Free Republic

"Manhattan's Catholic St. Patrick's Cathedral attracts colorful crowd for funeral of atheist transgender former sex worker, with poster with word 'whore' in Spanish displayed on altar and words to 'Ave Maria' changed to include her name"

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - The U.S. Attorney’s Office-District of Oregon said four suspected drug traffickers are facing federal charges Thursday after they were caught transporting near 370 gallons of liquid heroin. Police said 44-year-old Marco Antonio Magallon, 26-year-old Luis Deleon Woodward, 25-year-old Jorge Luis Amador and 32-year-old Santos Alisael Aguilar Maya have ties to a Mexico-based transnational criminal organization. They have all been charged with conspiracy to distribute and posses with intent to distribute heroin and possess with intent to distribute heroin. Investigators watched Amador drive a rented moving truck alongside a red pickup truck west on I-84 near Bonneville....

An Alaska Airlines flight from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California was forced to make an emergency landing back at Portland Airport less than an hour after takeoff after suffering depressurization. Alaska flight 1282 left Portland just after 5pm local time on Friday when a window blew out at 16,000 feet, ripping a child's shirt off and sucking passengers phones out of the plane. The Boeing 737-9 MAX rolled off the assembly line just two months ago, receiving its certification in November 2023, according to FAA record posted online.

Oregon high school students won’t have to prove basic mastery of reading, writing or math to graduate from high school until at least 2029, the state Board of Education decided unanimously on Thursday, extending the pause on the controversial graduation requirement that began in 2020. The vote went against the desires of dozens of Oregonians who submitted public comments insisting the standards should be reinstated, including former Republican gubernatorial candidate Christine Drazan. Backlash against the lowered standard had already delayed the vote, originally slated to take place in September. Opponents argued that pausing the requirement devalues an Oregon diploma. Giving...

PORTLAND, Ore. (TND) — Watchdog group New Tolerance Campaign (NTC) is demanding answers after an Oregon hospital allegedly denied a cancer patient treatment for her views on transgenderism. “We know cancel culture can cost people their jobs. Now, it can cost you your life,” NTC wrote. A hospital in the Oregon Health and Science University system reportedly made the decision after the patient, whose name is Marlene, expressed criticism of a prominently displayed transgender flag in the hospital. “Where is the Flag for women? For children?” screenshots of her comments posted on social media read. “I have been threatened on...

A man with ties to nearly a dozen states is in federal custody after he allegedly kidnapped a woman and kept her in a cinder block cell in an Oregon home. FBI investigators believe there may be additional victims. The FBI announced that 29-year-old Negasi Zuberi — also known as Sakima, Justin Hyche and Justin Kouassi — is in federal custody for the interstate kidnapping after the woman escaped from the makeshift cell, beating her hands bloody in the process. On Saturday, July 15, 2023, Zuberi traveled from his Klamath Falls home to Seattle where he solicited a prostitute then...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkTgYiMDRHY Short and sweet!

INDEPENDENCE Ore. (KPTV) - A 2-year-old child was injured in the leg by a falling bullet on Tuesday in Independence and police are looking for information, according to the Independence Police Department. At about 10:30 p.m., the toddler’s family was walking to their car after watching an Independence Day fireworks show, pulling the toddler in a wagon. According to the parents, the toddler began screaming for no clear reason. As they tried to comfort the toddler, the parents discovered a puncture wound in their leg. The toddler was taken to the hospital, where medical providers discovered the wound had been...

A White man was charged with stabbing a Black President Trump supporter in Portland, Oregon, on Saturday. Blake D. Hampe, 43, was charged with felony assault after he stabbed a man about 2:30 a.m. Saturday during demonstrations near the city’s federal courthouse. Officers were called to the scene at Southwest 5th Avenue and Salmon Street when they found Mr. Hampe being held down by several protesters and one male victim with a stab wound. “The victim was transported to an area hospital with a serious injury, and the suspect was arrested.” Drew Duncomb, a conservative videographer and vocal supporter of...

A former U.S. president has trumped all other candidates for a seat on the Hubbard Fire District board. Following the Oregon Special Election held on Tuesday, May 16, the Statesman Journal reports that five write-in candidates received two votes for Hubbard Fire District Board Director Position No. 3. Fire Chief Michael Kahrmann says 45th President Donald Trump was one of those candidates. Officials rolled a 12-sided die multiple times to determine which of the individuals would take over the position. After representatives stood in for the other five candidates, none of whom were present during the meeting, Trump was declared...

