Free Republic

Well, that escalated quickly. I guess we’re just going to cancel the utopia? How can you have a utopia that arrests people simply for living on the streets in tents and shooting up fentanyl in front of children? It’s fascism.

An Oregon man accused of spiking smoothies with sedatives and giving them to his daughter’s pre-teen friends has been charged with multiple felonies, according to court documents. Michael Meyden, 57, of Lake Oswego, allegedly drugged three of his daughter’s friends while they slept over on the night of Aug. 25, 2023, according to court documents and a probable cause affidavit filed this week in Clackamas County. The girls, all 12 years old, were hospitalized and tested positive for benzodiazepine, described in the affidavit as a drug typically prescribed for anxiety, with common prescriptions under the names Valium, Xanax and Klonopin....

Oregon lawmakers passed a bill to recriminalize certain drugs The bill now heads to the desk of Democrat Gov. Tina Kote who declared a state of emergency weeks ago over the fentanyl crisis in Portland Oregon saw 1,268 fentanyl-related deaths from 2019 to 2023 Oregon lawmakers passed a bill to recriminalize possession of drugs weeks after Gov. Tina Kotek declared state of emergency over the fentanyl crisis in Portland. A bill recriminalizing the possession of small amounts of drugs was passed by the Oregon Legislature on Friday. The bill reverses a key part of the state's drug decriminalization law, which...

Eugene mayoral candidate Douglas Barr, a FOOD for Lane County driver, has lived in the community for decades. A resident of the Bethel district, Barr, 59, has been involved in various community organizations. In 2020, he ran for city council in Ward 7, where he lost to incumbent Claire Syrett. Barr is also a convicted felon, he shared with the Daily Emerald. Upon further review, the Emerald found that in 1984 at age 19, Barr was involved in a self-described hate crime — referred to as “gay bashing” by the prosecution. Barr and three other men were charged of the...

A transgender killer smirked at her victim's relatives and refused to apologize because her gender identity made her 'vulnerable', as she was sentenced to 22 years behind bars. Moses Jacob Lopez, 30, brutally stabbed cab driver Reese McDowell Lawhon to death in his car in April 2023 with bladed brass knuckles after suffering a mental health episode while on a night out partying in Portland. Lawhon had picked her up after a 911 operator suggested she call a cab home. Lopez senselessly stabbed him in the chest without provocation. At her sentencing on Wednesday, Lopez callously justified the murder by...

It's a common sight on the streets of downtown Portland, Oregon: people in front of stores, trendy restaurants and hotels, on sidewalks, corners, and benches, crouched over torch lighters held up to sheets of tinfoil or meth pipes. Some drape blankets over their heads, or duck behind concrete barriers. Others don’t try to hide. "All summer long, we were right out in the open. You didn't have to be paranoid anymore, you didn't have to be worried about the cops," said John Hood, a 61-year-old drug addict living on the streets of Oregon’s most populous city. Hood spoke to Reuters...

Oregon transportation leaders hope a grant to repair charging stations will make the using electrical vehicles more practical in the state. Rebecca Hansen-White / KLCC Oregon has received a $10 million dollar grant to repair broken or malfunctioning electric vehicle charging stations across the state. Matt Noble, Oregon Department of Transportation spokesperson, said broken charging stations have made electric vehicles impractical for many Oregonians. “Maybe five, 10 years ago, EV drivers were having more of a range anxiety. It was: ‘Can my EV reach a charging station?’” he said. “That’s really shifted in the last couple of years to ‘I’m...

Medina announced that he would be pleading not guilty and slammed the DOJ as a "two-tiered system of justice." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ On Friday, the FBI arrested an Oregon-based independent conservative journalist and content creator on charges related to the January 6 protest and riot at the US Capitol. David Medina, 34, of Sherwood, Oregon is the latest to be targeted by Biden's Department of Justice over alleged actions taken on January 6, 2021. He has been charged with felony obstruction of an official proceeding and several misdemeanors. The misdemeanors include destruction of government property, entering or remaining in any restricted building...

KGW has a policy of thoroughly screening all content for standards and accuracy before broadcast, but failed to uphold it, the station said.A television station in Portland, Oregon, apologized Friday for inadvertently showing a racist image during a program aimed at highlighting positive stories. KGW-TV displayed the image Thursday evening during “The Good Stuff,” which includes a “Throwback Thursday” segment sharing “cheesy, silly, or memorable” photos submitted by viewers. “The image, seemingly from the 1950s, depicted children throwing balls towards a sign prominently displaying (a racial slur),” the station said Friday in a statement posted to its website. “We understand...

