Free Republic

OREGON CD-1: Businessman Joel Haugen announced Tuesday he was withdrawing as the GOP nominee but would remain in the race against Congressman David Wu (D) as the nominee of the Independent Party. Although a registered Republican, Haugen had been running with dual ballot spots. Haugen came under fire in recent days when he announced his support for Barack Obama. The deadline for GOP to replace a nominee has passed, so they will not be able to field any candidate against Wu on the November ballot.

Medford teen gets 20 years in prison for drive-by shooting. A man who fired seven rounds into a car full of teenagers in a drive-by shooting was sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Jackson County Circuit Court judge Thursday. It was miraculous that none of the six victims was seriously injured or killed as the bullets blasted through the front windshield of the packed vehicle, said Judge Ron Grensky. "It is a miracle that there isn't somebody dead out of this," said Grensky, adding the phrase, "dodging a bullet" was never more apt. German "Negro" Reyes-Real, 18, of...

The Oregon Constitution says voters have the final say over any laws passed by the state legislature. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, says they don't. After Oregon voters passed a marriage protection amendment declaring marriage to be only the union of one man and one woman, liberal lawmakers tried to sidestep the amendment by passing a "domestic partnership" law. As Austin R. Nimocks -- senior legal counsel for the Alliance Defense Fund -- explains, lawmakers are not supposed to have the final say in Oregon. "The citizens of Oregon reserve to themselves in their constitution the right...

Yelling homophobic or racist names is free speech protected by the Oregon Constitution if the insults don't lead to violence. In a unanimous ruling...The Associated Press PORTLAND — Yelling homophobic or racist names is free speech protected by the Oregon Constitution if the insults don't lead to violence.

[Two days after the invasion of Georgia by Russia] Questioner: With your national security background, what do think about what's going on in Georgia. Merkley: [munch... munch... munch] Questioner: I know you've been on the road, so you probably haven't exactly kept up... Merkley: I haven' heard about what's going on in Georgia. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5B6furdKP1k

Hundreds of giant turbines in the Oregon desert will bring power, but residents nearby raise concerns about health effects and an end to their quiet way of life BOARDMAN -- Sherry Eaton pulled into the driveway of her rural, high-desert home to see one of several giant wind turbines being assembled a half-mile away. "I started to cry," Eaton, 57, recalled of her first sight of the Willow Creek Wind Project in late July. "They're going to be hanging over the back of our house, and now there's the medical thing." "The medical thing" is new research suggesting that living...

First Congressional District candidate Joel Haugen (R-Scappoose), who is battling Republican officials in that district, called support from Oregon Republican Party officials a farce after they refused to rectify a situation where local county officials would not support his candidacy. “ORGOP's help is likely to be of the order of holding our jewelry while we get water boarded,” Haugen said in an email to PolitickerOR.com sent from Minnesota, where he was attending a wedding. Haugen’s anger comes after Republican Party Chairman Vance Day issued a letter saying that ORGOP would support Haugen no matter who he has endorsed in the...

I think the stories of patients being refused life-extending chemotherapy by Oregon's Medicaid--but offered assisted suicide instead--will materially impact the I-1000 legalization effort in Washington. First, this kind of heartlessness was predicted by opponents. Second, the old myth that Oregon has operated without abuses is now shattered. Third, unlike other Oregon abuses, the MSM is actually reporting the story--like an extended report on ABC News. From the story:The health plan takes "no position" on the physician-assisted suicide law, according to spokesman Jim Sellers. The terminally ill who qualify can receive pain medication, comfort and hospice care, "no matter what...

Tremayne Durham People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking a state prison superintendent to no longer allow "fried chicken" killer Tremayne Durham to eat meat, saying he "should be prevented from contributing to any more suffering and death - including the kind associated with eating meat and dairy products."PETA sent a letter this morning to Nancy Howton, the superintendent of Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville, where Durham will be processed over the next several weeks before being assigned to another prison.Durham, who killed Gresham man Adam Calbreath over his frustration with a deal to buy an...

Latino immigrants suddenly avoiding the DMV Drop in numbers seeking drivers licenses pegged to new state law By Steve LawThe Portland Tribune, Aug 6, 2008 Christopher Onstott, Tribune File Photo / Portland Tribune With a passport and Brazilian drivers license in hand, Roberual Goncalues De Silva waits his turn in 2006 to apply for an Oregon drivers license at the popular DMV office at SE Powell Boulevard and 90th. A new state law requires Oregon drivers license applicants to prove they are in the state legally. The number of Spanish-speaking people taking Oregon’s driving test plummeted in February, just...

