Free Republic

For Oregonians, many employers owe more benefits than their retirement plans can pay You think your 401(k) is in bad shape? Your pension could be worse off. Provided you even have one. Thirty-four of 36 large publicly traded employers operating in Oregon owe more retirement benefits than their traditional pensions can pay, an analysis by The Oregonian found. http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2009/07/pensions_in_peril.html

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge has struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., on Tuesday that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests. "I am hopeful that this is the last nail in the coffin to (President George W.)...

Regulation: Ignoring the first rule of holes, a bankrupt state passing out IOUs welcomes an EPA waiver allowing it to further kill its economy. Too bad the state can't stop the air pollution imported from a growing China. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday granted California its long-standing request — denied by the Bush administration — for a waiver to allow it to impose even more stringent air pollution rules than currently required by the federal government.The way is now clear for implementation of a 2002 state law requiring new cars to increase their fuel economy 40% by 2016....

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down the Bush administration's change to a rule designed to protect the northern spotted owl from logging in national forests. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ruled from Oakland, Calif., that the U.S. Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the environmental impacts of changing the rule to make it easier to cut down forest habitat of species such as the spotted owl and salmon on 193 million acres of national forests.

1. Alaska 2. Maine 3. New Mexico 4. Arkansas 5. Texas 6. Missouri 7. Oregon 8. Idaho 9. Virginia 10. Wyoming

PORTLAND, Ore. — A cell phone text exchange between Portland Mayor Sam Adams and the young man who was briefly his lover predicts "we are both ruined" shortly after the affair became public early this year. In documents released by the Oregon attorney general’s office on Tuesday, a four-page redacted summary of e-mail exchanges between Adams and Beau Breedlove last January show mutual concern for the breaking scandal. In one exchange on Jan. 27, apparently from Breedlove to Adams, Breedlove writes: "Well, now we are both ruined. Disgraced and ashamed. I’m sorry Sam." He continues: "I’m the felon, the slutty...

CLACKAMAS -- They came by ones and twos Friday, quietly slipping into the pews at New Hope Community Church. They smiled at the words honoring a man whose faith made him an inspiration and whose exploits in three wars made him a hero. And when the last mournful drone of the bagpipes faded, they said goodbye to Col. Kenneth L. Reusser of Milwaukie, the most decorated U.S. Marine Corps aviator in history. "He was the finest gentleman I've ever met," said Harley Wedel of Fairview, a fellow Korean War veteran. "I'm really going to miss him." Reusser flew an amazing...

COVE — What was supposed to be the first camping trip of the season for Wesley and Lisa Wynn of Cove unexpectedly turned into a nightmare on Mount Fanny that they will never forget. Road access to the Moss Spring campgrounds had just opened up, and the Wynns were eager to get away from it all and enjoy the quiet of the mountains for a couple of days. They arrived at the site mid-afternoon on Sunday, June 7, and set up camp. They brought their two quarterhorses with them and their dogs, Corona, an 8-year-old black lab, border collie mix...

Every now and then, even in Oregon, environmental activists and property rights advocates find themselves on the same side of the political fence. One of those politics-makes-strange-bedfellows issues has been brewing in the Oregon Legislature and may still find its way to the governor's desk if Senate strategists can get it to the floor for a vote. House Bill 3058, which passed the House a couple of weeks ago, would allow private companies seeking to construct "linear utility or transportation" facilities to apply for removal and fill permits for wetlands on other people's property. These companies already have the considerable...

PORTLAND, Ore. – Hackers defaced the home page of the Oregon University System, posting a caustic message telling President Barack Obama to mind his own business and stop talking about the disputed Iranian election. Attempts to access the university system's Web site were automatically redirected to another page, where readers viewed a message said to be from Iran that asserted there was no cheating in the election. That message was up for 90 minutes before university system technicians intervened Wednesday morning.

The Supreme Court took the side of parents of children with disabilities today, ruling that they can claim reimbursement for the cost of private schooling if the public system failed to offer an appropriate program for their child. The 6-3 decision settles a heated and costly dispute that has arisen across the country. It also deals a potentially expensive setback to public school systems that are strapped for money. At issue was who must pay the cost if parents of a child with a disability withdraw him from public school and send him to a private school. In a case...