Let’s face facts; some people are getting richer off the removal of the Klamath River dams. Glen Spain member [formerly] of Klamath River Renewal Corp. ‘KRRC’ board and fisherman’s advocate said “Economics Not Salmon Is the Reason PacifiCorp is Removing the Dams” It is now estimated by some experts that the total direct cost for the Klamath River dam removal project, will reach $800-million dollars, not the $450-million cost estimate projected over tens years ago. And then we have the costs related to the liabilities that are already arising from what is seen by many as an ill-fated project. According...

A resident in Oregon has been infected with the state's first instance of bubonic plague since 2015, according to Fox News Digital. The report noted that the individual was likely infected with the plague by their pet cat. Dr. Richard Fawcett, the Deschutes County health officer, said in a recent release that "[a]ll close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness." Officials familiar with the situation said there was little chance that the infection could present an issue for the community since it was treated in the earlier stages of the...

An Oregon resident has been infected with the state’s first case of bubonic plague since 2015, health officials said last week. The resident was likely infected with plague by their symptomatic pet cat, Deschutes County Health Services said in a news release on Wednesday. "All close contacts of the resident and their pet have been contacted and provided medication to prevent illness," Dr. Richard Fawcett, the Deschutes County health officer, said in the release without identifying the infected resident. Officials said there was little risk to the community since the case was identified and treated in the earlier stages of...

An amendment introduced to the Oregon legislature Thursday would criminalize drug use on public transit. The Oregon Transit Association and Amalgamated Transit Union Local 757 are seeking to amend Senate Bill 1553 to create a misdemeanor charge for people who use illicit drugs while riding public transit. The charge of interfering with public transportation would apply to a person who “while in or on a public transit vehicle or public transit station, knowingly ingests, inhales, injects, or otherwise consumes a controlled substance that is not lawfully possessed by the person,” the amendment reads.

In February 2021, politicians and activists celebrated Oregon's implementation of Measure 110, the nation's first law to decriminalize drugs like fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, and meth. It's not a surprise what happened next: a dramatic increase in overdoses. Fast forward to last week: Oregon Governor Tina Kotek and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency in Portland due to sharp rises in overdose deaths, public drug use, and crime. Though the state of emergency is a step in the right direction, more must be done to undo the harm caused by Measure 110 and help more Oregonians live safe...

Some colleges and universities in the United States have been struggling with student performance, particularly since they began spending more time protesting Israel or the police than on the classes they signed up for. And the DEI push concerning who does or doesn't get admitted isn't helping either. But no school wants to go public and say that they are graduating a bunch of sub-par students, right? Western Oregon University has joined the ranks of those who are finding creative solutions to these challenges. They will simply no longer issue failing grades to anyone such as "D-" or "F." They...

George Santayana famously wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Leftist policies daily show his wisdom. The latest leftist policy to go down in flames is Oregon’s experiment with legalizing all drugs. It turns out that when you give people license to sin, and also delete all moral constraints, they’ll sin themselves to death. Now, Oregon’s very leftist governor, Tina Kotek, is walking back the policy, having declared a state of emergency over fentanyl drug overdoses. The Founding Fathers never forgot the past. Indeed, they were imbued with it. One example of that wisdom was...

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....

Swiss scientists have found what they say may be Europe's biggest mushroom - covering an area about the size of 35 football pitches. The fungus was discovered in a national park near the eastern town of Ofenpass, said the Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Countryside Research (WSL). Spanning 35 hectares (86 acres), the mostly underground fungus is believed to be 1,000 years old, the WSL added. The Honey Mushroom (Armillaria ostoyae) is edible, but it can kill trees. "The majority of the fungus is an underground network that looks a bit like shoelaces," WSL's spokeswoman Muriel Bendel said. "The...

The Oregon Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that 10 Republican state senators are ineligible to run for reelection after they participated in a quorum-denying walkout for six weeks last year to stall legislation on abortion, transgender treatments and firearms.The high court decided in favor of Oregon Secretary of State LaVonne Griffin-Valade, who had disqualified the senators from running for office again after voters approved a measure in 2022 to amend the state constitution to ban lawmakers with more than 10 unexcused absences from running again. The measure to prevent walkouts passed after GOP lawmakers staged other walkouts from the Legislature...

The homeless Portland woman who shoved a toddler onto train tracks in December 2022 will head to a mental institution after being found guilty of the heinous crime.