Category: Oregon

Oregon Task Force Aiming to Roll Out Universal Health Care Plan in 2026

Oregon hopes to once again take the lead in implementing progressive policies—this time by being the first state in the nation to roll out a universal, or “single-payer” health care system. For the past two years, the 20-member state-appointed Oregon Joint Task Force on Universal Health Care—comprising four legislators, public officials, tribal members, and health…


Political Parties Pour Money Into Close Oregon Congressional Race

A Congressional race on Portland’s outskirts is becoming an expensive one that both parties deem worthy of significant investment. Democrat-allied groups just put $3.8 million into backing civil servant Jamie McLeod-Skinner in the District 5 race extending southeast of Oregon’s largest city. And Republicans have put more than $3 million into backing her opponent, Lori…


Oregon to Join California in Move to Ban Gas-Powered Vehicle Sales

Oregon has joined a list of more than a dozen states vowing to follow California’s lead in banning sales of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The move comes as California urges residents not to charge their electric vehicles during a heatwave to avoid straining the electric grid. An Oregon Department of Environmental Quality Advisory Committee…


Police: Safeway Worker Hid, Fought Gunman With Produce Knife

PORTLAND, Ore.—The Safeway employee who was one of two people killed in a Bend, Oregon, supermarket shooting had time to flee but instead hid behind a produce cart and attacked the assailant with a produce knife, an action that likely saved lives, authorities said Tuesday. Surveillance video shows that 66-year-old Donald Ray Surrett Jr., a…


Police in Oregon Hold Press Conference on Shooting

The City of Bend Police Department provides an update on the investigation into a shooting at a grocery store on Sunday. A suspected shooter fired shots with a rifle hours in a shopping center parking lot and then entered a Safeway grocery store, killing two people before he was found dead. * Click the “Save”…


LIVE NOW: Police in Oregon Hold Press Conference on Shooting

The City of Bend Police Department provides an update on the investigation into a shooting at a grocery store on Sunday. A suspected shooter fired shots with a rifle hours in a shopping center parking lot and then entered a Safeway grocery store, killing two people before he was found dead. * Click the “Save”…


3 Dead After Shooter Opens Fire at Oregon Shopping Center

A gunman armed with an AR-15-style rifle opened fire in a shopping center in Bend, Oregon, on Sunday evening, killing at least two people, authorities have confirmed. An individual who is believed to be the shooter was also found dead at the scene, police said, taking the death toll to three. Officers and emergency medics responded to multiple…


Oregon Governor Invokes Emergency Act Due to Wildfire, Residents Told to Evacuate

Residents in Oregon are advised to be prepared and follow all evacuation orders after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown on Saturday invoked the state’s Emergency Conflagration Act in response to a wildfire in the state’s southwest. The Rum Creek Fire burning outside the town of Galice in Josephine County is “currently estimated to be 4,700 acres in size,”…


American Kids in ‘Mental Health Pandemic,’ Oregon Youth Hit Hard

More than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, children in America are struggling with anxiety and depression at unprecedented levels, according to the 2022 Kids Count Data Book. Released on Aug. 8 by the Annie Casey Foundation, the annual 50-state report, tracks how children and families are faring nationally and in every state using 16…


Oregonians to Vote on Gun Control Measure Opponent Calls ‘Strictest’ in the Nation

Oregonians will soon vote on a ballot measure that opponents say could virtually end the legal sale of firearms in the state, making it one of the “strictest gun-control measures ever proposed in the nation,” according to Leonard Williamson, an explanatory committee member who opposes the measure. If voters approve Measure 114, the “Changes to…