Tony Klein, 38, convicted of 21 of 23 federal charges and could face life imprisonment
A former nurse at women’s prison in Oregon was found guilty of sexually abusing nine women while they were in custody.
Tony Klein, 38, was convicted of 21 of the 23 federal charges, including 17 counts pertaining to sexual assault and four of making false statements under oath in a deposition.
Continue reading...Bobby Smallwood stood between gunman and maternity patients and staff when he was shot and killed on Saturday
A community in the US state of Oregon is mourning a hospital security guard who was shot to death while protecting a maternity ward from an intruder over the weekend.
The slain guard, 44-year-old Bobby Smallwood, started out handling administrative and computer-related tasks when he first joined Portland’s Legacy Health network last year, according to a profile of him published by the news website oregonlive.com. But staffers at the hospital network often called Smallwood to help out with security because he was 6ft, 5in tall and weighed 270lbs.
Continue reading...Mynor Recinos was on his riverside patio fishing when he spotted the girl in trouble and swam nearly 60ft to save her
A fisher in Oregon used a rope, his lifelong swimming skills and quick thinking to rescue a girl who fell off a jet ski and into the Columbia River from drowning, according to witnesses. Now, people are calling for the local government to formally recognize him as a hero.
The dramatic scene unfolded Wednesday off Hayden Island, when Mynor Recinos was on his riverside patio fishing and spotted two girls in lifejackets who had fallen off their jet ski in the face of a large wave.
Continue reading...Lawmakers showed up for work Thursday after compromising with Democrats on abortion and gun safety measures
Ending a walkout that held up key bills for six weeks, Republicans showed up for work in the Oregon senate on Thursday after wresting concessions from Democrats on measures covering abortion, transgender healthcare and gun rights.
The lawmakers’ walkout – the longest in state history and the second-longest in the United States – came as several statehouses around the nation have been ideological battlegrounds, including in Montana and Tennessee.
Continue reading...Walkout lasting more than a week has thrown statehouse into disarray and jeopardized Democrats’ legislative agenda
Oregon Republicans boycotted the statehouse for a ninth day on Thursday, denying lawmakers the quorum necessary to pass legislation, in a protest that could derail hundreds of bills, including proposals on gun control and abortion rights.
While Democrats control the capital in the Pacific north-west state, Republicans have leveraged rules requiring two-thirds of lawmakers be present to pass legislation, which means Democrats need a certain number of Republicans to be there too.
Continue reading...California governor declares state of emergency in 13 counties while Portland, Oregon, sees second snowiest day in history
The west coast of the US, from Oregon to the mountains of California and the golf courses of Phoenix, has received nearly unprecedented levels of snowfall this week in what officials are calling a “once-in-a-generation” event.
The mountainous regions of California have received so much snowfall – more than 40ft of snow since the start of the season – that entire towns have shut down as they are virtually cut off from the rest of the state. The governor has declared a state of emergency in 13 counties due to the unusual snowfall.
Continue reading...As incidents increase, state lawmakers seek to allow civil suits against paramilitaries – but critics say rights will be infringed on
An armed takeover of a federal wildlife refuge. Over 100 straight days of racial justice protests that turned downtown Portland into a battleground. A violent breach of the state capitol. Clashes between gun-toting rightwingers and leftist militants.
Over the past decade, Oregon experienced the sixth-highest number of extremist incidents in the nation, despite being 27th in population, according to an Oregon secretary of state report. Now, the state legislature is considering a bill that, experts say, would create the nation’s most comprehensive law against paramilitary activity.
Continue reading...Investigation concludes six officials violated state ethics laws by diverting alcohol, including Pappy Van Winkle, for own purchase
Officials with Oregon’s liquor and marijuana regulating agency allegedly “abused their position for personal gain” and violated state ethics laws to obtain rare bottles of top-shelf bourbon worth thousands of dollars.
The state’s governor on Wednesday asked the Oregon liquor and cannabis commission to remove the executive director, Steve Marks, and five other officials after an internal investigation concluded they used their knowledge and connections to obtain the pricey whiskey.
Continue reading...Police still looking for Jericho Labonte of British Columbia after he was released from hospital after ‘odd 48 hours’
A man saved by a US coast guard rescue swimmer at the mouth of the Columbia river as a massive wave rolled the yacht he was piloting on Friday was wanted for a bizarre incident in which police said he left a dead fish at the Astoria, Oregon, home featured in the classic 1985 film, The Goonies.
Officers had been looking for the man since Wednesday, when an acquaintance alerted them to a video he posted on social media of himself leaving the fish at the house and then dancing around the property, said the Astoria police chief, Stacy Kelly.