Hundreds of Portland area families whose children attend Catholic schools are protesting western Oregon Archbishop Alexander Sample’s guidance that schools under the church’s umbrella not recognize transgender and nonbinary students’ pronouns and identities. Sample quietly released the 17-page document in January, when it was billed as a “teaching and formation resource” and not a mandate for the 41 archdiocesan schools, which stretch from Portland to Medford and include Central Catholic High School and 15 K-8 schools in Portland. But as the school year drew to a close, teachers and families around the metro area said some schools, including St. Rose...

In a remarkable turn of events, Oregon Secretary of State Shemia Fagan confirms in response to questions from WW that she entered into an agreement in February to provide consulting services to an affiliate of the troubled La Mota cannabis dispensary chain. As WW has previously reported, the owners of La Mota were also major donors to Fagan’s election campaign and have been under the scrutiny of at least two state agencies, the Oregon Department of Revenue and the Oregon Liquor and Cannabis Commission. La Mota appears to be in financial trouble. In recent years, the Department of Revenue and...

The Archdiocese of Portland has instructed Catholic schools in the area to rebuff what it calls “gender identity theory.” “This means that names, pronouns, facilities use, attire, and sports participation should depend upon biological sex identity, rather than self-perceived gender identity,” reads a 17-page document called “A Catholic Response to Gender Identity Theory” from Archbishop Alexander K. Sample late last month. The National Catholic Reporter wrote Feb. 2 that the Portland archdiocese is just the latest branch of the Catholic Church to enact similar policies, but it’s likely to face blowback from its schools, including those in Portland, given the...

A 32-year-old woman is being held without bail after allegedly shoving a 3-year-old girl off a Northeast Portland MAX station platform and onto the train tracks Wednesday, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office said. A male bystander quickly rescued the child, who reported a severe headache and had a small red mark on her forehead, the district attorney’s office said. Brianna Lace Workman, 32, was arraigned Thursday in Multnomah County Circuit Court on charges of first-degree attempted assault, a felony, and third-degree assault, interfering with public transportation, second-degree disorderly conduct, reckless endangerment and harassment, misdemeanors, court records show. Workman is...

A shortage of child care in the U.S. has become so acute it's reaching far into rural communities, including one northwestern Oregon county where future embryos are in line for a spot at Amy Atkinson's nursery and preschool. "We have children that have not been implanted yet that are on our waitlist," said Atkinson, referring to in vitro fertilization. "It's desperation." Just past Bumble Art Studio's rainbow-painted entryway, cubbies are filled with diapers and tiny backpacks. Every crib and little plastic chair is spoken for in the only licensed center offering infant care in Oregon's historic port town of Astoria,...

In 2010, Irish singer-songwriter Bob Geldof told Q Magazine that he was stunned at the number of young girls “p*ssing themselves” at a Beatles show he attended in the 1960s. “The Beatles was a case of watching females in excelsis,” he said. “It’s the old cliché, but you couldn’t hear them for all the screaming. I remember looking down at the cinema floor and seeing these rivulets of piss in the aisles. The girls were literally p*ssing themselves with excitement. So what I associate most with The Beatles is the smell of girls’ urine.”

As Oregon election officials are busy preparing for a November election with pivotal races for Congress and the Legislature, they’ve found themselves buried in a wave of records requests and letters threatening lawsuits. The flurry of paperwork is part of a national campaign by right-wing election deniers to complicate or undermine their work, they say. The Oregon Secretary of State’s office received more than 200 records requests in July and August, more than triple the usual amount, said Ben Morris, a spokesperson for the office. Some county election clerks report they also have been hit with a barrage of records...

It was a company town, Weed, anchored by a lumber mill and a nearby neighborhood populated by Black workers recruited from the South a century ago to work in the mill. Now both have been devastated by wildfire. The Mill fire tore through parts of the Roseburg Forest Products mill Friday afternoon in Weed and destroyed much of the Lincoln Heights neighborhood, a tight-knit working-class community that sprang to life in the 1920s to house Black millworkers. “Everybody on that street knew everybody,” said Daudi Etter, 50, a lifelong Lincoln Heights resident whose home was destroyed Friday. Standing on the...

In the early hours of Feb. 1, one of the spinning blades on a turbine at Portland General Electric’s Biglow Canyon wind farm in Sherman County launched into the night. The 135-foot piece of fiberglass, wood and metal weighs more than seven tons. It flew the full length of a football field. An investigation by The Oregonian/OregonLive has found that the seemingly isolated incident, which has not been publicly reported until now, is part of a pattern of maintenance problems that have undercut production at PGE’s flagship wind farm, shortchanged ratepayers and landowners, and put those who cultivate wheat under...