Free Republic

Portland metro area braces for deep freeze 03:19 PM PST on Monday, December 29, 2003 By ABE ESTIMADA and JIM PARKER, kgw.com Staff The Willamette Valley could jump from the snowy depths into treacherous ice as overnight temperatures drop into the mid-20s. Melting snow left over from Monday morning’s storm could quickly turn into frozen slush as day passes into night, said KGW meteorologist Bruce Sussman. Already, Oregon Department of Transportation crews are preparing for the worst. Between 50 and 75 ODOT personnel are ready to move out and target potential problem areas, said spokesman Shawn Uhlman. Those problem...

Wires dangle from the bow of the boat like octopus tentacles, sending electrical current into the water and stunning the fish, which rise ghostlike on their sides, gills slowly moving in calm final breathing. That's when the "fishermen" scoop them up as the day's catch. From Our Advertiser This is not a B movie. It's the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality collecting Willamette River fish and testing them for mercury content. The DEQ has spent the summer testing fish tissues for mercury levels as part of a broader effort to set maximum pollution levels for individual waterways and devise a...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal judge Thursday stopped further logging on three old growth timber sales on the Willamette National Forest until he decides whether the U.S. Forest Service acted legally in offering the trees for sale. U.S. District Judge Garr King in Portland granted a preliminary injunction stopping work on the Straw Devil, East Devil and Pryor timber sales, which cover about 300 acres outside Oakridge. Straw Devil had been occupied by tree-sitters hoping to prevent further logging. One of them was arrested last week. King found that the environmental groups that brought the lawsuit challenging the sales...