Oregon Archives - Page 4 of 7 - Northwest Public Broadcasting

Push For Permanent Daylight Saving Time Gets Nudge From British Columbia Residents

By Tom Banse September 11, 2019

File photo. A loosely coordinated effort is gaining steam to get all West Coast states to synchronize their clocks to year-round daylight saving time. CREDIT: HENRIQUE SIMPLICIO / FLICKR PHOTO HTTPS://FLIC.KR/P/F1JXBL

The movement to “ditch the switch” — the twice-yearly ritual of changing our clocks between daylight and standard time — just got a push from British Columbia, where residents signaled they are keen to join Washington state and Oregon on permanent daylight saving time.Read More

Could Relocating Sage Grouse Save The Birds In Washington?

By Courtney Flatt September 3, 2019

A male greater sage grouse struts its stuff on Bureau of Land Management land in this April 21, 2012, photo. CREDIT: BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT/FLICKR

Moving imperiled sage grouse from one spot to another can be hard on the birds. But research from Washington State University suggests that after a restless adjustment period, the birds eventually get used to their new homes.Read More

Public Can Comment On Killing Of Sea Lions In Columbia River Until October 29

By NWPB News September 2, 2019

Sea lions have been eating steelhead and other fish at Willamette Falls in ever greater numbers.Photo courtesy of ODFW

Three Northwest states’ request to lethally remove sea lions from the Columbia River is now open for public comment. Read More

Oregon Democrats Say Republican State Senators Won’t Be Fined For Legislative Walkout

By Dirk VanderHart August 23, 2019

Democratic members of the Oregon Senate stand in the mostly empty Senate chambers at the Oregon Capitol in Salem, Ore., on Thursday, June 27, 2019. On the eighth day of a walkout by Republican senators, Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney adjourned the session shortly after it began due lacking the required number of senators to meet a quorum.

Oregon Senate Democrats announced Friday that they were abandoning a plan to fine Republicans $500 a day for the walkout, amid concerns over a protracted lawsuit and questions about how such unprecedented fines would work.Read More

Recently Get A Random $91.94 Check In The Mail? It’s Legitimate (Because Of Where You Got Gas)

By Tom Banse August 22, 2019

A mass mailing of settlement checks meant it was Christmas in midsummer for drivers who filled their tanks at Oregon ARCO stations in 2011-13. CREDIT: TOM BANSE/N3

If you were among the 1.7 million people who got a mysterious, unbidden $91.94 check in the mail recently, you may wonder if it is legitimate. It is! And the best news may be that recipients will get a similar check next summer.Read More

Scientists Warn Oregon Lags Behind Other West Coast States In Disaster Preparedness

By NWPB News July 29, 2019

The Eagle Creek Fire as seen from the Cascade Locks Hatchery. To keep hatchery fall chinook from dying because of the fire, Oregon officials released them early. CREDIT: OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, who included the $12 million in funding for the projects in her proposed budget last year, has told reporters the decision not to expand the early detection systems was one of the "biggest disappointments" of this year's legislative session.Read More

Oregon Republicans Are Trying To Recall Democratic Governor Kate Brown

By Dirk VanderHart July 16, 2019

Oregon Governor Kate Brown - AP PHOTO DON RYAN

The head of the Oregon Republican Party on Monday took a first step toward forcing a recall election of Gov. Kate Brown, whose term expires at the end of 2022.Read More

‘Hyena-Pig’? ‘Murder-Cow’? Scientists Identify Pre-Historic Animal Roaming Northwest

By Erin Ross July 15, 2019

The John Day mesonychid would have shared its range with large herbivores like Protitanops, a relative of modern rhinos. CREDIT: National Park Service

Hyena-pig. Murder-cow. With no modern analog, scientists have resorted to combinations of common animals to describe it. Dug up decades ago in the Hancock Mammal Quarry near John Day, Oregon, the bone from this prehistoric creature languished, misidentified in museum storage, until Selina Robson pulled it from its drawer.Read More

BLM Says They Won’t Kill Wild Horses In Western States To Control Growing Population

