Attorneys and lawmakers in Oregon say the state is violating the U.S. Constitution because of laws that require juveniles convicted of murder to be sentenced to what amounts to mandatory life imprisonment.Read More
A rocky outcropping on Oregon's coast is home to dozens of rare tufted puffins and, this summer, volunteer Art Broszeit — a de facto expert on the exotic cold climate birds.Read More
A man in Oregon says he was fired from a construction job because he did not want to attend weekly Bible study meetings.Read More
Climate change might lead to bigger populations of hungrier insects. This could have serious consequences for grain-growing regions in the Northwest and across the world.Read More
The next time you’re shopping for beer in Oregon, take a close look at the bottle. A select few will be thicker and heavier than usual with the word “refillable” stamped into the glass.Read More
With their tube-like bodies, gaping gill slits, and especially their sucker-like mouths lined with jagged teeth, lampreys aren’t the most aesthetically pleasing creatures. They look like they jumped out of a Ridley Scott sci-fi horror film. But for some Northwest Native tribes, they're a significant part of the culture.Read More
Wildfire activity in the American West is likely to get worse in coming years. A new study out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to the lack of precipitation in the summer as the major driving factor when it comes to increasing fire severity.Read More
There’s a set of massive whale bones resting on the bottom of the bay in Newport, Oregon. Scientists from Oregon State University put them there with a plan for a future display on shore. But they’re having trouble finding the money to retrieve the rare blue whale skeleton from beneath the waves.Read More
Fires across the region have blanketed the Northwest in smoke. Blazes in California and British Columbia are also adding to the thick, reddish-gray haze. Read More
An Oregon-based group of shipwreck hunters wants to find the historic remains of the first steamship to provide service in the Puget Sound in the 1800's. The shipwreck search was inspired by one Port Townsend, Wash., man's obsession. Read More
The U.S. Drought Monitor says the entire state of Washington is abnormally dry. In Oregon, nearly 90 percent of the state is facing moderate to severe drought.Read More
Weather predictions across the West are calling for excessive heat and more dry weather this week. That forecast is anything but good news in the Northwest, where significant risk of wildfire continues to increase.Read More
A variety of forest experts say that one of the best ways to reduce the threat of these mega-blazes is to use fire itself. They say we need to increase the pace of prescribed fire and let some wildfires continue to burn when it’s safe to do so. Of course, there’s not nearly as much political support for letting fires burn as there is for putting fires out.Read More
Fire officials say this year is on par with 2014 and 2015 – two of the worst seasons on record in the Northwest. Things are ramping up nearly a month earlier than previous years, and resources are stretched thin. Read More
An animal advocacy group says the federal government shouldn’t perform sterilization surgeries on wild horses in southeastern Oregon to control their numbers.Read More
An initiative that would ban state funding for abortion is heading to the November ballot in Oregon, setting up an election battle over abortion in what has been regarded as one of the most pro-choice states in the country. Read More
The West is way behind on reducing the buildup of hazardous fuels we created. And much of the work we do to reduce those fuels is missing the key ingredient: fire.Read More
Northwesterners are hearing a lot about mountain lions lately. Since May, an extremely rare fatal attack in the Washington Cascades, a Willamette Valley pool party interrupted by a wandering cat and a viral Facebook video of a mountain lion lounging in a southern Oregon woman’s living room have made headlines across the region.
Are the Northwest’s mountain lions acting Read More
Three decades after Oregon blazed a trail by enacting statewide sanctuary laws, voters will have a say in repealing them this fall.Read More
East of The Dalles, Oregon, the Substation Fire has charred over 50,000 acres and is still spreading. A lot of that charred ground so far is golden, soft white wheat. And when grain burns, farmers can lose a lot of money – even if they have crop insurance.Read More
A fast-growing wildfire east of The Dalles, Oregon, that forced evacuations Tuesday, July 17 and the following day is expected to make a push to the south and east due to dangerous fire conditions in the area, fire officials said. Read More
An Oregon woman who was badly injured and stranded for a week after her Jeep plunged 250 feet over a cliff into the ocean near Big Sur in California says she survived by drinking fresh water dripping from moss until she was rescued by a couple hiking along the beach.Read More
Nearly 100 public water systems around Oregon—including the state’s largest—will be required to begin testing for harmful contaminants from algae blooms under new rules unveiled by the Oregon Health Authority.Read More
The Oregon Supreme Court announced June 27 it would not certify ballot language for Initiative Petition 43, a proposed ban on military-style semi-automatic weapons in Oregon. Instead, the court referred draft ballot language back to Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum for revision, finding substantial flaws in her office’s last attempt.Read More
Federal officials anticipate a big wildfire season in the Northwest throughout July, August and possibly into September.Read More
After issuing two drinking water advisories for toxins produced by a harmful algae bloom, the city of Salem is testing out a possible solution.Read More
New genetic research on the Northwest’s wolves finds they descended from a mix of two different types — some from the northern Rocky Mountains and some from coastal rain forests. That means the packs that form in our region have more genetic diversity — a key to survival.Read More
With funding help from the Bonneville Power Administration, the tribes have worked to move lamprey around the dams and up to the Umatilla River. Tribal members were excited when they saw the fish start returning. In 2011, Jackson thought 129 fish in the river was a major step.Read More
Oregon has already declared drought in several counties, and two more counties are under review by the governor's office. That's a common theme -- drought is stretching across the Western United States.Read More
Beginning next month, driver’s licenses in Washington state will be changing. Regular licenses and ID cards will be marked with the words “federal limits apply.” Oregon is going down this path too, but not until mid-2020.Read More
Over the past year, more than 10,000 tons of Oregon’s recycling has been dumped in landfills because there was nowhere else for it to go.