Fix this medical ethics glitch Tuesday, July 29, 2008 The Oregonian Opponents of physician-assisted suicide are fired up this summer, and rightfully so, over an ethically questionable provision of the Oregon Health Plan. The conflict came to light in a recent report in The Register-Guard of Eugene. The newspaper described the sad plight of Barbara Wagner, a 64-year-old Springfield woman with lung cancer. After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, "Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care,...

The new liberal compassion

Democratic Senate candidate Jeff Merkley is excited by a new poll that for the first time shows him ahead of Republican Sen. Gordon Smith - even if the two-point lead is well within the survey's margin of error. Jeff Merkley "The fact that we're in the lead is tremendous," said Merkley spokesman Matt Canter, saying he thinks that's probably the first time Smith has found himself in such a position in his nearly 12 years in the Senate. However, Smith's own pollster, Bob Moore, said he didn't trust the methodology of the poll by Rasmussen Reports. It uses an automated...

The mother of a young Irishman who was shot and killed by police last week in the US is travelling to Oregon to meet with Marion County District Attorney Walt Beglau. The meeting is expected to be on Friday, The Oregonian newspaper said today. The death of Andrew “A.J.” Hanlon has sparked a public outcry in Ireland, and Dorothea Carroll is travelling to Oregon alongside some members of the Irish media. Doug Hansen, a deputy district attorney, said earlier his office expects to convene a grand jury on the June 30 shooting death once an investigation is completed. Mr Hanlon,...

THE distraught mother of a young Irishman shot dead by a policeman in the United States broke down in tears yesterday as she revealed how she had been left "begging for information" on how he met his violent death. Andrew Hanlon (20), who had travelled to the US a year ago to stay with his sister in Silverton, Oregon, was killed by a police officer responding to a burglary on Monday night. Neighbours reported several shots were fired. His heartbroken mother, Dorothea Hanlon-Carroll, from Dundrum, Dublin, was yesterday being comforted by three of her children as they tried to come...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Police last week arrested a pastor who allegedly raped children, authorities said Wednesday. Police photo Child rape suspect Maximo Ake-Be Maximo Ake-Be, 31, faces charges of rape, sodomy and sex abuse in connection with a series of sexual assaults dating back to 1998, said Portland Police Sergeant Brian Schmautz. Ake-Be appeared in court Wednesday and pleaded innocent on all charges. A judge set bail at $4.5 million. The investigation began when two alleged victims recently reported that Ake-Be sexually assaulted them between 1998 and 2000. During that time, the girls and their families attended The Peach House,...

Ore. Discovery Challenges Beliefs About First Humans Until recently, most scientists believed that the first humans came to the Americas 13,000 years ago. But new archaeological findings from a cave in Oregon are challenging that assumption. Lee Hochberg of Oregon Public Television reports on the controversial discovery. LEE HOCHBERG, NewsHour correspondent: What archaeologist Dennis Jenkins found in the Paisley Caves in south central Oregon may turn on its head the theory of how and when the first people came to North America. Many scientists believe humans first came to this continent 13,000 years ago across a land bridge from Asia...

For more than thirty years, Steve Foster has been living his life partially paralyzed, but he hopes a recent trip to Mexico is going to change that. "I want this...bad," said Foster, an adult stem cell patient. Foster traveled south to undergo the adult stem cell transplant procedure, in an effort to gain back what he once had. "I'm tired of this life, and the way it is now," he said. Julie Hood, a human biology assistant professor at Central Oregon Community College, says although the treatment isn't performed in the U.S., it has been performed successfully in other countries....

The Oregon Health Plan:The Reality of When the Government Runs Health Care "Elect me and your health care problems will all be over." The people of Oregon fell for that line almost 20 years ago. Expecting Utopia, what they got was a reality check: long lines for a lottery to pick who's covered and suicide coverage--instead of cancer drugs. In 1989. Oregon became the second State, after Hawaii, to attempt complete medical coverage of it's citizens. It has not gone as planned. In fact, it seems to be approaching disaster. Within a few years: In early 2003, the Oregon Health...

'I'm not trying to get attention. I'm here standing up for liberty'Declaring that she is standing up for individual liberty on Independence Day, near-nude rollerblader Jen Moss says she will go topless wearing a G-string and the crown of Lady Liberty at Ashland's Fourth of July parade, but will stay on sidewalks and other areas where she isn't banned. The Ashland Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the annual parade, has received overwhelming support for its decision not to approve Moss' application to participate, said chamber spokeswoman Katharine Flanagan. The chamber's parade permit gives it control of Main Street, Siskiyou Boulevard...

