers are matched with a child in Bend, Redmond, Sisters or LaPine that share similar interests and activities

TROUTDALE, Ore. (AP) – Authorities say trails affected by a wildfire in the Columbia River Gorge might be closed for months. Dawn Stender, a trail crew supervisor for the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, tells The Oregonian/OregonLive (http://bit.ly/2w1AyTv) on Monday that trails will likely be off-limits until spring because of landslide risk and damage from

Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement announcing that he will cosponsor Sen. Bernie Sanders’s Medicare for All legislation, which is expected to be introduced later this week. As Sen. Merkley has talked with Oregonians and Americans while Congress debated health care this year, he has heard from many about the importance of not only

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A federal judge has given a blogger until noon Wednesday to delete information he published about the confidential informants who helped law enforcement during last year’s takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown said in an opinion posted last week that Gary Hunt will face “coercive sanctions”

HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – A Hillsboro mother has been charged with child neglect after authorities say she left her two young children alone in a park while she went to get a new tattoo. The Washington County Sheriff’s Department said Monday that 28-year-old Ana Lara was arrested Saturday after another family found the 3-year-old and the

Interstate 84 in the Columbia River Gorge remains an active evacuation zone; the Eagle Creek Fire is still burning, having blackened more than 33,000 acres. ODOT said Sunday it is working closely with fire officials to determine when westbound lanes of I-84 can reopen. Eastbound I-84 will remain closed at least another week — the

ROSEBURG, Ore. (AP) – Authorities in Oregon say an elderly couple reported missing Sept. 3 have been found alive, but a 70-year-old neighbor who was with them did not survive. Sgt. Brad O’Dell of the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office says an elk hunter spotted the missing vehicle stuck on a remote forest road. He says 86-year-old

Medicare spent more than $1 billion over a five-year period on a high-priced drug that has not been proven more effective for a collection of inflammatory conditions than much less expensive corticosteroids, research by the OSU/OHSU College of Pharmacy shows. The analysis also indicates that a comparatively small group of “frequent prescribers” combine to write

Public transit planners should soon be rolling toward more informed decision making and better service thanks to a partnership between Oregon State University’s College of Engineering and the Oregon Department of Transportation. The university and state transportation officials have teamed up on an extension to the General Transit Feed Specification, commonly known as the GTFS.

EVERETT, Wash. (AP) – A group of baristas who wear bikinis at work have sued a Washington state city, saying two recently passed ordinances banning bare skin violate their rights to free expression and privacy. The Seattle Times reports ( http://bit.ly/2gWQRdK ) the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington,

(Update: Sunday fire reports) A new wildfire on state-protected private land about 20 miles north of Prineville was stopped by air and ground crews at about 50 acres by late Sunday, the Oregon Department of Forestry reported. Air tankers, single-engine air tankers (SEAT planes) and water-dropping helicopters supported ground crews on the Box Car Fire,

The Coast Guard said it suspended the search Sunday night for a missing Canadian man whose wife reportedly saw him fall off an 800-foot cliff at Oswald West State Park on the Oregon Coast. Officials said the search was suspended shortly before 9 p.m. after search efforts by an MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter crew from Sector

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police have arrested seven people during protests in downtown Portland. Hundreds of people turned out Sunday to oppose a much smaller demonstration by the right-wing Patriot Prayer group. The Portland Police Bureau said the crowd became “violent and criminal,” with anti-fascist protesters throwing smoke devices and other projectiles at officers in

Just over a year ago, on August 26, 2016, a 37-year old Bend man, Lorenzo Perez, was told his kidneys were rapidly failing. “He keeps thinking his kidneys are just going to bounce back one day,” his fiancee, Dominique Binder, said Sunday. “It’s pretty cute, how much hope he still has. That’s one of the

Bend Heroes Foundation has invited volunteers from the veterans community, Bend Police Department, Bend Fire Department, Oregon State Police and Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office to help install American flags in Bend on Monday, the 16th anniversary of 9/11. “Our purpose is to honor those lost during the 9/11 terror attacks and their families and those

Oregon’s Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Suzanne Bonamici, Peter DeFazio, Kurt Schrader and Greg Walden on Friday pressed the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service for full cooperation in bringing much-needed resources to wildfire-ravaged communities across Oregon. In a letter to Forest Service Chief Tony Tooke, the Oregon lawmakers

PORTLAND, Ore. – Amidst a week of disasters, the news of a decrease in hunger brings a glimmer of hope for Oregon. According to the USDA’s 2016 Household Food Security Report release last week, the number of Oregonians struggling to put food on the table decreased from 16.1 percent in 2013-2015 to 14.6 percent in

In the wake of Hurricane Harvey and now Hurricane Irma, and with more than a dozen wildfires burning in Oregon, the importance of emergency preparedness is evident. September is National Preparedness Month and a good time to think about the many things you can do to make sure you and your family stay safe during