Free Republic

An Oregon middle school encouraged students to dress up as "drag queens" and their favorite "queer hero" this week in celebration of Pride Month, but one parent said families weren't notified ahead of time. At the Arts & Technology Academy in the Eugene School District 4J, students celebrated "Pride Spirit Week" with a different theme each day intended to celebrate the LGBTQ+ community, according to a memo obtained by Fox News Digital. On Monday, students were encouraged to "wear as many colors as they could" for "Rainbow-Out" day. On Tuesday, they were told to wear all black "in remembrance of...

Oregon is once again at the center of a national debate over transgender athletes being allowed to compete in women's sports. A video from the high school girls' track and field state championships went viral over the weekend. The video shows two athletes refusing to step on the podium with another athlete, whom they say is transgender. The Oregon School Activities Association (OSAA) policy allows transgender students to "access athletics and activities" consistent with the student's gender identity. Alexa Anderson from Tigard High School was one of the athletes who stepped off the podium in protest. She spoke with KATU...

(Oregon Right to Life) — A radical bill to expand assisted suicide in Oregon received strong pushback during a public hearing on Monday. SB 1003 would expand Oregon’s “Death With Dignity Act” (DWDA) to make it easier for practitioners to end the lives of medically vulnerable people through assisted suicide. SB 1003 came before the Oregon Senate for its second public hearing on June 2 following strong opposition and subsequent amendments earlier in the legislative session. Medical and mental health professionals and advocates for the medically vulnerable expressed vigorous opposition to the bill, noting that the amended legislation still poses...

Ranchers say their hands are tied as reintroduced wolves—listed as endangered—are feasting on cattle instead of hunting elk and deer.. Descendants of rewilded wolves are taking a heavy toll on cattle in Northern California and Oregon, killing calves and full-grown animals and putting stress on cow-calf operations and ranchers’ pocketbooks. Because wolves are listed as an endangered species under state and federal law, ranchers are hamstrung: They can’t shoot or harass these protected predators. The penalty for killing a wolf is steep; federal law carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a $100,000 fine, unless a rancher...

Eleven people were stabbed in a church-run homeless shelter in Oregon that is directly across from the local police HQ, according to authorities. At least one member of staff at the Union Gospel Mission in Salem is among the wounded following the shocking scenes at around 7:15 p.m. Sunday, police said. The 11 wounded were rushed to a Salem hospital with “varying types of injuries,” police said. The suspect, who is in custody, had arrived at the mission the previous night and was about to check into the 150-person ministry again for a second night when he started brawling just...

Oregon Senate Democrats passed a bump stock ban late last week and the legislation also allows local municipalities to ban the carry of firearms in buildings where public meetings are held. A bump stock ban once existed at the federal level but the Supreme Court of the United States struck it down on June 14, 2024. In the majority opinion for the bump stock decision, Justice Clarence Thomas made clear the ban faltered in claiming bump stocks turn semiautomatic firearms into machine guns: Semiautomatic firearms, which require shooters to reengage the trigger for every shot, are not machineguns. This case...

Oregon is once again at the forefront of expanding assisted suicide—and this time, the consequences won’t stop at its borders. SB 1003—is moving through the Oregon legislature that would dangerously expand the state’s so-called Death with Dignity Act. If passed, because of Oregon’s removal of its residency requirement in 2022, this law would affect vulnerable patients nationwide and further normalize suicide as a “solution” to potential suffering. What’s in the Bill: SB 1003 expands assisted suicide in three alarming ways: Broadens the Definition of Who Can Prescribe Lethal Drugs ○ Replaces “attending physician” and “consulting physician” with “prescribing provider” and...

Patrick Rooney, Founder of Old School Media interviews Oregon Firearms Federation Executive Director about Oregon's attack on not just the 2nd Amendment, but on virtually ALL the freedoms its citizens enjoy. Kevin Starrett doesn't pull any punches, and calls it exactly as he sees it. If you live in or care about the future of Oregon, this episode is a must! Oregon Erases the 2nd Amendment!!! (w/ Kevin Starrett of OFF) • OREGON is ERASING the 2ND AMENDMENT!!! (w/... https://www.oregonfirearms.org/ Vote-by-Mail Foes Pass Key Milestone https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2025... To make a difference... https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/ 800-332-2313 Old School Media https://oldschoolus.com/ https://oldschoolus.com/contact/

Grants Pass, Oregon has been known as a beautiful, predominantly conservative small city in Southern Oregon. A place that has welcomed retirees escaping California’s ongoing meltdown, and really a place for people of all ages who appreciate the natural beauty of the region and proximity to the Rogue River, which runs through town. The charms of the area were on full display at this year’s Boatnik celebration, an annual Memorial Day weekend event organized by The Active Club, a local nonprofit organization that contributes to the youth of Southern Oregon. Sponsors include the City of Grants Pass, Josephine County, and...

The number of homeless people in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties is higher than ever, according to the latest numbers from the national biannual homelessness count. Known as the point-in-time count, the federally mandated census takes place every other year and is focused on creating a snapshot of who is homeless on one night in January. It is broadly understood to be an undercount, but officials still view the data as useful in identifying national trends and making comparisons between jurisdictions. Surveyors identified 12,034 homeless people in the tri-county region this January, with 87% of them residing in Multnomah County,...

