Free Republic

Joel Matthew Caswell faces charges including wire fraud, tax evasion and aggravated identity theft; local businesses, residents have long history of court cases.. ... According to an indictment filed in the case, Caswell faces four felony counts of wire fraud, three counts of tax evasion, one count of aggravated identity theft and 15 counts of failure to collect or truthfully account for and pay over tax. The case against Caswell centers largely around the alleged defrauding of federal programs devised to offer relief to businesses impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. Grand jury charges in the indictment allege that between 2018...

A proposal to designate the tortilla as New Mexico’s official state bread had unanimous support from lawmakers. On Friday, though, it ended up falling flat. It wasn’t because Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham isn’t a fan of the round wraps that have long been a staple of Mexican, Central American and Southwestern U.S. cooking. It was because she believes lawmakers missed opportunities to debate bills that deal with weightier matters as the state faces extraordinary challenges. “Of course, I enjoy celebrating our unique culture,” she wrote in her veto message, ticking off numerous official state symbols and songs that New Mexico...

Every week, it seems there’s a contest between the states on the West Coast, Messed Coast™ to out-woke each other, and this week is no different. Washington leads the way again this week, with Democrats doing everything in their power to kill business and get rid of the riff raff normies by making it so expensive that people will be forced to leave. Things are looking up for black Washingtonians, however. Free down payments for houses! Oregon’s two-tiered school system is in full flower with astonishing race-based spending. And did you hear the one about California Gov. Gavin Newsom promising...

The fentanyl seized by our team in this case could have yielded over 1.5 million lethal doses - enough to kill everyone in Portland twice.".. Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested 46 Honduran nationals on drug trafficking charges in Portland, Oregon, following an extensive joint operation to disrupt open-air drug markets in Multnomah County. Authorities seized an array of illicit drugs, firearms, and cash. The Honduran nationals were reportedly working on behalf of the Mexican Sinaloa Drug Cartel, a designated foreign terror group, according to a press release. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Seattle Field Division said that the...

The cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease have been confirmed over the last eight months, and it’s unclear if these cases are linked at this time, according to the Hood River County Health Department on Friday. The Oregonian/OregonLive, which was the first to report on the cases, says two of the cases have resulted in deaths. Nexstar’s KOIN reached out to the Hood River County Health Department for confirmation but did not immediately receive a response. Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is the result of a prion, a type of infectious protein, triggering a body’s normal proteins to misfold, according to the Centers for Disease...

Apparently, accurately observing and assessing reality is only okay when someone is obviously lying about their age. If you notice that they’re lying about their biological sex though? You’re a fascist, bigot, racist, homophobe, Trump-supporter, Nazi… you name it. In perhaps one of the most absurd stories I’ve ever read (from where else but Oregon?), a local high school called the cops on “Madison,” a 15-year-old “girl” trying to enroll in classes—there was a problem though, and it wasn’t the fact that “Madison” was actually a bearded male, but that he was lying about his age!Oh, and “Madison” also appears...

U.K. woman has spoken of time in detention after being branded an illegal alien by American border officials, as she warned other would-be travelers not to get caught up in President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown. Rebecca Burke, a 28-year-old graphic artist from Monmouthshire, South Wales, told British newspaper The Guardian how she had been refused entry to Canada from the state of Washington. She told the paper after she was sent back to the U.S, American officials classed her as an illegal alien, shackled and transported her to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center, where she was locked...

Lia Rose reportedly used to compete as Zachary Rose ... A transgender athlete took home first place in a varsity high jump competition at an Oregon high school meet Wednesday, roughly two years after finishing last while competing against junior varsity boys ... Lia Rose, who reportedly used to compete as Zachary, won the high jump at the Portland Interscholastic League Varsity Relays with a height of 4 feet, 8 inches, beating the second-place finisher by two inches.. while competing against JV boys May 3, 2023, Zachary Rose finished 11th out of 11 competitors with a jump of 4 feet,...

A bipartisan pair of senators is warning the White House that recent US strikes on the Houthis in Yemen risk “emboldening” the Iranian-backed group and flouted the law regarding congressional oversight of military operations. The letter from Sens. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Rand Paul, R-Ky., shared first with Semafor, concerns the strikes that have made headlines recently.... “Neither the U.S. strikes since October 2023 ordered by President Joe Biden, nor the previous years-long campaign against the Houthis conducted by Saudi Arabia were successful in establishing deterrence against the Houthis,” Merkley and Paul wrote in the letter sent to President Donald...

Portland's downtown is in freefall, with property values plummeting 57% since 2019, from $3 billion to just $1.3 billion. City leaders blame remote work, but the real culprit is the rampant crime, homelessness, and lawlessness that have turned once-thriving business districts into ghost towns. Portland is hemorrhaging businesses, tax revenue, and economic vitality as companies flee to safer, more business-friendly environments like Texas and Florida. The city anticipates a $33 million tax revenue loss over the next five years, further crippling essential services like police and fire departments. Despite this crisis, city officials ignore the glaring issue: out-of-control crime and...

