Free Republic

After years of creating headaches for the oil-and-gas industry, the greater sage grouse is now standing in the way of renewable energy. The U.S. District Court in Portland on Wednesday killed a major wind-energy project slated for southeast Oregon over concerns about its impact on a local sage grouse population in a victory for environmental groups, which had fought the proposal for years. The 104-megawatt project, which would have spread up to 70 wind turbines and a transmission line across 10,500 acres in rural Harney County, was decried by environmentalists as an “industrial scale wind development” that would have disrupted...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – A 27-year-old woman faces a federal charge of attempted sex trafficking of a child after the FBI interviewed a Eugene man in a child pornography investigation. Kelsey Christine Wheeler was arrested Friday by the FBI and is likely to make her first appearance in federal court in Portland Monday.

An Oregon man died "peacefully" after a family member falsely told him that President Trump had been impeached. Michael Garland Elliot died on April 6, according to his Obituary in The Oregonian, and the final words he heard were that the president had been impeached. Elliot’s “ex-wife and best friend” Teresa Elliot shared the false news to bring him comfort in his final moments. "Mike ran out of family long ago and is survived by his ex-wife and best friend, Teresa Elliott," the obituary read. "Though their marriage ran aground, their friendship only grew stronger and hers was the last...

Attorney Marcus Mumford, who last month had criminal charges dismissed against him stemming from his arrest on the day his client Ammon Bundy was acquitted of conspiracy in federal court in Portland, now faces more legal challenges. Oregon's Chief U.S. District Judge Michael W. Mosman is seeking to revoke Mumford's ability to practice law in any federal court in the District of Oregon, a rare move. The judge has given Mumford until May 4 to argue in writing why should not impose such a sanction. In a court filing Wednesday, Mosman cited Mumford's repeated failures or refusals to observe court...

Transcript For Oregon Representative Sal Esquivel, a Republican who has served in the statehouse for 12 years, the Trump administration’s hard line immigration stance is long overdue. Sal Esquivel: This is America. We have borders. We have laws. We're a nation of laws, so therefore we should adhere to those laws, and we should not ignore the laws that we don't want to adhere to. Sal Esquivel: The state needs to get its act together. And comply with federal law. As Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently made clear, federal law requires cities and counties to work with immigration authorities. Full...

Are we close to seeing a return of formal dueling at ten paces in Oregon in the next few years? That’s the fun interpretation when you see a headline such as this one in the Associated Press. “Oregon voters may decide to toss constitutional ban on duels.” I’m not immune to the occasion fit of pining for the colonial days, but that sounds a tad bit extreme even to me. But as with most such stories, it turns out to be (mostly) clickbait to the great disappointment of many, I’m sure. Should ongoing discussions in Salem materialize, voters would...

California resident Gary Hunt, speaking by phone from jail Thursday, promised he would show up to court in Portland to defend his right to publish details about FBI informants...... "I give my word, my honor that I will appear at a time designated by the court," Hunt told U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown. "Believe it or not, I've been looking forward to discussing the issue in your presence." The judge responded that she needed more than "his word".... Hunt, 71, was arrested last Thursday on a warrant that Brown signed after he skipped a hearing to explain why he...

Bend, Ore. – Ibex Global, which employs about 500 people at a Bend call center, is planning to double that number this year, a company recruiter said Thursday. Ibex provides customer support for four brands that it declines to identify. Two are telecommunications companies; one is in motor sports, and one is a medical company, according to John Schweiter, lead recruiter for Ibex Global in Bend. Ibex Global, based in Washington, D.C., and formerly known in Bend as iSky, is a subsidiary of privately held TRG, based in Pakistan, said Rosemary Hanratty, Ibex senior director of marketing. According to news...

The Columbia Gorge is now home to an estimated 45 wineries, 14 breweries, 13 cideries and two distilleries — not counting dozens, probably hundreds, of home brewers. #All those brewers represent different applications of “fermentation science,” the topic of a six-part instructional series starting next month through Columbia Gorge Community College. #Local industry leaders in such disparate fields as beer, cider, wine, spirits, baking and fermented foods will describe the commonalities uniting their work, facilitated by Dr. Kevin McCabe, lab supervisor at Full Sail Brewing Co. and former microbiology professor at the college. Students will learn the principles of fermentation...

Federal authorities have arrested California resident Gary Hunt after he failed to show up in U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown's courtroom this month to explain why he shouldn't be held in civil contempt for not removing his blog information about informants the FBI used... The judge, in an order unsealed after Hunt's arrest, wrote that it was "necessary to issue a warrant for Hunt's arrest in order to bring him before this Court for his failure to appear at a show-cause hearing and to adjudicate civil contempt hearings" as to the government's allegations that he violated a court' protective...