Continue reading...Attendant repeatedly dismissed Rose Wakefield as she attempted to get his service and told her, ‘I don’t serve Black people’
An Oregon woman has been awarded $1m by a jury after facing racist discrimination at a gas station where the attendant told her: “I don’t serve Black people.”
A jury in Multnomah county reached the decision after a four-day-trial in a case where Rose Wakefield from Portland claimed an attendant at the gas station had refused to serve her because of her race.
Continue reading...Christmas Day outages add to an alarming string of incidents with similar power grid vandalism in Oregon and North Carolina
More than 14,000 people suffered power outages in Washington state on Christmas Day following burglaries and a series of vandalisms at different power stations.
The Pierce county sheriff said in two statements that no suspects have yet been identified for the incidents.
Continue reading...With less than a month remaining in office, Kate Brown, said she was using her clemency powers to change the term to life in prison
The governor of Oregon, Kate Brown announced Tuesday that she is commuting the sentences of all of the state’s 17 inmates awaiting execution, saying all of their death sentences will be changed to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Brown, who has less than a month remaining in office, said she was using her executive clemency powers to commute the sentences and that her order will take effect on Wednesday.
Continue reading...A fire chief is under investigation for a prescribed burn gone wrong and stirred up long-simmering tensions over wildfire risk
Hours before Rick Snodgrass was cuffed and loaded into a squad car, he’d called the sheriff himself. The United States Forest Service burn boss had requested the help of local law enforcement in Grant county, Oregon, reporting his crew was being harassed while conducting a controlled burn within the Malheur national forest.
It was the second burn that crews had conducted in the area in two weeks, with flames intended to char around 300 acres. But that warm October afternoon, the treatment did not go according to plan.
Continue reading...Investigation into the 2015 incident revealed the 0.50-caliber weapon for the Jalisco cartel was purchased in Portland, Oregon
The 0.50-caliber gun used by the Mexican Jalisco cartel to shoot down a Mexican military helicopter in 2015 came from a gun supplier in Portland, Oregon, a joint Mexico-US investigation has found.
On Wednesday, the Louisville Courier Journal reported confirmation of the connection between the incident and Portland, Oregon by federal firearm officials.
Continue reading...Unprecedented arrest comes after fire burned 20 acres of private land. Now, experts fear backlash against the wildfire control tool
A US Forest Service employee in Oregon was arrested this week after a prescribed burn in a national forest spread onto private land. It is an unprecedented move that signals an alarming backlash to prescribed burning, a critical tool in wildfire management.
Rick Snodgrass, a “burn boss” with the forest service, was overseeing a 300-acre burn in Oregon’s Malheur national forest that had been approved by the agency. A spot fire escaped control, according to officials in Grant county and charred roughly 20 acres of private land belonging to Holiday Ranches.
Continue reading...Newport officers said three devices had washed on to the beach and instructed public not to handle or move them
Police in Oregon last week warned local beachgoers about grenades that had washed on to the shore and appeared to still be able to explode.
The police department in the city of Newport issued a statement on Wednesday saying three separate grenades had somehow washed on to the beach there a day earlier.
Continue reading...Presence of two adults and two cubs in Cascade mountains detected after federal protections restored earlier this year
The sighting of a new family of gray wolves in Oregon’s Cascade mountains has given wildlife advocates hope that the recovery of the endangered species in the state is gathering pace.
The state’s fish and wildlife department (ODFW) said a group of two adults and two pups was captured by a trail camera in August.
Continue reading...Blazes in California, Washington and Oregon cause widespread damage as plumes travel across states and into Canada
California firefighters are battling large blazes across the state as the west’s fire season heats up, covering swaths of Oregon, Washington, California and Canada in heavy smoke that has also traveled across the US.
Rain from tropical storm Kay brought relief to firefighters in southern California after a punishing heatwave gripped much of the state for more than a week and sent some crews to the hospital.
Continue reading...About 7,500 people in Weed and those nearby under evacuation orders as much of state faces brutal heatwave
A fast-moving wildfire in northern California is threatening rural communities near the Oregon border, injuring people and torching homes.
About 7,500 people in Weed and several nearby communities were under evacuation orders on Saturday as the flames raced through tinder-dry grass. Much of California is facing a brutal heatwave this weekend that’s likely to see some of the hottest weather of the year.
Continue reading...Parts of California could see 115F heat as several states face potentially record-breaking weather
A brutal, potentially record-breaking heatwave is setting over the US west, the latest in a string of extreme temperature events that’s putting communities on high alert for heat-related illness and death.
Temperatures are expected to hit 115F (46C) in the coming days across parts of southern California, Sacramento and the San Joaquin Valley, according to the National Weather Service. In Death Valley, temperatures were forecast to reach more than 120F (49C).
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