By NWPB News July 12, 2019

This July 25, 2007 file photo, shows wild horses being herded by the Bureau of Land Management in a field, at the Black Mountain and Hardtrigger Herd Management Areas in the Owyhee Mountains southeast of Marsing, Idaho. CREDIT: Darin Oswald/Idaho Statesman via AP

The federal Bureau of Land Management will not pursue lethal measures such as euthanasia or selling horses for slaughter to deal with what officials say is an ecological and fiscal crisis caused by too many wild horses on rangelands in the U.S. West, an official said Thursday.Read More

Mind The Gap: Efforts Aim To Stitch Together Gaps In Northwest Trail Networks To Keep Hikers Safe

By Tom Banse July 12, 2019

Oregon Coast Trail thru-hikers have to walk along busy, narrow Highway 101 for various stretches, including near Manzanita. CREDIT: TOM BANSE/N3

Long-distance hiking can be the experience of a lifetime. It also can present dicey to mundane hurdles, like having to hike stretches along busy highways or logging roads. Trail crews are working this summer to improve some enticing regional routes -- that you may or may not have tried -- including the Oregon Coast Trail and the east-west Pacific Northwest Trail from Read More

Oregon Legislature Adjourns In Tense Final Day After Senate GOP Walkout

By Dirk VanderHart July 1, 2019

Oregon Senate President Peter Courtney waits as all of the bills for the day are organized on the final day of the 2019 legislative session. CREDIT: KAYLEE DOMZALSKI/OPB

Oregon lawmakers concluded their work for the year Sunday, marking the close of the most remarkable and contentious legislative sessions in modern memory. In a day filled with flaring tempers and frequent confusion, lawmakers in the House and Senate passed a completed state budget and a raft of policy bills just after 5:20 p.m., well before the midnight deadline set forth Read More

Assured Carbon Bill Is Dead, Oregon GOP Senators Return To Work To Finish Session

By Dirk VanderHart June 28, 2019

Senate Republicans will return to work Saturday following a nine-day walkout, setting the stage for a weekend where lawmakers sprint toward adjournment. That comes after Democratic leaders offered assurances a sweeping climate change bill, House Bill 2020, will not pass this session.Read More

Demonstrators Urge Republican Senators To Maintain Walkout For Rural Oregon Interests

By Dirk VanderHart June 27, 2019

A flatbed truck rides by as a crowd rallies at the Capitol in Salem to protest House Bill 2020. CREDIT: David Stuckey/OPB

The so-called “Stay Strong Stay Gone” rally marked the latest backlash over bills seeking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon. Loggers, truckers, farmers and their supporters had all come, they said, to urge 11 Senate Republicans who’ve been absent from the statehouse since last week to remain in hiding.Read More

Are There More Cougars In Our Space Or More Of Us In Theirs?

By Erin Ross June 26, 2019

Problem encounters with cougars have increased in Oregon's Willamette Valley. CREDIT: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE

It’s hard not to notice that cougars are making it into the news these days. It’s also hard to miss how they’re getting there: by entering neighborhoods and putting residents on edge.Read More

Oregon Senate President Says Cap-And-Trade Bill Is Dead Amid GOP Walkout

By Dirk VanderHart June 25, 2019

The Oregon State Capitol in Salem on March 18, 2017.

Senate President Peter Courtney, D-Salem, says Oregon’s sweeping plan for addressing climate change this legislative session does not have the votes to pass. But it’s not clear whether that will be enough to bring Senate Republicans back to work. Read More

In A Break From The Past, Oregon Sheriffs Change Their Approach To Gun Laws

By NWPB News June 24, 2019

Coos County Sheriff Craig Zanni, center, speaks with Sheriff Department dispatchers on June 6, 2019, in Coquille, Ore. CREDIT: JONATHAN LEVINSON/OPB

In 2013, eight Oregon sheriffs sent letters to the Obama administration saying they wouldn’t enforce new federal gun laws. Two years later, the state legislature passed a bill requiring background checks for private gun sales. And again, Oregon sheriffs dug in. So it was already a well-worn path when sheriffs in Washington and Colorado started making similar assertions Read More

Oregon Senate Republicans Stage Walkout For 2nd Time This Year To Stop Vote On Climate Bill

