PORTLAND, Ore. -- View Luke Gullberg's MySpace page at http'//www.myspace.com/climb4life and one knows his idea of heaven. He recorded it on a Mount Rainier climbing trip in 2007. Listen to his narration and it becomes clear how much he loved climbing. In fact, he describes himself with three words in his "About Me" section' "God, then climbing." "This is our view from ... Full Story »
SEATTLE (AP) — The University of Washington and the U.S. Geological Survey are looking for homeowners willing to help them measure earthquakes in urban areas around Seattle. Twenty special seismographs will be placed immediately and as many 500 will be operating within the next few years. A similar program is already working in San Francisco. The Seattle program was announced Monday at a meeting ... Full Story »
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — One of the parties to negotiations to remove dams from the Klamath River in Southern Oregon and Northern California is pulling out before the final agreement. The Northcoast Environmental Center in Arcata, Calif., announced Monday it cannot accept several provisions of the deal that is expected to be signed next month. Klamath Campaign coordinator Jay Wright says the ... Full Story »
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. -- The climbers at the center of a massive search and rescue operation were not the only ones to try to climb Mt. Hood on Friday. Guy Skeele set out from Timberline Lodge at 3 a.m. Friday for his first-ever attempt to climb Mt. Hood. Skeele went with Dan Trout, who’d climbed Oregon’s highest peak 16 times before. Skeele said conditions on the mountain were nearly perfect ... Full Story »
PORTLAND, Ore. -- Portland Fire and Rescue crews were helping to shore up a building that collapsed in Northeast Portland Monday. Part of the commercial property on NE 21st and Interstate 84 slide down the hill towards the MAX tracks. There were no reports of anyone hurt. Fire officials said the pipes likely froze during our cold snap and broke after the warmup, causing them to run for days. The ... Full Story »
PORTLAND -- The U.S. Postal Service was trying to make mailing during the holidays as stress-free as possible as the busiest mailing day of the year hit on Monday. USPS spokesman Ron Anderson said the Postal Service has added weekday collection runs starting at noon during the holiday mailing season and is suggesting customers deposit mail in blue collection boxes or at their Post Office before ... Full Story »
MOSCOW, Idaho (AP) -- Search and rescue crews from Whitman County, Wash. and Latah County, Idaho are searching for a bird hunter who went missing after a snowstorm who has local ties. Glenn Voshell, 45, was reported missing Saturday night after he didn't return from an upland bird hunting day trip. Whitman County Sheriff Brett Myers says Voshell knew the region well and had often gone ... Full Story »
THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) -- Multiple crashes led authorities to close the eastbound lanes of Interstate 84 between Rowena and The Dalles for more than an hour Monday. The Oregon State Police says an unoccupied patrol car was struck while the trooper was responding to an earlier crash on an icy six-mile stretch of road. The trooper ran up an embankment to avoid the out-of-control vehicle ... Full Story »
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The jobless rate in Oregon for November was 11.1 percent, nearly unchanged from the previous month. The November rate remains the lowest unemployment rate since February, and down a full percentage point from a high of 12.2 percent in May. Officials said the seasonally adjusted nonfarm payroll employment for Oregon dropped by 4,600 jobs in November, following a loss of 1 ... Full Story »
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. -- A chaplain for the police and fire departments in Sandy, Ore., says the three young Christians who failed to return from climbing Mount Hood on Friday met through church activities. The body of 26-year-old Luke Gullberg was found Saturday, but the search continued Sunday for 24-year-old Anthony Vietti and 29-year-old Katie Nolan. Chaplain Dennis Simons says Nolan has ... Full Story »
It can be tough paying back those student loans. The Department of Education says one in five people who take out federal student loans to attend for-profit colleges default on the loan within three years of starting to pay it back. Currently, schools with default rates of more than 25 percent for two straight years can be disqualified, but experts argue that some schools have been manipulating ... Full Story »
KEIZER, Ore. (AP) -- Keizer officials are holding a work session Monday to discuss whether the city should finance a $400 million power plant. The plant would be fueled by natural gas and could produce enough electricity for 300,000 homes. City Manager Chris Eppley told the Statesman Journal newspaper that owning the plant would give the city a share of the profits from selling the power. Full Story »
GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) — The Gresham Police Department says a pedestrian was left with a broken arm Sunday after a driver lost control of his pickup struck and struck the pedestrian. Sgt. Teddi Anderson says the driver lost control of his vehicle while sliding down a hill. Both the pedestrian and driver were taken to the hospital. ___ Information from' The Oregonian, http'//www ... Full Story »
