More than 1 million people keep Oregon Health Plan benefits due to efforts to expand coverage options SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — With more than 90 percent of the state’s 1.5 million renewals complete, more than 4 out of 5 Oregonians are keeping their Oregon Health Plan or other Medicaid benefits. During the COVID-19 Public Health
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WASHINGTON (KTVZ) — Senate Finance Committee Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., issued a statement this week after the Biden administration finalized several rules aimed at improving health care for Americans in nursing homes, those receiving home and community-based services through Medicaid, as well as updates to Medicaid-managed care to strengthen health services covered by these plans:
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Raising speed limits on highways could lead to more crashes on nearby roads, according to new research by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. This “spillover effect” can lead to dangerous clusters of crashes or “hotspots” on local roads within a one-mile radius of the interstate.
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PORTLAND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Oregon Zoo is home to many critically endangered species, but perhaps none as rare as its newest arrivals: a trio of sihek (SEE-heck) kingfishers. Once native to the island of Guam, these tiny, brightly colored birds have been extinct in the wild for decades. Only 110 are left in the
Continue ReadingPORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — An Oregon university said Friday it is pausing seeking or accepting further gifts or grants from Boeing Co. after students and faculty demanded that the school sever ties with the aerospace company because of its weapons manufacturing divisions and its connections to Israel amid the war in Gaza. Portland State University
Continue ReadingEVERETT, Wash. (AP) — Officials are sounding alarms after a baby died and two others apparently also overdosed in the past week in separate instances in which fentanyl was left unsecured inside residences, authorities said. A 911 caller on Wednesday afternoon reported that a 13-month-old baby was not breathing in an apartment in Everett, the
Continue ReadingANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — An Oregon man who was convicted in the 1978 killing of a 16-year-old girl in Alaska was sentenced Friday to 50 years in prison. Donald McQuade, 67, told Superior Court Judge Andrew Peterson that he maintains his innocence and did not kill Shelley Connolly, the Anchorage Daily News reported. McQuade in
Continue ReadingBy Rebekah Riess and Zoe Sottile, CNN (CNN) — An orca calf that spent over a month stranded in a remote lagoon on Vancouver Island off the west coast of Canada swam out of the lagoon on her own early Friday morning, according to the Ehattesaht First Nation. The seemingly trapped mammal attracted media attention,
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WASHINGTON (KTVZ) – Senators Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Edward J. Markey, D-Mass., issued the following statement Friday after the Federal Communications Commission voted to approve its rule reclassifying broadband as a telecommunications service under Title II of the Communications Act and reinstating net neutrality protections: “Net neutrality is simple; it’s about nondiscrimination. Net neutrality ensures
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SEATTLE (AP) — The federal government plans to restore grizzly bears to an area of northwest and north-central Washington, where they were largely wiped out. Plans announced this week by the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service call for releasing three to seven bears a year for five to 10 years to
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Oregon’s Department of Justice just launched a “You Belong.” Campaign after becoming the first state in the nation to provide a hotline for those affected by a bias-related crime. That greater awareness and reporting tool likely plays a major factor in a significant rise in reports of such incidents in recent years, including in Bend-La Pine Schools.
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REEDSPORT, Ore. (KTVZ) — Nearly 18,000 young salmon died after a vandal poured bleach into a Douglas County fish hatchery tank on Monday, according to law enforcement authorities. What may have started as vandalism evolved into poaching with the illegal killing of fish in one of four tanks at the Gardiner, Reedsport, and Winchester Bay
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SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) – The Oregon Business and Industry Research and Education Foundation this week released the inaugural Oregon Competitiveness Book, a collection of more than 50 indicators of economic competitiveness, from per-capita personal income to public school performance. For each indicator, the Oregon Competitiveness Book ranks Oregon among the 50 states. As a companion to the
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SEATTLE (KTVZ) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that the Oregon Department of Energy has been selected to receive $86.6 million through the Solar for All grant competition to develop long-lasting solar programs that enable low-income and disadvantaged communities to deploy and benefit from distributed residential solar. This award is part of the
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WEST RICHLAND, Wash. (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday confirmed that a body found at the home of a former Washington state police officer who killed his ex-wife before fleeing to Oregon, where he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, was that of a 17-year-old girl with whom he had a baby. Elias Huizar, 39, a
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Two adults were killed and a child was injured over the weekend in a shooting in remote Harney County that sheriff’s deputies determined to be a murder-suicide involving an Idaho family camping along a road in the area.
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The Oregon DMV’s credentials system went down on Monday but was restored Wednesday afternoon, meaning the agency can once again issue driver’s licenses, permits and IDs at their offices, a spokeswoman said Wednesday afternoon.
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By Eric Tegethoff, Oregon News Service SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon is working to address the state’s digital divide with hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. Infrastructure presents the largest challenges for connecting people in Oregon to high-speed broadband internet. Nick Batz, director of the Oregon Broadband Office, said there are more than 170,000
Continue ReadingBy Chris Isidore, CNN New York (CNN) — Boeing reported a slightly smaller loss in the first quarter compared to the same time a year ago, but said fixing the problems that got attention after the Alaska Air incident will push back its financial recovery and cost it $443 million in compensation to its airline
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WASHINGTON (KTVZ) — As more and more Oregonians grow dissatisfied with the U.S. Postal Service for its price hikes coupled with inefficiency under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., joined his Senate colleagues Tuesday in pushing for change to protect the jobs, businesses and Americans who rely on the service. In a letter
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