The University of Oregon has long faced controversies over the alleged political bias on its campuses, including celebrating the career of a professor who physically attacked pro-life students as a model of activism. It has been criticized for monitoring off-campus speech and unconstitutionally censoring dissenting faculty. Now, Law Professor Ofer Raban is accusing the Law Review and school administrators of discriminating against an Israeli professor who was allegedly rejected for publication because of his association with an Israeli university. Prof. Raban offered the following account: The events unfolded in 2024, after an Oregon Law Review editor recommended the publication of...

A total of 10 bodies have been found in rivers in the Portland, Oregon area since mid-April, two of which were found in May alone. The 10th body was found by authorities on Saturday on the Willamette River and was recovered at Portland's Cathedral Park, per KPTV. The identity of the person or the cause of death has yet to be released. Earlier in May, after the discovery of the eighth body, the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) said in a press releasethat the number of bodies recovered in a short time frame is "not unusual, though it is tragic."...

Larry Eugene Parks, 30, was found dead along Interstate 5 in Oregon in 1980. He remained a John Doe until he was identified using forensic genealogy last month.Notorious California serial killer Randy Kraft has been identified as the suspect in the murder of a man almost 45 years ago, police said Friday. Larry Eugene Parks, 30, was found dead along Interstate 5 on the morning of July 18, 1980, in Oregon, according to the Oregon State Police. An investigation into his death was opened, but Parks remained a John Doe until just last month, after an investigator from the sheriff’s...

While predicting the exact timing is tricky, scientists say said an eruption could occur later this year or even tomorrow. Deep below the Pacific, a restless seafloor volcano off Oregon is showing signs it may soon stir again. Axial Seamount, a submarine volcano located nearly a mile beneath the ocean surface, is flexing its geologic muscles. Perched on a hot spot along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, where the Pacific and Juan de Fuca tectonic plates are slowly pulling apart, the volcano is steadily inflating with magma, increasing the frequency of small earthquakes. Researchers with the National Science Foundation’s Ocean...

A larger Mag 6.4 earthquake tripped offshore of Seattle WA last night. It is the latest in a small swarm of Mag 4, Mag 5, and now Mag 6 earthquakes that began two days in the Cascadia Fault Zone that runs from British Columbia south to Northern California. The Cascadia Fault is regularly hit with Mag 8 (average interval 350 years) and occainsional Mag 9 (interval about 580 years) earthquakes. The last very large killed thousands of native Indians up and down the Washington and Oregon coastline in January 1700, and hundreds more in Japan from its tsunami waves.

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — Police arrested at least five people Monday evening during a protest at Portland State University (PSU) against conservative speaker Riley Gaines who spoke at a public event on campus. "On Monday, May 5, 2025, at approximately 7:00 p.m., personnel with PSU’s Campus Public Safety Office requested PPB’s assistance with crowd control outside the Smith Memorial Student Union where an event not affiliated with the university was taking place. Over the course of the next hour-and-a-half, PPB officers arrested five individuals for various crimes. Once these individuals are processed, their names and charges will be disseminated," the...

On Tuesday, Attorney General Pamela Bondi held a press conference announcing a week-long, multi-agency and multi-law enforcement and tribal operation headed by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the New Mexico District Attorney’s Office. The operation resulted in huge drug busts and multiple arrests of high-level members of the Sinaloa cartel. According to Bondi, the agents garnered 11.5 kilos of fentanyl, including three million fentanyl pills — the largest seizure in the nation's history. The main head of the Sinaloa cartel, Alberto Salazar Amaya, was arrested along with five others, all in the country illegally. Amaya was arrested in Salem,...

Eighteen states sued the Trump administration Monday over its halting of permits for wind-energy projects, arguing that its actions posed an existential threat to the burgeoning industry.“This administration is devastating one of our nation’s fastest-growing sources of clean, reliable and affordable energy,” said Attorney General Letitia James of New York, which is one of the plaintiffs. She said the halt threatened “the loss of thousands of good-paying jobs and billions in investments” and was “delaying our transition away from the fossil fuels that harm our health and our planet.”The halt on federal permits for wind energy was first laid out...

A sprawling fentanyl trafficking network stretching from Albuquerque to Salem, Oregon, has been shattered by federal authorities in what’s being called one of the largest operations of its kind in U.S. history. The takedown, made public this week, culminated in a massive sweep across New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. Federal agents with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized staggering amounts of contraband: over 4 million fentanyl pills, $4.4 million in cash, 79 pounds of meth, along with heroin, cocaine, and more than 41 firearms, according to records from the U.S. District Court in Albuquerque. At the helm of...

A trans-identified male sex offender who attempted to enroll at a local high school in Oregon has been sentenced to 20 days in jail and two years’ probation. Alec Ray Craig, who uses the name Makayla Craig, 27, was arrested last December after an officer at South Albany High School reported him for pretending to be a 15 year-old girl in order to register as a student. Craig has told school administrators that his name was Madison and provided a false date of birth. Upon his arrest, it was discovered that Craig is a registered sex offender. He was then...