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — Parking has become a little easier near the University of Oregon. The city of Eugene and the university struck a deal that allows anyone with a UO parking permit to park in the on-street spaces in the residential area roughly bordered by East 19th and 17th avenues and Columbia and Moss streets. The area includes about 140 spaces in an area dominated by university-owned rental ... Full Story »
KALAMA, Wash. -- An emergency water order was issued overnight by the city of Kalama after a waterline break emptied the city's drinking water supply. Any drinking water left running to Kalama residents must be boiled, according to the Washington State Department of Health. The water main break was caused by an undescribed mechanical problem. However, it was compounded by "maintenance issues ... Full Story »
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) -- Police arrested a 23-year-old man accused of bringing a .22-caliber pistol into the Klamath County Library. Klamath Falls police say Joseph Cherrier entered the library Saturday afternoon with a pistol in a waist holster, and his actions caused "public alarm." Cherrier was booked on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful possession of a weapon. Bail was ... Full Story »
VANCOUVER -- A man was killed during an armed robbery inside a Vancouver home late Sunday night and police were searching for several suspects. It happened just before 11 p.m., in the 5300 block of St James Rd. Officers arrived to find a man unconscious inside the home. Paramedics could not save the man and he died at the scene of at least one gunshot wound, police said. Police believe several ... Full Story »
PARKLAND, Wash. (AP) — Hundreds of police and other customers lined up early for the reopening of the Washington state coffee shop where four officers were shot and killed two weeks ago. The Forza Coffee shop opened its doors at 8'14 a.m. Saturday, the hour on Nov. 29 when Maurice Clemmons ambushed Lakewood Police Sgt. Mark Renninger and Officers Ronald Owens, Tina Griswold and Greg Richards ... Full Story »
TROUTDALE, Ore. -- The Oregon Departmen of Transportation has suspended eastbound traffic on Interstate 84 into the Columbia River Gorge at Troutdale. Icy conditions in the Gorge were blamed for nearly a dozen collisions in about an hour early Saturday afternoon, prompting county and state police requests that eastbound lanes be closed. ODOT closed the interstate at Troutdale-Exit 17 and asked ... Full Story »
GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. -- Search and rescue crews scoured the upper elevations of Mount Hood on Monday, on the ground and from above in military helicopter, in hopes of locating two climbers missing since Friday. Despite an overnight storm expected to bring one to two feet of new snow to the mountain, Clackamas County coordinators refused to give up hope of finding Anthony Vietti of Longview ... Full Story »
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) — The father of a teenage Oregon girl who had not seen or heard from his daughter in nearly a decade learned of her death in a phone call from a social worker. Anthony Maples lives in Sacramento, Calif., after spending time in prison for problems he blamed on drug addiction. Maples said an Oregon Department of Human Services worker called to tell him that his 16-year-old ... Full Story »
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Administrators say public tickets have sold out for the upcoming Las Vegas Bowl. Bowl executive Tina Kunzer-Murphy announced that seats to the Dec. 22 matchup pitting No. 15 BYU against No. 16 Oregon State are still available through the two schools. She says this marks the fifth year that tickets to the game at Sam Boyd Stadium have sold out. Kunzer-Murphy says that, just like ... Full Story »
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The latest tally by the Obama administration says nearly 10,000 jobs have been created or saved in Oregon as a result of federal stimulus spending. The figure, though, represents only part of the impact of the $787 billion program in Oregon. An analysis by Oregon state agencies says stimulus spending is expected to support about 30,000 jobs in its first two years. That's ... Full Story »
WARRENTON, Ore. (AP) — Autopsy results show that a couple found dead in a burned house in Warrenton on the Oregon coast died in a murder-suicide. Clatsop County Chief Deputy District Attorney Ron Brown says 69-year-old Karen DeWilde died from loss of blood from a knife wound to her throat. Brown says she was stabbed by her husband, 73-year-old Joseph DeWilde, who is believed to have set the ... Full Story »
TUALATIN, Ore. — A Tualatin, Ore., man says a 3-month-old kitten apparently hitched a cold ride in the wheel well of his SUV for more than 120 miles. Marc Lichty left Olympia, Wash., after finishing up a day of work Wednesday. He heard meowing when he stopped at a rest stop along the way home but couldn't see a cat. When he reached his home, he heard the meowing again and grabbed a flashlight ... Full Story »
A 6-day-old sheep relaxes with its mother at a zoo in Tokyo, Dec. 13, 2009. (AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye)
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