By Dirk VanderHart June 20, 2019

The Oregon Capitol. CREDIT:BRADLEY W. PARKS/OPB

For the second time this legislative session, Oregon Senate Republicans prepared Thursday to stage a walkout, denying Democrats the ability to pass legislation. It’s the latest step in a standoff over sweeping climate change legislation.Read More

EPA Begins Removing Herbicide Barrels From Eastern Oregon’s Wallowa Lake

By Erin Ross June 18, 2019

Wallowa Lake in eastern Oregon, supplies drinking water to the city of Joseph. CREDIT: AARON SCOTT/OPB

The Environmental Protection Agency has begun removing potentially contaminated barrels from Wallowa Lake. Despite initial fears, the barrels seem to have been full of lake water, though the EPA is waiting for test results to confirm that the water and barrels are indeed clean.Read More

U.S. Supreme Court Refers Oregon Same-Sex Wedding Cake Case Back To State Courts

By NWPB News June 17, 2019

The U.S. Supreme Court in Washington where the justices ruled that the government can detain certain immigrants without bond hearings. Susan Walsh/AP

The Supreme Court is throwing out an Oregon court ruling against bakers who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. Read More

In Astoria, Cormorant Birds Take Over Iconic Bridge, And Salmon Below Are On The Menu

By Tom Banse June 13, 2019

Cormorants returned to the Astoria Bridge to roost at nightfall on June 3, 2019.

Cormorants by the thousands have taken up residence under the landmark Astoria-Megler Bridge over the Columbia River. Their poop can corrode the bridge and that is unacceptable to the Oregon and Washington transportation departments. But what actions to take against the protected birds and whose responsibility that is are up in the air.Read More

Oregon Wave Energy Testing Project Moves Forward

By Jes Burns June 12, 2019

Permitting is underway for a new wave energy test facility off Oregon’s coast. CREDIT: U.S. Department of Energy

A renewable energy project planned off the coast of Newport is taking a step forward. Oregon State University has submitted a final license application for a wave energy testing facility with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If built, it would be the largest of its kind in the U.S.Read More

Legal Marijuana For All Takes A Toll On Medical Users, Analysis Shows

By NWPB News June 11, 2019

Scott Donnelly, assisted by his wife and licensed caregiver, Vicki Poppen, leaves Western Oregon Dispensary in Sherwood, Ore., after buying medical marijuana to treat muscle spasms caused by his multiple sclerosis. Donnelly visits the medical-only dispensary once a week and relies on it for the cannabis that eases his tremors long enough that he can fall asleep. The dispensary is one of two medical-only shops left in Oregon. CREDIT: GILLIAN FLACCUS/AP

When states legalize pot for all adults, long-standing medical marijuana programs take a big hit, in some cases losing more than half their registered patients in just a few years, according to a data analysis by The Associated Press.Read More

Federal Judge To Hear Arguments Over Admission Delays At Oregon State Psychiatric Hospital

By Conrad Wilson June 11, 2019

The Oregon State Hospital in Salem. CREDIT: Josh Partee CC BY-SA 2.5 - creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5

A federal judge is set to hear arguments Portland this week from mental health advocates who say the state is failing dozens of criminal defendants in need of treatment.Read More

Oregon Approves New Plan For Managing Gray Wolves

By Tony Schick June 9, 2019

This Feb. 2017, file photo provided by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife shows a gray wolf of the Wenaha Pack captured on a remote camera on U.S. Forest Service land in Oregon's northern Wallowa County. CREDIT: OREGON DEPARTMENT OF FISH AND WILDLIFE/AP

Oregon fish and wildlife commissioners approved a new management plan Friday for gray wolves, a long-awaited document that sets protocols for potential hunts and new thresholds for when the agency may kill wolves after attacks on cattle and sheep.Read More

Oregon Joins Washington In Passing Bill For Permanent Daylight Saving Time

By Lauren Dake June 7, 2019

Oregon lawmakers approved a measure on Thursday that could allow the state to adopt daylight saving time year-round. Washington legislators approved the change this year. In California, voters have approved year-round daylight saving time, but legislators have not signed off yet.Read More

Federal Judge Blocks Grazing Permits To Oregon Family At Heart Of Malheur Occupation