It’s one of the consequences of new restrictions on shipping recyclables to China.Read More
Oregon Secretary of State Dennis Richardson is being treated for a “small, cancerous brain tumor,” he announced Wednesday. Richardson, Oregon’s Secretary of State since 2017, revealed in his regular newsletter that he was diagnosed with cancer in May and that he’s feeling “blessed and optimistic.”Read More
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Two projects that would convert cropland in Oregon and Washington into large solar farms are hitting new bumps. Last week the Oregon Court of Appeals issued a ruling that blocks a planned 80-acre solar project on farmland outside Medford in southern Oregon. Read More
One of the Northwest’s largest dairies has faced some big troubles in its first year of operation. The rise and rapid fall of Lost Valley Farm has deeply frustrated environmentalists and has shocked neighboring farms and fellow dairy operators.Read More
Lost Valley Farm, based in Boardman, is Oregon’s second largest dairy. It’s faced opposition from the beginning. Environmental groups worried about the risk of liquid manure and wastewater pollution that leaking out of storage areas.Read More
In what is likely a record, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office in recent weeks fielded nearly 1,600 pages of comments criticizing a ballot title for Initiative Petition 43.Read More
In July, seven Oregon craft breweries will start selling beer in reusable glass bottles in the country’s first statewide refillable beer bottle program.Read More
Before there was an Oregon, Idaho and Washington state, there was the Oregon Country. Early settlers and pioneers voted to form a provisional territorial government 175 years ago this week. The vote was close and featured arguments that may sound surprisingly familiar today.Read More
Some students in the Hermiston School District will not participate in a statewide voluntary reading program after school administrators deemed one of the books inappropriate. The decision was based on a book about a transgender girl.Read More
A Northwest company is aiming to build the country’s first house-sized reactor that can put electricity onto the grid.Read More
In congressional testimony Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke said he has heard the strong opposition from the West Coast to the Trump administration's plan for offshore oil and gas drilling. He expressed doubt drilling would ever happen along the Pacific Northwest coast.Read More
Sage grouse are found in 11 Western states. But they’re in trouble. In Oregon, their fragmented habitat is threatened by human development, invasive species, wildfires and overgrazing. Researchers are just starting to look into raven depredation, a more controversial problem for the birds. In a policy shift, the federal government wants sage grouse work to focus on the Read More
After a six-year delay, Timberline Lodge says it is moving forward with construction of a mountain bike park on Mount Hood.Read More
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown is ditching part of the federal tax plan after all. After weeks of speculation on her intentions, Brown announced Friday that she’ll sign Senate Bill 1528, ensuring that Oregon won’t follow the lead of the federal government in granting a tax break to a subset of businesses.Read More
Washington and Oregon have joined a lawsuit alleging U.S. Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt is violating the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit says the government needs to limit methane emissions from existing oil and gas facilities.Read More
Drone testing by a defense contractor has stopped after one of the company's prototypes crashed and set off a small wildfire near the Pendleton, Oregon, airport.Read More
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum says a move to include a question about citizenship on the 2020 census could wreak financial havoc on Oregon.
Rosenblum joined officials from 16 other states in filing a lawsuit to block what they call an “unconstitutional and arbitrary decision."Read More
What began as a hopeful experiment spiraled into a historic battle between a new-age spiritual group, their rural neighbors — and eventually the federal government.Read More
Members of Oregon’s congressional delegation say they’ve revived funding for an expired federal aid program that provided money to rural counties whose economies relied heavily on federal timber harvesting.Read More
A backlog of rape kits in Oregon is a year away from being eliminated following the passage of a state law mandating quicker testing, officials say. The kits collect biological material following reported sex crimes.Read More