The unemployment rates in eight states hit record-highs last month and only two -- Nebraska and Vermont -- did not report increases. The Labor Department says 48 states and the District of Columbia saw employment conditions deteriorate last month. The fallout from the longest recession since World War II, was the worst in Michigan. Its unemployment rate rose to 14.1 percent. The eight states that set records are: California, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Florida and Georgia. The West region reported the highest jobless rate at 10.1 percent. The last time any region had a rate of...

Part of a short-line railroad in Oregon's ruggedly beautiful Wallowa County has become a 30-mile-long parking lot for about 700 idled railcars, some blighted with graffiti. Many residents aren't happy. David Stein, for one, said mustard-yellow centerbeam lumber cars along tracks owned by the Wallowa Union Railroad have spoiled his view of mountains, meadows and pine forests from his home outside Enterprise. "What can you see?" Stein, 54, asked in disgust. "Trains!" The situation is a snapshot of a national picture. The economic slump has idled about 70,000 Union Pacific railcars, now sidetracked wherever space can be found, said Zoe...

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The Oregon Senate has decided concealed handgun permits will not be concealed, over the objection of county sheriffs across the state. Concealed handgun licenses are public records and senators affirmed their support of that policy by declining a vote on House Bill 2727, which would have allowed sheriffs to keep the permits confidential.

For decades, most of the nation’s renewable power has come from dams, which supplied cheap electricity without requiring fossil fuels. But the federal agencies running the dams often compiled woeful track records on other environmental issues. Now, with the focus in Washington on clean power, some dam agencies are starting to go green, embracing wind power and energy conservation. The most aggressive is the Bonneville Power Administration, whose power lines carry much of the electricity in the Pacific Northwest. The agency also provides a third of the region’s power supply, drawn mostly from generators inside big dams. The amount of...

The Oregon Senate has failed to pass legislation that would increase taxes in the state to raise 733 billion in revenue. The bill failed due to one vote. That of Democrat Senator Mark Hass. The legislation required a 2/3rds majority and was the Democrats cornerstone for balancing the State Budget. Looks as if they will be forced to take a more conservative path, that of living within the State's means to balance the budget. Lets send him flowers shall we?

The admissions team at Reed College, known for its free-spirited students, learned in March that the prospective freshman class it had so carefully composed after weeks of reviewing essays, scores and recommendations was unworkable. Money was the problem. Too many of the students needed financial aid, and the college did not have enough. So the director of financial aid gave the team another task: drop more than 100 needy students before sending out acceptances, and substitute those who could pay full freight. The whole idea of excluding a student simply because of money clashed with the college’s ideals, Leslie Limper,...

June 9, 2009 — “The findings add to a growing body of evidence in the past two decades that challenge some of the most widely-held beliefs about animal evolution.”  That statement is not being made by creationists, but by science reporters describing work at Oregon State University that cast new doubt on the idea that birds evolved from theropod dinosaurs.  The main idea: their leg bones and lungs are too different.     Science Daily’s report has a diagram of the skeleton showing...

First Oregon death from swine flu reported in Marion County by Paige Parker, The Oregonian Monday June 08, 2009, 3:39 PM A Marion County woman with a confirmed case of swine flu died Sunday, the first Oregonian and 28th American to die of the infection, public health officials said Monday. Officials are not releasing the woman's name. She'd been hospitalized for eight days before her death, and suffered "multiple underlying health conditions," notable because it placed her at high risk of infection and complications, according to the state's press release. The death does not change the recommended precautions for...

A suspected 'womb raider' lured her victim to her home by pretending to be selling baby clothes before killing her and claiming the baby as her own. Korena Roberts has been accused of murdering a heavily pregnant 21-year-old in the latest gruesome killing to shock America. US authorities are expected to reveal the baby boy, who did not survive, had been torn from the womb of Heather Snively. Her body was found stuffed into a crawlspace at the home of 27-year-old Roberts who had falsely claimed to friends and family that she was pregnant. Autopsy results on Snively and her...

A woman who snatched her children from state social workers at a freeway rest area near Myrtle Creek was released Friday from the Coffee Creek Correctional Facility in Wilsonville. Ruth E. Christine, who served seven years in prison after being convicted on robbery, custodial interference and auto theft charges, did not go free, however. She was taken into custody by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. snip

An Oregon woman was charged with murdering a 21-year-old expectant mother and her unborn baby after faking her own pregnancy. Korena Roberts, 28, of Washington County, is being held without bail Sunday after allegedly killing Heather Snively — whose body was found in the crawlspace of a house in Cedar Hills, Ore., according to the Washington County Sheriff's Office. The nearly full-term fetus also died.