A reunited trio of World War II veterans recall the night they were seperated, seemingly foreverIt was a miserable January night outside the French village of Rimling, made bleaker by advancing German troops from the 559th and 257th Volks-Grenadier Divisions. Don Hildenbrand's company was pinned down on a ridge about two miles from town, just a grenade toss from the border. Their communications line had been cut and German units had pushed past them on both flanks. "Everybody knew something bad was going to happen, we were badly outnumbered," Hildenbrand recalled Saturday. Sgt. Pete Petracco asked for a volunteer to...

Oregon law may protect Followers of Christ membersThe painful and apparently preventable faith-healing death of a 16-year-old Oregon City boy this week brings the secretive Followers of Christ Church back under legal scrutiny, just four months after the boy's infant niece died in similar circumstances. But unlike the girl's death, which resulted in criminal mistreatment and manslaughter charges against her mother and father, Oregon law may protect the parents of Neil Jeffrey Beagley, who under state statute was old enough to make his own medical decisions. Beagley died Tuesday at his grandmother's home, a week after first complaining of stomach...

Need to know if it is legal to gather signatures for a petition at highway rest stops. I have seen some people doing it, and it seemed like a good idea. Anyone know?

One dhimmi elementary school principal in Oregon has banned the Pledge of Allegiance, so as not to offend Muslims. Slowly they chip away at life as we know it. If this does not stop. Eventually Bibles and all non-Islamic religious symbols will be banned. All for a group of people who have never heard the expression "respect is a two-way street". When will this madness end? http://islaminaction08.blogspot.com/2008/06/oregon-school-bans-pledge-of-allegiance.html

U.S. Coast Guard Tall Ship Eagle If you've ever wanted to tour a tall ship, now is your chance. Starting Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard will sponsor free tours of the only square-rigged sailing ship in the U.S. fleet when it docks in Astoria at the Maritime Museum, 1792 Marine Drive. The tall ship Eagle, also known as the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Barque Eagle, has been under way for the past two months, serving as a hands-on classroom for Coast Guard cadets at the Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn. According to Coast Guard spokesman Lt. Adam...

GLIDE, Ore. — Aaron Wyckoff didn’t start to panic until his .45-caliber pistol quit firing, and the bear kept chewing on his arm. So, he recalls, he tried to pull the bear’s jaws apart. Then he tried to roll down the ridge where he and the bear were wrestling. But the bear grabbed his calf, pulled him back and went for his groin. Wyckoff said he countered by shoving his pistol and his hand into the bear’s mouth. But by then, the struggle in the Cascade Range in Southern Oregon attracted the attention of Wyckoff’s party, and other hunters rushed...

Jeff Peckman is a 54-year-old who lives with his parents, promotes technology that supposedly creates harmony by manipulating electromagnetic fields and is behind an initiative to form a commission on extraterrestrials in Denver. "He's less ahead of his time if you put him in Boulder," ... "He's more ahead of his time in downtown Denver." Peckman is derided, dismissed and deemed a doofus ... His projects - everything from technology called brain fingerprinting to an Oregon ballot initiative to label genetically engineered food ... In 2003, Peckman championed Initiative 101, which would have required the city to promote peacefulness. The...

Three members of a touring male revue dance group have been arrested on accusations they raped a 24-year-old woman at a Klamath Falls motel. Sheriff Tim Evinger of Klamath County says Sky Lakes Medical Center notified police after a motel worker took the woman to the hospital. Lodged in the Klamath County Jail are 32-year-old Christian Hulfsizer of Los Angeles, 33-year-old Radek Zahahork of Irvine, Calif. and 27-year-old Allan Abrahan Armagnac-Bernal of Azusa, Calif. All are charged with rape and sodomy. Bail for each is set at $200,000. Armagnac-Bernal, a Czech national who has overextended his visa, is also being...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Radical environmentalist Tre Arrow on Tuesday pleaded guilty to arson charges as part of a deal with prosecutors that will keep him behind bars for more than two years. Arrow, who legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, was charged with firebombing three cement trucks at Ross Island Sand & Gravel in Portland and setting fire to logging trucks and a tractor near Estacada. On his Web site, the 34-year-old said recently he did not want to risk receiving a life prison sentence and called the plea deal an offer he "couldn't refuse." On Tuesday, he entered...

