Oregon News from NW Portal

• Survey: Cell phone users concerned about...(Salem) — Many cellphone users say they have decided not to use an app on their phone because of concerns about ...
• Power outages reported in Marion County(Salem) — Forty two Portland General Electric customers are experiencing outtages in Marion County.
• New York court to decide if lap dance is...(Salem) — They may never be confused with "Swan Lake," but an upstate New York strip club says its nude lap danc...
• Obama's convention speech being moved in...(Salem) — Campaign aides say President Barack Obama&os;s convention speech Thursday is being moved indoors due t...
• Man dies after acting strange, being res...(Eugene) — A man acting erratically at a gas station died after he lost consciousness and stopped breathing as b...
• More details emerge in Berjac of Portlan...(Eugene) — Partner Gary Holcomb founded Berjac of Colorado but denies any link to its successor, which the SEC s...

Idaho State professor publishes research on Sasquatch

September 5 − Academia is a lonely place for Sasquatch hunter Jeff Meldrum. Meldrum, who teaches anatomy and anthropology at Idaho State University, might be the only college professor in the U.S. researching and publishing work on Bigfoot, or at least the only one putting his name to the subject. Meldrum brought attention to the subject with his 2006 book,"Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science." Nearly all of the 13,000 copies of the book have been sold. The Sasquatch limb is a thin branch to venture out on, and in the academic world, some would say it's more akin to thin ice. "People say, 'You are paid by Idaho State and you are doing this?'" Meldrum said. "But this is legitimate research. This could be one of the most outstanding questions in natural history and human anthropology that we have today. "I've gone to great lengths to go about it in a very objective, very professional manner in order to cultivate credibility." The work will pay dividends if 54-year-old Meldrum or someone else proves the existence of a bipedal hominid that isn't a human or known primate, something Meldrum thinks will happen in his lifetime.  Read more...

Metro leans toward Hyatt for OCC Headquarters Hotel

September 5 − Metro is recommending a Hyatt team develop a 600-room “Headquarters Hotel” at the Oregon Convention Center. In selecting a development team helmed by Mortenson Development, the council sidestepped its former partner, Portland's Langley Investment Properties, which would have constructed a Sheraton-flagged hotel at the convention center, 777 N.E. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The council met Tuesday to discuss negotiating a formal development agreement with the Hyatt/Mortenson team, one of two well-known Portland developers that answered its call for hotel proposals. It is the latest effort to bring convention housing to the state’s largest meeting center.  Read more...

SWNI takes stock of Southwest schools

September 5 − The Southwest Neighborhoods Inc. Schools Committee have released the results of a survey of all K-12 Portland public schools and three of the nine private and religious schools in the area. The survey consists of a series of questions about their status as of the 2011-12 school year. The survey, in combination with an ongoing survey of neighborhood associations, was designed to help set the Committee’s priorities from the needs and interests of the SWNI-area schools and community. All public schools reported that changes in funding and the current economic climate resulted in staff cuts, especially in non- classroom programs such as music, PE, counselors and support staff like teacher-librarians. Private schools, by contrast, reported slight growth, reflecting stable or rising enrollment and income. During the 2011-12 school year, several changes took place, including the addition of new principals in four schools, a couple of class and staff additions owing to increased enrollment and a new math curriculum. Only one private school underwent program changes, adding academic support.  Read more...

Who's listening to Diane Roark

September 5 − Warrantless wiretapping may have faded from the headlines with George W. Bush, but one Oregonian is determined to focus attention on the federal government’s spying on its own citizens. Diane Roark, 63, is an unlikely activist. More comfortable with Dick Cheney than Noam Chomsky, the Stayton mother of two spent over 20 years inside Washington, D.C.’s, intelligence bureaucracy—not exactly an anarchist breeding ground. But since the summer day five years ago when a dozen FBI agents banged on her front door, Roark has been a different person. On July 26, 2007, she had planned to spend the day arranging an outdoor wedding reception for her son on her 3 acres in Stayton, a town 12 miles southeast of Salem. But at 6 am the FBI came knocking. According to a 2011 investigation by The New Yorker, the agents sought classified materials from the National Security Agency—any top-secret documents that might prove Roark had told newspaper reporters that the federal government was spying on its own citizens without legal permission.  Read more...

Portland rock trivia

September 5 − Before MusicfestNW, there was NXNW. If that moniker sounds a bit familiar, it should: When North by Northwest first hit Portland in 1995, it was a co-production of Willamette Week and Austin’s (now massive) SXSW festival, which did all of the booking. It was, as former WW Music Editor Zach Dundas remembers, a rocky marriage from the start. “There was a lot of angst in the scene in general,” Dundas says. “It was perceived as being this outside thing…this kind of alien outgrowth.” In his role as music editor, Dundas was flown to SXSW headquarters in Austin for a few days each year, where he would hunker down and construct a festival guide. For two years, he found nice things to say about every band on the festival bill—even the awful ones. But for the festival’s third and final year, he changed his game plan. “I resolved to tell the truth that year in the guide,” Dundas says. “And no one stood in my way, which was to both Willamette Week’s credit and short-term detriment. And I wrote some very uncomplimentary things about the bands in the guide. I can see now how this would be a slap in the face. This was the official guide.” Shortly thereafter, relations between WW and SXSW took a turn for the worse.  Read more...

Back-to-school Street Style: Cedar Mill Elementary School

September 5 − Schools throughout the metro area began the year Tuesday, with kindergartners clinging to parents' legs and high school seniors eagerly entering the final of their formative years. The Oregonian was on site at three schools -- Cedar Mill Elementary, Lake Oswego Junior High School and Lake Oswego High School -- to capture the moment as youngsters returned to school in their first-day best. For some, the look was carefully curated after hours browsing malls, boutiques and thrift stores for the perfect pieces. Others spent only a few minutes on their look, shopping from existing items in their closet while rubbing their eyes after a summer of sleeping in. We'll roll out our back-to-school edition of Street Style online over the next few days, and publish the whole spread in Friday's newspaper.  Read more...

Damascus divided over city's destiny

September 4 − A decade ago, when Metro's largest ever expansion swept more than 18,000 acres of northeastern Clackamas County into the agency's urban growth boundary, residents of the rural Damascus area banded together to form a city, a move they hoped would give them control of their destiny. Now, many of the people who supported incorporation are ready to cut their losses, saying the efforts have led only to wasted time, money and opportunity. Kitty O'Meara, who helped develop the draft comprehensive plan rejected by voters in 2010, said the standstill between those who want the area to remain unchanged and those who push for development has proved too difficult to overcome. "We've just been circling the drain for a long, long time," she said. Along the way, Damascus has become infamous for stagnancy and discord, with residents often speaking at council meetings about a desire to disincorporate. We've become this example of what not to do," O'Meara said. "It's nice to have a case history, but when you're actually living it, it's kind of uncomfortable."  Read more...

Fishermen, loggers take dispute to the streets

September 4 − The fight between the fishermen and the loggers got real Saturday night when the two occupations clashed at Annie’s Uppertown Tavern. Just before 9:30 Saturday night, Astoria Police responded to a report of at least 20 people fighting in the street in front of Annie’s on Marine Drive. Officers arrived and the subjects had already separated. But that didn’t stop police from taking a case for second-degree disorderly conduct. Because there was “mutual combat” however, no one was arrested. The fight started inside the tavern when fishermen and loggers began arguing about which occupation was better and which occupation made more money, according to police. Tyson Hobi was identified as the most verbal aggressor and was asked to leave by the bartender. Hobi left without incident. But the argument didn’t stop there.  Read more...