By Rob Manning June 5, 2019

Dwight Hammond Jr. greets protesters outside his home in Burns, Oregon in January 2016. Hammond was convicted of arson on federal charges in 2012. The case sparked the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge Occupation led by Ammon and Ryan Bundy. CREDIT: AMELIA TEMPLETON/OPB

U.S. Judge Michael H. Simon issued a temporary restraining order, blocking the grazing permits issued to Dwight and Steven Hammond by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke before he left the Trump administration at the beginning of this year. Read More

Oregon Has A Big Oversupply Of Legal Marijuana. Now It’s Curbing Production

By NWPB News May 30, 2019

In this Feb. 7, 2019, file photo, a bud tender shows a top cannabis strain at Serra, a dispensary in Portland, Ore. In an attempt to reduce the marijuana inventory in Oregon, the state is moving toward allowing the Oregon Liquor Control Commission to refuse to issue initial marijuana production licenses, based on supply and demand. CREDIT: RICHARD VOGEL/AP

Oregon is awash in pot, glutted with so much legal weed that if growing were to stop today, it could take more than six years by one estimate to smoke or eat it all. Now, the state is looking to curb production.Read More

An Old Northeastern Oregon Wind Farm Could Get A Tech Upgrade

By Courtney Flatt May 16, 2019

A wind mill supplies water to a stock tank, surrounded by wind turbines of the Smoky Hills Wind Project near Wilson, Kansas. CREDIT: ORLIN WAGNER/AP

New technology could help a wind farm in Eastern Oregon work more efficiently. Officials are voting Friday on the updates to the wind farm. Wind turbines are expected to last about 20 years. Oregon’s Stateline Wind Farm is getting up there – construction started way back in 2001. That’s why the farm’s owners are asking to update part of the facility.Read More

Federal Land Managers Revive Proposal To Sterilize Wild Horses In The Northwest

By Emily Cureton May 15, 2019

The BLM says there are more than 80,000 wild horses and burros across the West. CREDIT: JAMES MARVIN PHELPS / FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS

The Bureau of Land Management re-published plans this week for an experimental study in permanent birth control for the horses, nearly identical to those stalled by a judge last year. The court’s injunction came after the BLM gathered about 900 wild horses and burros near Burns, Oregon, in October. Read More

Oregon Democrats Give Up Gun Control, Vaccine Bills To Get Republican Members Back

By Dirk VanderHart May 13, 2019

State Sen. Herman E. Baertschiger Jr., R-Grants Pass, in the Oregon Senate on Monday, Jan. 14, 2019, in Salem, Ore. CREDIT: BRADLEY W. PARKS/OPB

Democratic leaders in the Oregon Senate have agreed to give up high-profile bills on gun control and vaccines in exchange for the end of a Republican walkout. Read More

Oregon Senate Republicans Have Literally Left The Building. How Do They Come Back?

By Dirk VanderHart May 10, 2019

In Oregon, GOP senators, solidly in the minority, left the Capitol this week before lawmakers could approve House Bill 3427, which would inject schools with billions in new funding to lower class sizes and boost graduation rates. The move denied Democrats a 20-member quorum, halting business in the Senate.Read More

Washington Becomes First West Coast State Ready To Ditch Twice-Yearly Time Changes

By Tom Banse May 8, 2019

With the stroke of the governor's pen Wednesday, Washington officially became the first West Coast state to ditch the twice-yearly time switch. But the end of "spring forward-fall back" won't happen until Congress gives the green light to all of the states moving toward year-round daylight saving time.Read More

Advocacy Group Alleges Oregon’s Foster Care System ‘Revictimizes Children’

By Lauren Dake April 17, 2019

The Oregon Department of Human Services building in Salem, Ore. Bradley W. Parks/OPB

A national advocacy group filed a class-action lawsuit Tuesday against the Oregon Department of Human Services, alleging the agency revictimizes children in its foster care system and has failed to address documented problems for at least a decade.Read More

Booked And Buried: After Dehydration Death, Grieving Father And Jail Chief Form Surprising Bond

By Austin Jenkins April 17, 2019

Fred Farris, the father of Keaton Farris, and Island County Jail Chief Jose Briones pose together on the Coupeville Wharf. CREDIT: AUSTIN JENKINS/N3