BEAVERTON, OREGON (WSAZ) -- A pregnant woman from St. Albans was found murdered in a home in Oregon. The Washington County Sheriff's public information officer says the pregnant woman has been identified as Heather Megan Snively from St. Albans. Snively was 21 years old and still has family in our area. According to KGW News, an NBC station in Oregon, Snively's body was found in the crawl space of a Beaverton home, and the woman who lives there is facing murder charges. Police held on to the details of the bizarre murder scene for more than 24 hours after making...

The rates have been set: A bed at the Springfield Municipal Jail is $60 a night.

With the world in crisis, forget the Army, Navy, Marine Corp, Americore or Job Corps. The Oregon legislature is about to pass a bill creating CLIMATE CORPS. Even though the Oregon general fund is $2 billion short, they are requiring the University of Oregon to create Climate Corps. This bill has passed the Senate and it moving through the House. Here's the text: Senate Bill 942 A BILL FOR AN ACT Relating to the Oregon Climate Corps; and appropriating money. Be It Enacted by the People of the State of Oregon: SECTION 1. (1) The University of Oregon, after consultation...

The 1,600 employees of venerable outdoors retailer Joe's learned firsthand this spring the impact of the U.S. credit crisis when an inability to find new financing forced the 57-year-old company out of business. Joe's demise -- the company's last stores close permanently this weekend -- was as unnecessary as it was rapid, some insiders contend. The private equity fund that bought Joe's Sports, Outdoor & More in 2007 badly wanted to save the company and had offered to pour another $10 million into the operation. But Joe's lenders, Wells Fargo and Boston-based Crystal Capital, refused to put up more money,...

SALEM -- Thousands of state workers are gearing up to fight pink slips, holidays without pay and a salary freeze over the next two years. But unlike many in the private sector or public workers in other states, government employees in Oregon won't have to sweat potential cuts to their taxpayer-subsidized health insurance. Oregon remains one of the most generous states in the country when it comes to health care. Full-time state employees pay no deductible for medical care and nothing in monthly insurance premiums for themselves or their spouses and children. The average cost per employee? About $12,800 a...

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jerzy Tumaniszwili was a 23-year-old naval gunnery officer in the Polish navy when his destroyer left port to escape the imminent 1939 German invasion of his county. He achieved the rank of lieutenant commander while serving 5 1/2 years during World War II, chasing German U-boats and protecting troops on D-Day in 1944. Tumaniszwili emigrated to the United States after the war because he was considered an enemy by the Communist regime that had taken over Poland.

President Obama Tuesday night proclaimed at his high-dollar, Hollywood fundraiser that the economy is on the rebound due to his “stimulus� spending orgy. Obama told the adoring crowd of limousine liberals, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!� Back in the real world, unemployment rates continued their steady rise upward this week, reaching a record high for the 17th consecutive week.  Nearly 6.8 million Americans are receiving unemployment benefits despite White House claims that we have begun to spend our way into prosperity. Federal tax revenues fell a significant 34 percent in April of 2009 due to a national unemployment rate now...

Cindy Sheehan, the grieving mother who became an anti-war flashpoint on the road to President George W. Bush's ranch, urged legislators in Salem on Wednesday to keep the Oregon National Guard out of Iraq. But even as she stood on the Capitol steps asking lawmakers to vote on House Bill 2556, inside, the House Rules committee chairman indicated the measure may already be dead. "We have not scheduled it for a work session, and right now I do not see it being scheduled," said Rep. Arnie Roblan, D-Coos Bay. The bill would give the governor the authority to send the...

Oregon's unemployment remains No. 2 in the nation, and economists remain puzzled why. For the second month in a row, Oregon recorded the country's second highest jobless rate -- 12 percent in April, seasonally adjusted -- behind Michigan, at 12.9 percent. Oregon also posted the largest jobless-rate increase of any state from a year earlier, U.S. officials reported Friday, up 6.4 percentage points from April 2008. "We're all scratching our heads and trying to figure out how much of it is bad data and how much of it is the underlying economy," said Bill Conerly, a Lake Oswego economist. "What...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. -- The Klamath Tribes and farmers have agreed to drop their state water rights battle pending approval of a federal agreement leading to removal of dams on the Klamath River. The settlement filed Wednesday with the Oregon Department of Water Resources mirrors the water issues in the dam removal plan, known as the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement. Greg Addington of the Klamath Water Users Association, which represents farmers, said it made no sense to spend time and money fighting out their claims in the long-running state adjudication process when they have reached a settlement that just hasn't...

