Month: April 2019

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon House will vote on a new tax on businesses to raise an additional $1 billion in annual revenue for its public schools. The Joint Committee on Student Success voted Monday night to send the proposed tax package in House Bill 3427 to the House floor. The move comes only

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-CA) on Tuesday introduced the Regulatory Oversight Barring Obnoxious (ROBO) Calls and Texts Act of 2019 . Meanwhile, Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., said at a House hearing that Americans have “had it” with the robocall problem, which he said needs an “all hands on deck” approach.

Happy Tuesday evening, everyone! We’ll cool quickly tonight as mostly clear skies will be overhead. Winds will still be breezy at times gusting around 20 miles per hour making it feel colder, so grab a jacket if you’re headed out this evening. Low temperatures will bottom out in the mid to upper 20s and lower

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police say four adults who were stabbed early Monday in Southeast Portland are recovering. The Portland Police Bureau said Tuesday that a female and one of the male victims had been released from hospitals. Police say the other men were in stable condition at area hospitals. An autopsy of the man

St. Charles Health System announced Tuesday it is providing $82,500 in “safety net” grants to more than a dozen nonprofit organizations throughout Central Oregon. Schools, food pantries, homeless shelters and health and wellness programs for underserved children are among the 13 nonprofits in the region that are helping meet the critical needs of individuals and

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Dozens of caseworkers rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday for full funding of Oregon’s foster care system, saying a severe staffing shortage has left employees has caused high burnout and turnover among current employees. “Our current caseloads are more than double and sometimes approaching triple of what they should be,” said

A true sign of spring: The Oregon Parks and Recreation Department will open the gate for vehicle access to the summit of Bend’s Pilot Butte at 10 a.m. on Thursday. The agency said the gate will open at approximately 10 a.m. each day, weather and road conditions permitting. The gate closure time is 8 and

VANCOUVER, Wash. (AP) – A 57-year-old Portland-area man has been arrested on suspicion of murder with sexual motivation in the death of a Vancouver woman strangled in her bed nearly 25 years ago. The Columbian reports Richard Eugene Knapp of Fairview was booked into Clark County Jail Tuesday. Audrey Hoellein, who was also known as

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Federal legislation to improve sanitation and water supplies at fishing sites crucial to the heritage of several Pacific Northwest tribes has passed the U.S. House after three years of delays. The bill now heads to the U.S. Senate, where similar legislation has also been introduced. The House bill that passed Monday

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) – A salmon-farming company has agreed to pay $332,000 in fines after one of its floating pens collapsed in 2017, releasing a quarter-million nonnative Atlantic salmon into Puget Sound. The state Department of Ecology announced Monday that Cooke Aquaculture had dropped its appeal and agreed to pay the full fine. The incident

Deschutes County Clerk Nancy Blankenship reminds voters of the following deadlines for the May 21 special election: Tuesday, April 30 is the voter registration deadline for the May 21 special election. Eligible voters have until 11:59 p.m. to register to vote online (www.oregonvotes.gov/register). Voter registration cards must have a USPS postmark of April 30. Wednesday,

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon is sending state officials to check on foster children at a Utah facility following a riot during which more than 20 teenagers were injured. The Oregonian/OregonLive reported Monday that one Oregon youth was injured Sunday at Red Rock Canyon School in St. George, Utah. An official says no Oregon youth

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – Medford police shot and killed a cougar after he was spotted repeatedly in daylight hours in a developed area of the city. The Mail Tribune reports that the 102-pound male was killed early Sunday morning near a hotel. Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologist Steve Niemela says the decision was

(Update: Adding livestream video from Tuesday burn west of Bend) The Deschutes National Forest conducted three prescribed burns Monday and had , another underway Tuesday west of Bend, in the Phil’s Trail system. Ignitions occurred Monday on the 286-acre South Bend unit, as well as the 149-acre SAFR 136 unit about 5 miles southwest of

The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs Reservation are now the custodians of 1,200 additional acres of critical habitat along the Middle Fork John Day River, thanks to a recent land transaction with The Nature Conservancy. Ownership of the property, called the Dunstan Homestead Preserve, transferred to the Tribes in April. The land’s critical fish

Welcome to the Oregon FBI’s Tech Tuesday segment. This week: building a digital defense against Social Security fraud. Anybody can get those annoying robo-calls on their phones at home and work – including FBI employees. Scammers are definitely equal opportunity fraudsters! Like many of you, I have always received my fair share of calls, but

K1 Speed – which bills itself as “the world’s premier indoor karting operator” – and MotoGP legends Kenny Roberts (1978-80 World Champion) and Kenny Roberts, Jr. (2000 World Champion) announced Monday the arrival of the company’s first US franchised location, scheduled to open this July in Bend. While the company has its own facilities around

A woman who gave Redmond police a false name during a weekend traffic stop was arrested, handcuffed and put in the back of a patrol car. But officers said she managed to free herself of the cuffs, get out and run, prompting an extensive but futile initial search and her eventual arrest Monday. An officer

(Update: Adding ODOT, FS comments) Monday marked the beginning of a three-week project to remove more than 2,100 trees along U.S. Highway 20 west of Sisters. The project is a result of the Oregon Department of Transportation spraying weed-killing herbicide a few years ago near the road. The herbicide ended up either killing or compromising

A pharmaceutical sciences researcher at Oregon State University has received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop a way for cystic fibrosis patients to get molecular treatment via an inhaler, a potential vast improvement over existing therapeutic methods. The treatment would be designed to work on every cystic fibrosis