Four years ago this month, Keaton Farris died naked, dehydrated and malnourished on the floor of an isolation cell in the Island County Jail on Whidbey Island. Farris, who was bipolar and in the throes of a mental health crisis, had been arrested 18 days earlier for failing to appear in court for allegedly stealing and cashing a $355 check. An investigation later found Read More

Oregon Man Called Police About A Burglar. Armed Officers Found A Rogue Roomba

By NPR News April 12, 2019

Three seasoned deputies — one with at least 20 years on the force — a detective who happened to be in the area, and two canine officers all responded to the call of a burglary in progress at a Cedar Hills home near Portland, Ore. Instead, they found a trapped robotic vacuum cleaner. CREDIT: Washington County sheriff

The Washington County sheriff in Oregon says there was nothing unusual about the call. Sure, it was broad daylight — 1:48 p.m. local time exactly — but "crime can happen anytime."Read More

After Tense Hearing, Oregon Poised To Join National Popular Vote Movement

By Dirk VanderHart April 9, 2019

Election officials across the country have worked hard to prioritize security ahead of November's midterms, but some strategies could have the unintended effect of sometimes making voting harder. CREDIT: JUSTIN SULLIVAN

For the first time, a proposal that Oregon honor the national popular vote in presidential contests got a vote on the Senate floor on Tuesday, passing easily.Read More

New Details Emerge With Inquest Of Washington Family Killed In Crash Off California Cliff

By Molly Solomon April 4, 2019

Jennifer and Sarah Hart with their six adopted children, Markis, Jeremiah, Abigail, Ciera, Hannah, and Devonte. Courtesy Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office

The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office began a coroner’s inquest Wednesday into the deaths of the Southwest Washington family who plunged off of a California cliff last year. Read More

Booked And Buried: Suicide Is The Leading Cause Of Death In Northwest Jails

By Conrad Wilson April 4, 2019

A molded-plastic bunk in a maximum security cell at the Clark County Jail in Vancouver, Washington, on March 14, 2019. The molded-form of the bunk makes it impossible to tie things like bedsheets to the bunk. CREDIT: Bryan M. Vance/OPB

Over the past decade, at least 122 people have died by suicide in county jails across Oregon and Washington. Suicide, specifically hanging, is by far the leading single cause of deaths in the region’s jails. It accounts for nearly half of all cases with a known cause of death.Read More

70 Percent Of Jail Deaths In Washington And Oregon Involve People Innocent By Law

By Northwest News Network April 3, 2019

A barbed wire fence encloses the Columbia County Jail yard in St. Helens, Ore., Saturday, March 30, 2019. CREDIT: Bradley Parks/OPB

Across Oregon and Washington, at least 70 percent of the inmates who died since 2008 were awaiting trial, rather than serving time. Civil liberties advocates have long expressed concern over jailing people on low-level crimes that have root causes of mental illness, drug addiction or lack of stable employment.Read More

This Old Ship Could Help Clear The Way For Relief After A Cascadia Megaquake

By Tom Banse April 2, 2019

The Salvage Chief is moored at Tongue Point South, Astoria. CREDIT: COLIN MURPHEY / DAILY ASTORIAN

A former Navy landing ship commissioned during World War II could come to the rescue when a big Cascadia earthquake hits someday. A group based in Astoria, Oregon, envisions a new role in disaster relief for the storied vessel Salvage Chief.Read More

Booked And Buried: Northwest Jails’ Mounting Death Toll

By Northwest News Network April 2, 2019

Incomplete data tracking hides a crisis of rising death rates in overburdened Northwest jails that have been set up to fail the inmates they are tasked with keeping safe.Read More

StoryCorps Northwest: Puyallap Tribe Member Remembers Mother’s Disappearance 20 Years Later

By NPR News March 29, 2019

Carolyn DeFord poses with her mother and daughter in La Grande, Oregon in their last photograph together before Leona disappeared in 1999. Courtesy of Carolyn DeFord

It's been 20 years since Carolyn DeFord, a member of the Puyallup tribe, last saw her mother, Leona Kinsey in La Grande, Ore. DeFord was raised by Kinsey in La Grande. She remembers her mother as independent and self-sufficient, working odd jobs to scrape by.Read More