PORTLAND, OR—A Newberg golf instructor and amateur photographer has been charged with a variety of federal child pornography offenses. Rodney Mead Pelling, 68, was arraigned this afternoon in U.S. District Court in Eugene on an indictment charging him with five counts of producing child pornography, four counts of receiving child pornography, and one count of possessing child pornography. He entered pleas of not guilty to each count, and was detained pending trial by U.S. Magistrate Judge Thomas Coffin. Trial is set for July 21, 2009 before U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken. Each of the charges in the indictment is a...

Date: Thursday-May 21 Time: 3:00 P.M. Room: HR C Public Hearing HB 2186 A Authorizes Environmental Quality Commission to adopt rules to help state reduce greenhouse gas emissions . Staff respectfully requests that you submit 25 collated copies of written materials at the time of your testimony. Persons making presentations including the use of video, DVD, PowerPoint or overhead projection equipment are asked to contact committee staff 24 hours prior to the meeting. Any item on this agenda may be carried over to the next meeting at the discretion of the Chair.

In October, as the stock market tanked and the economy shed 400,000 jobs, Matt Singer moved from Oxnard, Calif. to Portland, Ore. He didn't have a job, but he was attracted to the city's offbeat culture and hungered for change. Mr. Singer's plan was to get an editing or writing gig at an alternative weekly newspaper, the job he was doing in California. Seven months later, the 26-year-old is still without a steady job -- and still here. "I wasn't really aware of how bad the job situation was at the time," says Mr. Singer. This drizzly city along the...

Thousands of Home Valley Bank customers recently learned that their Presidential Guarantee accounts have become decidedly less presidential. Instead of paying a promised 3 percent interest yield annually on the special checking accounts, the southern Oregon bank in mid-April unilaterally cut the rate to 2.02 percent. Don't blame us, Home Valley executives said. Blame the FDIC. In February, the federal agency that insures deposits approved a one-time special assessment that will increase the annual charge paid by many Northwest banks by three times or more. That leaves Home Valley and the other 8,300 banks across the country facing a significant...

Oregon exports dropped by a third in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period last year, as the global recession slashed spending abroad. Sales to Oregon's top foreign customers -- China, Canada, Japan, Malaysia and Taiwan -- all fell from last year's fourth quarter, according to U.S. figures released Tuesday. The state sold $3.2 billion worth of goods abroad during the first quarter of 2009, down 32 percent from $4.7 billion during the first quarter last year. Oregon exports peaked at a record $5.2 billion during the third quarter of 2008, then sank as the recession...

SNIPPET: "NEW YORK — A jury convicted a Lebanese-born Swede on Tuesday of plotting to help Al Qaeda recruit by trying to set up a weapons-training post in Oregon and distributing terrorist training manuals over the Internet. The verdict against Oussama Kassir..."

The progressive-liberal Blog, BlueOregon.com takes on ATR’s Kelly Cobb over a local car rental tax hike for Portland. Cobb uses their left- leaning organizations data to prove “ government can’t grow the economy”

Prayer breakfast under fire Published: May 8, 2009   Do images like this on city-distributed material amount to promoting religion? A Wisconsin-based group thinks so.City of Keizer Group says city promotes Christianity with involvement in eventBy JASON COX Of the Keizertimes A group promoting separation of church and state is objecting to the city of Keizer's role in the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast, which was Thursday, May 7. The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to Mayor Lore Christopher complaining that the Mayor's Prayer Breakfast – promoted on the city's Web site and taking place at the city-owned...

HB 2186 A has been passed, 32 yea, to 28 Nay. Say goodbye to the possibility of economic prosperity in the State of Oregon. Among HB 2186 provisions are sections that will impact Oregonians for decades to come, regardless of the fact that it sunsets in 2020.