Sen. Jeff Merkely says a decision to use the 'Nuclear Option' to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court would "destroy the integrity of the Senate" and "highly politicize the [Supreme] court." "If this process goes through, every 5-4 decision will be one we will look at and say that it is not really legitimate, because that Supreme Court Justice wasn't really legitimate," he said. "If we change it to a simple majority, that means the next president will have an easier time approving appointments, and might decide to go further to the left or right outside of the mainstream....

An undocumented Portland man granted a deportation reprieve in 2014 was arrested by federal immigration agents early Sunday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon said. Francisco J. Rodriguez Dominguez was arrested by Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agents at his Southeast Portland home, the group said. The arrest would make him one of a handful of reported immigrants recently arrested despite their participation in the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which has not been revoked by President Donald Trump's administration. The deferred action program was created under the Obama administration to allow some undocumented immigrants brought into the...

In the wake of the Trump election, Portland’s Resistance aims to connect the new anti-Trump movement with those who have already been working towards social justice. Beginning as a Facebook page created by Lewis & Clark Law student Gregory McKelvey two days after the election, Portland’s Resistance (now with upwards of 20,600 likes) was borne out of several days of anti-Trump protests that happened in across America’s cities. I met McKelvey in a Miller classroom. Students passed by, leaving their early evening classes as I nervously scrolled through his Twitter. McKelvey walked down the stairs wearing a suit and bow...

A federal judge on Tuesday found four men guilty of trespassing and other misdemeanor charges for their roles in the occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge last winter. U.S. District Judge Anna J. Brown issued her rulings in court against Jason Patrick, Duane Ehmer, Darryl Thorn and Jake Ryan--the final four defendants in the Malheur case to go on trial. Shortly afterward, Patrick was taken into custody by deputy U.S. marshals after the judge ordered that he be placed on electronic monitoring as he awaited sentencing. Patrick, described by prosecutors as an organizer of last winter's occupation, chose to...

The 71-year-old mayor of a southern Oregon town was arrested Sunday, accused of setting up a meeting to have sex with a 14-year-old girl who turned out to be a police officer. Kenneth Lewis Barrett, who began his two-year term as mayor of Winston in January, spent two weeks exchanging Facebook messages with an online decoy created to target adults soliciting sex with children, court documents said.

Jay Patriot • 5 hours ago This is absolutely hilarious! The hobos will lounge around their pod all day, smoking weed and drinking booze while they wait for the idiot homeowner to come home from work and feed them. This program will be fun to watch and I hope that neighbors with brains will chronicle this insanity and share it with the world. Also, I really like the idea of the see-thru pod that is depicted. Nothing nicer than looking out your window and seeing your hobo slamming his old lady, boppin' his boloney, shooting up heroin, smoking meth, etc...

Full Headline: Would YOU let a homeless person live in your backyard? Portland offers residents free tiny homes if they rent it to families who are on the street .... Faced with an intractable homeless problem, officials in Portland are thinking inside the box. A handful of homeless families will soon move into tiny, government-constructed modular units in the backyards of willing homeowners.

With more than $300,000 and volunteer homeowners, Multnomah County has a new idea to fight homelessness: Build tiny houses in people's backyards and rent them out to families with children now living on the street. The homeowners would pay nothing for the construction. They would become landlords and maintain the units for homeless families for five years. Then the tiny houses would become theirs to do with what they want. If the homeowners break the contract before then, they pay the cost of construction. The project would put the 8-month-old joint homeless office - a shared effort between the county...

A federal judge Wednesday dismissed all criminal charges against Marcus Mumford, Ammon Bundy's lawyer, at the prosecution's request. In a three-sentence order, U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour granted prosecutors' motion to dismiss two charges against Mumford without prejudice, meaning the government could bring them back in the future. Mumford's lawyer, Michael Levine, had argued repeatedly that the deputy U.S. marshals engaged in "outrageous" misconduct and lacked authority to wrestle Mumford to the ground and stun him with a Taser gun while he was arguing on behalf of Bundy in a federal courtroom last fall.... Mumford Monday night told The...

Special federal prosecutors assigned to the criminal case against Ammon Bundy's lawyer filed a motion Monday to dismiss all the charges against Marcus Mumford. The motion comes more than three weeks after a judge dropped one of three charges against Mumford and ruled that he would decide the remaining two charges after a trial. It comes on the first business day after a federal jury in Portland found four remaining defendants guilty on a variety of charges stemming from the occupation of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge..... "I'm thankful the case is being dismissed," said Mumford's attorney Michael Levine. He said...