Federal Legalization Of Hemp Creates Confusion For State And Local Police

By NWPB News March 29, 2019

Samples of hemp sit on a table in the conference room at Andrew Ross' office in Denver on Friday, March 22, 2019. Ross, a Marine who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, is facing 18 years to life in Oklahoma if he is convicted after he was arrested in January while providing security for a load of state-certified hemp from Kentucky. Federal legalization for hemp has created a quandary for police as authorities lack the technology to distinguish marijuana from agricultural hemp at a roadside stop. CREDIT: THOMAS PEIPERT/AP

Federal legalization of hemp arrived in the U.S. late last year and expanded an industry already booming because of the skyrocketing popularity of CBDs, a compound in hemp that many see as a health aid. But now, just a few months after Congress placed the marijuana look-alike squarely in safe legal territory, the hemp industry has been unsettled by an unexpected development.Read More

Washington Legislature Votes To Raise Smoking And Vaping Age To 21

By NWPB News March 27, 2019

A proposal to raise the smoking and vaping age to 21 in Washington has passed the Legislature, putting the state on the precipice of becoming the ninth state to make such a change. Having previously passed the House, the measure now heads to Gov. Jay Inslee, who has said he supports the bill and is expected to sign it.Read More

Undercover Investigators Find Oregon Link To Illegal Rainforest Logging

By NWPB News March 25, 2019

A bulldozer opening a secondary logging road in a tropical rainforest in Gabon. CREDIT: EIA

Timber harvested illegally from African rainforests is being sold in the U.S. through Pacific Northwest companies and others are doing the same thing to get hardwood to customers throughout Europe.Read More

East Of The Cascades, Lingering Snow Means Struggle For Northwest Fauna

By Anna King March 15, 2019

A coyote in snow on the Hanford Reach National Monument near the Columbia River shoreline. CREDIT: JANE ABEL/US FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE

All this snow so late in the season prompts the much-asked question: Is this climate change? Kathie Dello, a climatologist with Oregon State University in Corvallis, says this late-winter snow is perfectly normal. But, it doesn’t mean the larger picture is all fine. Read More

Small-Scale Nuclear Company Looks To Build First Plant In Idaho

By Cassandra Profita March 11, 2019

An artist’s rendition of the NuScale nuclear power project planned for construction in Idaho. Courtesy of NuScale Power

As coal plants retire across the country, Portland-based NuScale Power wants to replace some of that electricity with its small-scale nuclear plants. Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems wants to build a 720-megawatt nuclear plant at the Idaho National Laboratory site in Idaho Falls.Read More

Turns Earned: Saving Mount Hood’s Historic Backcountry Ski Cabin

By NWPB News March 8, 2019

Andre and Jennifer Fortin pose for a photo at the Tilly Jane A-Frame. CREDIT: IAN MCCLUSKEY/OPB

Some remote cabins are for solo retreats – not this one. Staying at Tilly Jane A-Frame is a shared experience. And sharing it has saved it.Read More

Incentives For Electric Car Buyers? Yes In Oregon, Maybe In Washington

By Tom Banse March 7, 2019

Electric cars parked at the Washington State Capitol. CREDIT: TOM BANSE / N3

Democrats in the Washington Legislature want to revive a tax break for buyers of electric cars, which critics view as wasteful and unnecessary. Meanwhile, a publicly-financed rebate for battery-powered cars in Oregon is finding thousands of takers.Read More

Oregon Wineries Come Together To Save Grapes Rejected For Smoke Taint

By NPR News March 7, 2019

Members of the Oregon Solidarity project include (from left) Ed King and Justin King of King Estate Winery; Christine Clair and Joe Ibrahim of Willamette Valley Vineyards, and Brent Stone and Ray Nuclo, also of King Estate Winery. CREDIT: CAROLYN WELLS KRAMER/NPR

Grape growers in southern Oregon thought they had already weathered one of the biggest challenges of the 2018 season — the Klondike Fire, which burned over 175,000 acres in July. But on Sept. 22, they faced even more devastating news: Copper Cane Wines and Provisions, a Calif.-based winery that contracts with numerous growers in the region, canceled grape orders mere Read More