SALEM -- The cigarette dangles dangerously from Humphrey Bogart's lips, the curling smoke making him squint. In one swift move of disgust, he drops the butt to the ground and extinguishes it with a twist of his shoe. Fine for Hollywood. But if Bogie tried that in Oregon, he would be fined $90 or made to perform community service, under a bill approved Tuesday by the House. The bill -- one of many anti-smoker bills this session -- goes after what Rep. Carolyn Tomei, D-Milwaukie, considers an environmental travesty in Oregon, the river of cigarette ends that litter parks, beaches,...

As those following the insanity in the Oregon Legislature know, House Bill 2186 A Engrossed is scheduled for a floor debate and vote today. According to the House Clerks Office, and a glance at the floor schedule reveal, it is unlikely that the bill will be heard today. There are a total of 27 House Bills that were carried over from May 6th to today, and those bills will be considered first. The Clerk's office reports that the House Bill Schedule will be cleared tomorrow, meaning that they will hear and vote upon every bill to clear this legislative schedule...

Mayor Sam Adams was involved in a three-car accident Sunday that resulted in no injuries but left a few questions about the cause. Adams was driving his GMC pickup about 6:15 p.m. at 1457 North Hayden Island Drive, near the parking lot of Car Toys at Jantzen Beach. Ryan Reed said he was turning his 2002 WRX Subaru wagon right from North Hayden Island Drive into the Car Toys parking lot when Adams' pickup, which was behind his car, "T-boned" his vehicle, striking the passenger side. Reed, an employee of the Tigard Car Toys store, said the impact pushed his...

Just as more families are turning to the government for help, Oregon leaders are considering budget cuts that would dismantle the state's welfare-to-work program. To find billions to balance the next two-year budget, state leaders are considering cuts, including: eliminating cash assistance to families with two parents at home; reducing or eliminating state-paid day care while parents look for a job or start work; reducing payments that help people transition from welfare to full-time employment; and reducing or eliminating training and life skills programs designed to help people get and keep a job. Here's a sample of possible cuts to...

It has been said before, and will be said again, the question is, when are liberal supporters going to see the truth? ACORN The Association of Community Organization for Reform Now is the subject of a Complaint filed today by the Nevada Attorney General. Also named in the suit is Christopher Howell Edwards the Las Vegas Field Director for ACORN. The complaint states that ACORN canvassers were required to fill a daily quota of new voter registrations, with a bonus possible in the “Blackjack” or “21” which would give the canvasser an extra 5$ if they registered 21 in a...

SALEM -- Concealed handgun licenses would be exempt from Oregon's public records law under a bill passed Monday by the Oregon House, making it much more difficult to find out who is getting the permits. Citing privacy and safety concerns, lawmakers said people who apply for and receive permits to carry a concealed weapon should be assured that their names, addresses and other personal information won't be made public. "It's about protecting the rights of the good guys," said Rep. Chris Edwards, D-Eugene, one of 54 House members who voted in favor of the exemption. "This is not about protecting...

As car companies lined up in Washington, DC last November for the first round of federal bailout money – in San Francisco we announced another way – our comprehensive plan to make the San Francisco Bay Area the “Electric Vehicle (EV) Capital of the US.” Our efforts to advance electric vehicles are not limited to San Francisco. We’ve engaged the entire Bay Area – a region of 7.3 million people – to make our region the cornerstone of the coming market for EVs. Not just governments, but key companies, business associations, policy advocates, and international car and EV infrastructure companies...

NEW YORK – With a landscape that evoked Afghanistan, a rural town in Oregon seemed in James Ujaama's mind to be the perfect setting for a militant jihad training camp to teach Muslim fighters survival and combat skills. The terrorist camp Ujaama envisioned to produce fighters against the Taliban's enemies in Afghanistan never came to fruition, and he no longer supports terrorist causes, he told a jury during a terrorism trial Wednesday in Manhattan federal court. "I sympathized and I have supported terrorists in the past, which was foolish. I was not thinking at that time and I wish I...

NEW YORK — Speaking publicly for the first time, former Seattle resident James Ujaama testified Tuesday about his efforts in 1999 to create a terrorist training camp in rural Oregon for would-be jihad warriors wishing to take up the fight against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in Afghanistan. Among the instructors would be Oussama Kassir, a Swedish jihadist who once bragged he had been a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. Ujaama, appearing thin and graying and dressed in oversized prison overalls, took the witness stand in the terrorism conspiracy trial of Kassir, who is accused of traveling from London to the...