Month: July 2018

A growing army of firefighters have brought the now 70,421-acre Substation Fire southeast of The Dalles — the nation’s top wildfire priority — to 15 percent containment by Friday morning, but more hot and windy weather on the way means the battle is far from over. Here’s the Friday morning update: Substation Fire Update –

Happy Friday evening, everyone! Tonight winds won’t be nearly as gusty as they were last night. Gusts will top 20 miles per hour through sunset. No watch nor warning is in place for the region as of this evening. Overnight expect mostly clear to completely clear skies. Lows will be chilly early tomorrow morning in

CENTRAL POINT, Ore. (AP) – Authorities in southern Oregon say a homeless man was killed in a wildfire near a transient camp earlier this week. The medical examiner’s office in Jackson County said Friday that a man found dead Thursday inside the perimeter of the nearly 100-acre Peninger Fire died in the blaze. Authorities previously

What do you get when you mix a famous surfer, coffee creamer and Central Oregon? A rapidly expanding natural food company in Sisters. Laird Superfood is a health food business started by surfing legend Laird Hamilton. It started with a coconut-based coffee creamer in 2016. Since then, it’s rapidly expanded its line to include powdered

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Gov. Kate Brown on Friday asked federal officials to provide emergency aid for farmers affected by wildland fires raging in Oregon. The letter from Wyden, Merkley and Brown to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue comes as the Substation Fire is engulfing wheat fields in Wasco and Sherman County and

With hot and dry conditions expected to continue, an increasing number of wildfires around the Northwest and fire suppression resources already responding to a number of wildfires around Oregon, the Prineville District Bureau of Land Management, the Deschutes National Forest and the Ochoco National Forest, including the Crooked River National Grassland, are implementing campfire restrictions

Here are the results of Tuesday’s KTVZ.COM Poll, asking if you think all campfires should be banned until conditions change: Should all campfires be banned until conditions change?Yes – 85% (752 votes)No – 15% (133 votes)Total Votes: 885

Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., joined their Senate colleagues Friday in opposing the Trump administration’s proposed rollback of environmental regulations that enhance the safety of offshore drilling operations. In a letter to Department of the Interior Secretary Zinke, the senators wrote that administration’s proposal would erode key safety and environmental regulations, which require

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Jurors have convicted a man in the 2016 death of a student from Portland who was sexually assaulted and strangled on the University of Texas campus. Twenty-year-old Meechaiel Criner was found guilty of capital murder Friday in the death of 18-year-old Haruka Weiser. Weiser was a freshman dance major. She was

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The U.S. Department of Justice is taking over an embattled Oregon mega-dairy, citing the owner’s continued drug use, gambling, out-of-control spending and pending criminal charges. The Statesman Journal reports Lost Valley Farm, located near Boardman, supplies milk to the Tillamook County Creamery Association, which produces Tillamook Cheese. It is the second

(Update: Correcting county) The Oregon Health Authority issued a recreational use health advisory Friday for Odell Lake due to the presence of a cyanobacteria (harmful algae) bloom and the toxins they produce. The lake is located 75 miles southeast of Eugene, off state Highway 58 in Klamath County. Water monitoring has confirmed the presence of

The Oregon State Marine Board, in partnership with 32 county sheriff’s offices and the Oregon State Police will be focusing their enforcement efforts on boaters with lapsed boat registrations during the weekend of August 4-5 for “Operation Ship Shape.” “So far this year, marine law enforcement officers are reporting unusually high numbers of unregistered boats,”

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A lawsuit filed by young activists who say the government is failing to protect them from climate change is still alive. In San Francisco on Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the government’s second request for an order directing a lower court to dismiss the case. The lawsuit

The 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the Oregon Army National Guard is scheduled to conduct a large-scale training exercise, July 21-August 12, at Camp Roberts and Fort Hunter Liggett, California. The 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team is scheduled to conduct convoy operations to California to participate in this training. The exercise is an instrumented

(Update: Last 1,200 have power restored; squirrel confirmed as outage cause) An outage caused by a squirrel at a Pacific Power substation cut power to more than 4,700 customers for up to four hours Friday morning, a utility spokesman said. The number of affected customers had dropped to 2,651 by 9 a.m. and 1,211 an

The increasing national need for firefighting resources and hot, dry conditions on the Willamette National Forest are causing fire managers to ban campfires outside of developed campgrounds, use of chainsaws, and smoking outside of vehicles, officials said Friday. This includes a ban on the use of charcoal briquettes. Campfires are allowed in metal or concrete

Crews are in full mop-up mode on the lightning-sparked Cemetery Fire that broke out earlier this week in the Maury Mountains of the Ochoco National Forest southeast of Prineville, now 70 percent contained at 1,414 acres, officials said Friday. They expect to have the fire fully contained by July 31. Here’s the 8 a.m. update:

Sunriver has a new police chief and fire chief. Tim Moor was sworn in as fire chief Thursday afternoon, along with new Police Chief Cory Darling. Moor was previously the fire chief in Redmond, while Darling was a captain on the Bend police force. Darling said he wants to bring positive change and stability after

A Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team investigation over the past several weeks led to a traffic stop Thursday and the arrest of a 33-year-old Bend man on cocaine and child neglect charges and seizure of cocaine and prescription drugs, officers said. His two young children were in the car with him, prompting a call to

Five men were arrested on various charges last Friday in the first patrol by the Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office’s new Community Action Target Team, or CATT, deputies said Thursday. The sheriff’s office created the team “as a proactive approach to focusing on quality-of-life issues in Deschutes County,” Sgt. William Bailey said in a news release.