Sorted by date Results 1 - 25 of 39
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon — a man who spent little time behind bars for a similar crime in Nevada — killed two men before being cornered by officers and fatally shooting himself, police said Wednesday. Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died at a hospital Tuesday night, hours after he shot himself while hiding in a crawlspace underneath a house in Grants Pass. In a news conference the next day, law enforcement officers revealed details on the intensive manhunt for Foster, including finding the bodies of the t...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — When U.S. Forest Service personnel carried out a planned burn in a national forest in Oregon on Oct. 13, it wound up burning fencing that a local family, the Hollidays, uses to corral cattle. The crew returned six days later to restart the burn, but the flames then spread onto the family's ranch and resulted in the arrest of "burn boss" Rick Snodgrass. Repercussions of the singular incident in the remote corner of eastern Oregon have reached all the way to Washington, D.C., where Forest Service Chief Randy Moore denounced t...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The U.S. Senate has unanimously approved the nomination of Charles "Chuck" Sams III as National Park Service director, which will make him the first Native American to lead the agency. Some conservationists hailed Sams' confirmation Thursday night as a commitment to equitable partnership with tribes, the original stewards of the land. "I am deeply honored," Sams told the Confederated Umatilla Journal on Friday. "I am also very deeply appreciative of the support, guidance and counsel of my tribal elders and friends t...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The police bulletin, all in uppercase, carried this headline on Wednesday: MAN ARRESTED FOR SHOOTING AT HALLUCINATIONS. Officers in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday afternoon responded to reports of a man shooting a gun in the backyard of a residence. The man then drove away. Officers located the vehicle and detained the man, Martin Abrego, 27, of Salem. Police said they noticed the smell of natural gas, cordoned off the area and summoned the fire department. Gas to the home was turned off. It turned out that one of the bullets h...
One year into the COVID-19 pandemic, the world has seen death, economic hardship and anxiety on an unprecedented scale. But it has also witnessed self-sacrifice, courage and perseverance. In India, Brazil, South Africa and other places around the globe, people are helping others and reinventing themselves. “I’ve been adaptable, like water,” said a woman whose dream of becoming a U.S. boxing champion was dealt a blow by the crisis, though not necessarily a knockout punch. Their voices and images can inspire, even though the future is as uncer...
Last year, protesters against racial injustice toppled numerous statues around the country. Now, one of the first works of art to emerge in their place depicts an unsung hero of the Lewis and Clark expedition. A huge bust of York, a Black man who was enslaved by William Clark and who was the first African-American to cross the continent and reach the Pacific Ocean, is sitting atop a pedestal amid a lushly forested park in Portland, Oregon. It was placed there in the dead of night last weekend by persons unknown. People have flocked to the...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Police in Oregon can no longer arrest someone for possession of small amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, LSD, oxycodone and other drugs as a ballot measure that decriminalized them took effect on Monday. Instead, those found in possession would face a $100 fine or a health assessment that could lead to addiction counseling. Backers of the ballot measure, which Oregon voters passed by a wide margin in November, hailed it as a revolutionary move for the United States. "Today, the first domino of our cruel and inhumane war o...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Normally quiet streets around U.S. state capitol buildings have looked more like battlegrounds recently, putting those who live and work there on edge. More than most people, these Americans will have front-row seats on whether the change of leadership Wednesday in the White House will lead to a lessening of tension that has been afflicting the nation. They'll be watching what the next chapter brings from storefronts and the porches and stoops of their own homes. Their sense of foreboding was lightened, just a little, by W...
A lot of the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus comes down to a seemingly simple concept: Wearing a mask. But the issue has proven a thorny one. Health authorities have changed their guidance on who should wear masks and when to wear them. This has led to some confusion and even suspicion. But since the coronavirus first appeared, authorities have gained a better understanding of how it spreads and how masks can help stop that spread. Here's a look at how what we know about masks has changed, and how government officials are increasin...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Both the suspect in the slaying of the right-wing protester in Portland, Oregon last weekend and the victim had handguns when their confrontation started after dueling street demonstrations, according to court documents made public Friday. The documents said victim Aaron "Jay" Danielson, a supporter of a right-wing group called Patriot Prayer, was wearing a loaded Glock pistol in a holster and had bear spray and an expandable metal baton when someone said something like "wanna go," which is frequently a challenge to a f...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — On Dec. 14, 2018, Aaron Cole was about to buy a new house and received an email that he thought was from his title company, directing him to make a $123,000 deposit. Cole complied, not realizing that a sophisticated hacker network had likely been spying on his communications with the title company and that although the email looked like others he had received from the title company, this time, the email address was slightly different. A week later, the title company called, advising him it was time to send money. The O...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Robert Campbell was thoroughly soaked, shivering, his wet sleeping bag covering him in the only shelter he could find -- a pit toilet in a closed campground -- after getting lost in a snowstorm in Oregon while hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Campbell was saved on Friday by a search team from the local sheriff's department, who found his footprints in the snow. Heavy snow was forecast through Saturday evening in the Cascade Range. "I really think I owe them my life because ... I couldn't have made it another night. My s...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The first dead bull was found in a timbered ravine in eastern Oregon. There was no indication it had been shot, attacked by predators or eaten poisonous plants. The animal’s sex organs and tongue had been removed. All the blood was gone. In the next few days, four more Hereford bulls were found within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) in the same condition. There were no tracks around the carcasses. Ranch management and law enforcement suspect that someone killed the bulls. Ranch hands have been advised to travel in pairs and to...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The first dead bull was found in a timbered ravine in eastern Oregon. There was no indication it had been shot, attacked by predators or eaten poisonous plants. The animal's sex organs and tongue had been removed. All the blood was gone. In the next few days, four more Hereford bulls were found within 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) in the same condition. There were no tracks around the carcasses. Ranch management and law enforcement suspect that someone killed the bulls. Ranch hands have been advised to travel in pairs and to g...