The activist pleads guilty in two arsons and will serve at the Sheridan federal prisonTre Arrow, a radical environmentalist who was once one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, pleaded guilty Tuesday to two counts of arson. Appearing before U.S. District Judge James Redden, Arrow agreed to serve to 78 months in federal prison, with credit for time served since March 2004 in jails in Canada and the United States. Arrow, who will be formally sentenced Aug. 12, will serve about two years and four months at the Sheridan Federal Correctional Institution. His sentence could be further reduced by 54 days...

NEAR WIMER, Ore. - Two girls got a scary close encounter with an aggressive cougar in southern Oregon over the weekend.According to the family, 8-year-old Gina Granacki and 6-year-old Annie Granacki were riding their bikes to their home near Wimer on Saturday to grab a sandwich when the older girl was approached by the animal.Gina quickly followed the instructions her parents and school teachers had taught her, putting the bike between her and the mountain lion and not running."...She knows you can't run from a cougar," her mother, DeAnna, told KDRV-TV in Medford. "They'll attack."Her younger sister ran to get help,...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Tre Arrow, a radical environmentalist who was once one of the FBI's most-wanted fugitives, has announced on his Web site he has accepted a plea deal on federal arson and conspiracy charges. Arrow had entered a not guilty plea. His attorney, Paul T. Loney, confirmed on Wednesday Arrow “is changing his plea” and a hearing date has been set for next Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney's office in Portland did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Arrow, 34, who has legally changed his name from Michael Scarpitti, is charged in a 14-count federal indictment with helping to...

PORTLAND — When sonar surveys spotted a vast pile of rubble in the Columbia River below Bonneville Dam a few months ago, officials suddenly worried that part of the dam structure was eroding into the river. "Everybody said, 'Oh my gosh, we need to get divers out there right away,' " recalled Dennis Schwartz, a fisheries biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, which oversees the dam. What they found below the spillways in February was not a giant pile of rock at all, but a humongous pile of thousands upon thousands of sturgeon — some of them 14 feet...

Councilman Sam Adams easily won the Portland mayoral race, making this city the largest in the U.S. to ever elect an openly gay mayor. Adams avoided a November runoff, with 58 percent of the votes after more than 80 percent of the ballots were counted Tuesday night. Businessman Sho Dozono had 34 percent and almost a dozen minor candidates split the rest. Adams, 44, said his main goals are improving the economy, reducing the dropout rate in schools and preparing for an influx of people to the region

My wife told me this morning that she heard that the reason Obama had 75,000+ people at that rally is because a rock band was there. Does anyone know where I can get a link to that story?

"Frangis Ford a volunteer for Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is shown as she calls voters from Clinton's Oregon campaign headquarters before the polls close for the Oregon Democratic primary Tuesday, May 20, 2008, in Portland, Ore."

I think Oregon has mail in system, but do they open the polls as well or allow people to mail votes tommorrow. Kentucky has a closed primary that anyone voting had to be registered Dem by early this year I believe.

Hey sweetie, are you bitter? Pittsburgh Tribune-Review By Salena Zito Perfect Sen. John McCain bumper sticker: Hey sweetie, are you bitter?

Heat prostration probably killed six sea lions enclosed within a pair of floating cages near Bonneville Dam a week and a half ago, according to federal authorities. The disclosure on Wednesday lends new insight - while raising new questions - over the puzzling deaths of four California sea lions and two threatened Steller sea lions sometime between 7 p.m. May 3 and the time they were discovered in the floating docks at 11:30 a.m. Sunday, May 4. The National Marine Fisheries Service reported Wednesday that necropsies on all six animals are consistent with death from heat prostration - even though...

What would Michelle Obama do if she were called sweetie? WWMD? TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito A tip of the hat to Ben Smith over at Politico for reporting that Sen. Barack Obama referred to a female reporter in Detroit as "sweetie" when answering her question. Actually, when not answering her question. Kind of makes you wonder how wife Michelle would feel if she were referred to as "sweetie"?

MEDFORD — Hayes Avenue is normally a peaceful street. But residents of the secluded north Medford neighborhood awoke Sunday morning to wall-to-wall graffiti. Several properties, including a house and some fences, were covered in multicolored letters, numbers and pictures, including profanity. "I don't recall seeing anything that big in Medford," said Medford police Detective Sgt. Mike Budreau. "It's going to cost thousands of dollars." Among the hardest hit is a house owned by Jodi and Jim Salyer, where Jodi's mother lived until her death a year ago. Jodi Salyer said she invested $30,000 into fixing up the vacant house and...