A federal negligence lawsuit can proceed against West Linn police alleging that officers should have entered the home of a man reported to be hallucinating on mushrooms and harming himself, a judge ruled.But U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon threw out allegations that officers discriminated against Michael A. Relloque IV because of his race or intentionally caused him distress in their handling of the November 2020 call. His lawyer alleged that West Linn police were reluctant to confront Relloque because of the national turmoil and mass racial justice protests that occurred that fall over the police killings of George Floyd...

Taxpayer-funded abortion is increasing at the state level as pro-abortion lawmakers work to expand abortion since the reversal of Roe v. Wade. Federally, the Hyde Amendment prohibits most taxpayer funding of abortion, allowing funding only in cases of rape, incest, or when the physician determines the pregnant mother’s life is at risk. But while the Hyde Amendment prevents most abortions from being paid for by federal tax dollars, each state can determine its own taxpayer funding for abortion. According to the pro-abortion organization KFF.org (The Kaiser Family Foundation), “There is tremendous variability in how much states reimburse for abortion services...

A member of Oregon's Health Authority (OHA) on best practices and policies in mental health said they identify as a 'turtle' during a state panel meeting. JD Holt, who also goes by 'JD Terrapin' on Facebook, announced that they use 'they, them and turtle' for their preferred pronouns during a December meeting. 'Hello everybody, it's JD. I use they, them and turtle for my pronouns. I'm in the Springfield-Eugene area and I get to be part of the council,' Holt said during a virtual advisory council meeting. Holt is one of roughly two dozen 'consumers' on the OHA's Consumer Advisory...

PORTLAND, Ore. (KATU) — A rally held on March 23 at Terry Schrunk Plaza in Portland called for the Trump administration to halt deportations and "keep families together". Organized by Portland Contra las Deportaciones and other activist groups, the event drew a crowd of all ages. Omar Gil, an organizer for the group, emphasized the rally's purpose: "Keep protesting, keep demanding for an end to deportations, stop separating families. Standing up to Trump's racist agenda." He added, "People are scared but it's not time to hide, it's time to show up and show out. I think it's important to bolster...

The same Oregon high school that came under fire last year for allowing a transgender athlete to compete against girls continues to blow away the competition one year later. Ada Gallagher, running as a 10th-grader at McDaniel High School in Portland, finished in first place in 200M and 400M races during the 6A-1 Portland Interscholastic League Championship in 2024. Now an 11th-grader, Gallagher was back on the track for a Portland Interscholastic League meet at her home track, where she was spotted blowing out the competition, especially in the 400M, where she finished more than seven seconds better than the...

By the time his family arrived at OHSU’s intensive-care unit on Feb. 13, Dominique Ware was unresponsive. The 35-year-old was suffering from organ failure, and he would die the following evening, two days after being rushed to the hospital from downtown Portland’s jail. No one could tell Ware’s parents and siblings what had happened. A month later, the family remains in the dark – not just about his shocking death but also about his arrest the day before he died. U.S. Marshals took Ware into custody on Wednesday, Feb. 12, and he landed at the Multnomah County Detention Center. But...

A male student has just won gold in the Girls 400m Varsity race at the Portland Interscholastic League meet in Oregon. Aayden "Ada" Gallagher of McDaniel High School set a season record after finishing over 7 seconds ahead of his female competitors.

… Oregon transportation officials say that without more funding, residents like (Timothy) Taylor could see further declines in the quality of roads, highways and bridges starting this year. But revenues from gas taxes paid by drivers at the pump are projected to decrease as more people adopt electric and fuel-efficient cars, forcing officials to look for new ways to fund transportation infrastructure. States with aggressive climate goals like Oregon are facing a conundrum: EVs can help reduce emissions in the transportation sector, the nation’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions, but they also mean less gas tax revenue in government...

Over one year after taking his 15-year-old girlfriend out of Idaho and into Oregon for an illegal abortion, Kaidyn Swainston — 18 at the time of the incident — had his sentence reduced to probation only, after originally being sentenced to five years in prison. In November of 2023, Swainston and his mother, Rachael, took a 15-year-old girl known as K.B. to Oregon for an abortion. At the time, Swainston was 18, and he was charged with second-degree kidnapping, rape, and three counts of producing child sexually exploitative material. Rachael, meanwhile, was charged with trafficking methamphetamine, two counts of possession...

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) said Thursday on CNN’s “The Arena” that his fellow Democrats need to “take on” President Donald Trump. He claimed the “best time” was “to take on a tyrant is as early as possible.” Merkley said, “You don’t stop a bully by giving over your lunch money and you don’t stop tyrant Trump by voting to give him more power. That is absolutely the wrong approach. There are others who say, you know, in a shutdown, the president may have more power than we’ve seen in any previous shutdown. There is a legitimate case to be made...