SALEM, Oregon (AP) — A white man opens fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, targeting Mexicans and killing 22 people. Another man kills 11 Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The two mass shootings and a presidential tweet put a spotlight on the idea of "domestic terrorism," adding momentum to a debate about whether such attacks should be classified and tried in the same way as crimes against America by foreign extremist groups and their supporters. A Republican senator and a Democrat in the House of Representatives are drafting b...
SALEM, Oregon (AP) — A white man opens fire at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, targeting Mexicans and killing 22 people. Another man kills 11 Jewish worshippers at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. The two mass shootings and a presidential tweet put a spotlight on the idea of "domestic terrorism," adding momentum to a debate about whether such attacks should be classified and tried in the same way as crimes against America by foreign terrorist groups and their supporters. A Republican senator and a Democrat in the House of Representatives are drafting b...
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday over whether climate change violates the rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels. A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said the young people wrongly want the courts to direct energy policy, instead of government officials. Jeffrey Clark, an assistant attorney general, told three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the lawsuit is "a direct attack on the separation of powers." An at...
SALEM, Ore. (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. Five years after voters legalized recreational marijuana, lawmakers are moving to give the Oregon Liquor Control Commission more leeway to deny new pot-growing licenses based on supply and demand. The bill, which passed the Senate and is now before the House, is aimed not just at reducing the huge surplus but at p...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The gray wolf is on track for a remarkable comeback after being almost exterminated in the contiguous United States, but a Trump administration proposal to take the iconic symbol of the wild off the endangered species list has exposed divisions among states. California says it opposes delisting the wolf, while Washington state said it agrees. The federal proposal also exposed a rift among top officials in Oregon — one of several states where wolves have established breeding packs after wandering across state lines. The deb...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — After being in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of one of America's newest elite wildfire crews are tasked with fighting fires in rugged country back home. On the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's only hotshot crew focused on recruiting veterans, members have traded assault rifles and other weapons of war for chain saws and shovels. But, like in the military, they have camaraderie, structure and chain of command. And the occasional adrenaline rush. "Being in a firefight is way different than being in a wildland f...
PARADISE, Calif. (AP) — With scores of people still missing, National Guard troops searched Wednesday through charred debris for more victims of California's deadliest wildfire as top federal and state officials toured the ruins of a community completely destroyed by the flames. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke joined Gov. Jerry Brown on a visit to the leveled town of Paradise, telling reporters it was the worst fire devastation he had ever seen. "Now is not the time to point fingers," Zinke said. "There are lots of reasons these catastrophic f...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The young man traversed Andean mountains, plains and cities in buses, took a harrowing boat ride in which five fellow migrants drowned, walked through thick jungle for days, and finally reached the U.S.-Mexico border. Then Abdoulaye Camara, from the poor West African country of Mauritania, asked U.S. officials for asylum. Camara's arduous journey highlights how immigration to the United States through its southern border is evolving. Instead of being almost exclusively people from Latin America, the stream of migrants c...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon's attorney general on Thursday sued the pharmaceutical company that makes OxyContin, saying it misrepresented the risks and benefits of the drug and lied to a state regulatory agency to maximize profits. A spokesman at Purdue Pharma, targeted by Thursday's lawsuit in Multnomah Circuit Court, denied the allegations. Spokesman Bob Josephson said the state was inappropriately substituting its judgment for the judgment of experts at U.S. Food and Drug Administration. "The state claims Purdue acted improperly by communicati...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The discovery of a black Labrador named Lucy led to the unraveling of a criminal case Monday against an Oregon man who had begun serving a 50-year prison sentence. Joshua Horner, a plumber from the central Oregon town of Redmond, was convicted on April 12, 2017, of sexual abuse of a minor. In the trial, the complainant testified Horner had threatened to shoot her animals if she went to the police about the alleged molestation, and said she saw him shoot her dog and kill it to make his point. Six months after a jury c...
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — A dispute over acts of Congress in 1906 and 1937 has put the Trump administration in court — and into the unusual position of supporting a proclamation by former President Barack Obama. Contrary to President Donald Trump's numerous efforts to shred Obama's legacy, U.S. Justice Department lawyers are in Obama's corner as they defend his expansion of a national monument in Oregon. That puts the Trump administration in direct opposition with timber interests that Trump vowed to defend in a May 2016 campaign speech in Eug...