Sunday, May 11, is Mother’s Day — a day designated to show appreciation to our moms for everything they do for their families. Thanks will be given for all the miles traveled, the cookies baked, the costumes made, the stories read, the balls pitched and the hugs doled out.There are many moms who have gone one step further in motherhood commitment — they gave their blessing to their sons and daughters who enlisted in the United States Armed Forces.In honor of Mother’s Day, the Burns Times-Herald offered a few local military moms a chance to share their story, brag a...

 PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The Humane Society of the United States has reached an agreement with state and federal governments that blocks killing or permanent removal of sea lions in the Columbia River until early 2009.In return, the Humane Society will drop its appeal in federal court against the U.S. Commerce Department and the governments of Oregon and Washington, Sharon Young, the society's field director of marine issues, said Tuesday.A panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was to hear a case Thursday that could have led to killing some sea lions at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia...

I 'm with Joyce Kilmer -- "I think that I shall never see/ A poem lovely as a tree." I'm even with city Commissioner Dan Saltzman, who recently waxed poetical before the Portland City Council on the "incredible" "show-stopping" trees growing in Portland. But before I could recall the last lines of Kilmer's poem -- "Poems are made by fools like me, / But only God can make a tree!" -- Saltzman went on to say something that's creepy and chilling: "It sometimes pains me to think that we have no ability to control their destiny -- that a private...

HORSETHIEF LAKE, Wash. -- Fidelia Andy was a 6-year-old happily running coffee to tribal fishermen at Celilo Falls when the federal government signed a deal with the tribes that flooded the falls and her family's home in the rising waters behind The Dalles Dam. On Friday, more than 50 years later, Andy and other leaders of four Northwest tribes finalized a new $900 million agreement with the federal government that they hope will begin to reverse the damage done by Columbia River system dams. "We Indians gave up so much in the past," Andy, a Yakama tribal leader and chairwoman...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - The American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon has joined booksellers to challenge a state law restricting the sale or provision of sexually explicit material to children, saying it could affect constitutionally protected material. The ACLU says the law approved by the 2007 Legislature is vague and could result in parents being charged for providing educational books to their children - or even an older child who gives material to a younger sibling. As an example, the ACLU cited the 1975 novel "Forever" by Judy Blume, a frequent target of censors because it deals with teenage sexuality....

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — A small group of people from Hood River are interesting in making Eastern Oregon its own state. Consultant Paul Koch, 69, his partner Ernie DeRocher and DeRocher's wife, Rita Swyers, both 82, are pushing the effort. Koch said people in Eastern Oregon are fed up with how Salem has treated them. If they got their wish, the stateline would stretch from east of the Cascade Mountains to the Idaho border. Koch has done consulting and strategic planning work for Milton-Freewater, Baker City, the Umatilla County Special Library District and Blue Mountain Community College. He said during...

A federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday says Northwest states can trap, but not kill, the animalsThe on-again, off-again permission for Oregon and Washington officials to kill salmon-gobbling sea lions below Bonneville Dam is off again, courtesy of a federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday. However, the appeals court said state officials could still capture sea lions and ship them to zoos. Oregon officials said they will begin trapping up to eight of the Bonneville animals today. The sea lions gather at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to feast on salmon, including imperiled species, gathering to climb the dam's...

PORTLAND, Ore. — A lawyer who watched a police officer park illegally in front of a restaurant, then wait around while his meal was prepared, issued the officer a series of citizen-initiated violations. Eric Bryant said he was sitting at the restaurant March 7 when Officer Chad Stensgaard parked his patrol car next to a no-parking sign and walked inside to wait for his food, the Portland Mercury reported Thursday. Bryant told the weekly paper that when he asked Stensgaard about his car, the officer asked Bryant: "If someone broke into your house, would you rather have the police be...

The State of Oregon takes exception to Web sites that republish the state's Revised Statutes in full, claiming that the statutes contain copyrighted information in the republication causes the state to lose money it needs to continue putting out the official version of the statutes. Oregon's Legislative Counsel, Dexter Johnson, has therefore requested that legal information site Justia remove the information or (preferably) take out a paid license from the state. All citizens are legally presumed to know the law, so claiming copyright over it might seem like an odd position for a state to take; wouldn't massive copying be...