KGW NewsChannel 8 Portland

VANCOUVER, Wash. – It sounded like something out of the popular holiday movie, “A Christmas Story” but it was actually a real-life drama for a Vancouver boy whose tongue got stuck to a flagpole in below-freezing temperatures outside his school Wednesday morning. Alki Middle School officials called 9-1-1 for help just before 9 a.m. and Clark County firefighters arrived quickly, armed with lots of ... Full Story »

WARRENTON, Ore. -- The bodies of two people were found inside a house that caught fire in Warrenton early Wednesday morning. Just before 4'30 a.m. someone reported seeing smoke at the home on NW 1st Ave. Warrenton Fire crews got the fire put out and found two dead inside. The two were not identified. Clatsop County investigators were trying to determine the causes of death. Full Story »

GRESHAM, Ore. -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission has recalled about 24,000 Amby Baby motion beds after two infants suffocated in the hammocks, including a Gresham baby. The little boy from Gresham was five-months old when he died. Now, parents have been warned to stop using the hammocks immediately and contact Amby Baby for a free repair kit. The motion beds were sold between January 2003 ... Full Story »

   PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The arrival of more swine flu vaccine in Oregon has allowed health care providers to expand their efforts to the original priority group after focusing only on people at highest risk.    Slower than expected production of H1N1 influenza vaccine had forced health care providers to focus on Oregonians considered most at risk, including pregnant women and people with ... Full Story »

   SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has decided not to pursue charges against John Minnis, the former state agency chief who resigned last month after being accused of sexually harassing a female employee.    On Tuesday, the attorney general's office released documents in which the woman -- whose identity wasn't released -- said Minnis had harassed her for more than a year ... Full Story »

   ATLANTA (AP) -- Alaska Air Group wants to boost revenue next year by increasing sales on its Web site, continuing to focus on improving customer service and gaining market share in Portland.    Chief Financial Officer Glenn Johnson says the parent company of Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air has been working hard to improve on-time performance.    He told investors at a conference in New York ... Full Story »

ROME (AP) — An Italian lawmaker who visited Amanda Knox in prison says the Seattle woman is counting on an appeals trial to regain her freedom, after she was convicted of killing her roommate. An opposition lawmaker in the Chamber of Deputies, Walter Verini, spoke with Knox Tuesday as part of his monitoring of conditions in Italian prisons. He was quoted in an Italian paper, Corriere della Sera ... Full Story »

CORVALLIS, Ore. -- A wheelchair-bound man was pulled from the confluence of the Willamette and Marys rivers Tuesday by three Corvallis police officers. "Nearest we can tell, he was probably in the water about 15 minutes prior to our arrival," says Officer Willie Setzer. "That water was near freezing,  ice all around," adds Officer Lee McColly. "He had to keep tilting his head in and out of the ... Full Story »

p>MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.  — Marion County sheriff's deputies say one man is dead after a pickup truck and a tractor-trailer rig plowed into the side of a vacant house in Mount Angel.   According to a sheriff's office preliminary investigation, the big rig driver ran a stop sign and collided with a Ford Ranger driven by 51-year-old Marc Moberly of Silverton on Monday. The two vehicles skidded along a ... Full Story »

ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) — The Red Lion Inn has closed its hotel in Astoria for at least four months after finding defects in the structural integrity of its building in the Port of Astoria's West Mooring Basin. During a storm last month, one of the hotel's decks collapsed and sent five guests into the water below. Hotel officials closed all the balconies immediately following the incident and had ... Full Story »

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A Portland culinary school faces a class-action lawsuit from former students who claim they were misled about job placement after graduation. The students said they spent tens of thousands of collars to train to become chefs but ended up making coffee and doing dishes. A Multnomah County judge approved the lawsuit against Le Cordon Bleu Institute – formerly known as the Western Culinary ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- The fight to stop a new natural gas pipeline in Oregon heated up despite Tuesday's cold weather. Northwest Natural wants to lay a new pipeline through 47 miles of Mt. Hood National Forest, clearing a 100-foot swath for the line. According to the company, the 59-year-old line currently serving metro Portland is too limited in capacity. By installing a new air tight front door, a ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- After three years digging through the earth, a giant tunnel-boring machine has come up for air in North Portland. It's a milestone in the city's effort to keep sewage from polluting the Willamette River. The $12 million drill bit named "Rosie" has surfaced. It's in good shape and getting the job done, the city says. Tuesday, workers explained what's remaining in this 20-year ... Full Story »

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Bills to open more national forest to fire-prevention thinning projects and to promote woodburning heating systems in public buildings have been introduced in the U.S. House. U.S. Rep. Greg Walden said Tuesday the bill to expand thinning projects faces an uphill battle, even with bipartisan support. But the Oregon Republican said the huge backlog in the back country on ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- When Portland Trailblazer center Greg Oden crumpled to the hardwoods Saturday night, it was another painful moment for Oden, his fans and the franchise. Oden missed his entire rookie season after micro-fracture surgery to his knee. He missed 20 games in his second season because of  foot and knee injuries. And now, in his third season, he’s broken part of his left knee and is ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Detectives Tuesday were investigating the suspicious death of a man in Northeast Portland. Spokesperson Mary Wheat said man was found dead by neighbors around 2'30 near NE 64th and Killingsworth outside a mobile home park. He was identified Wdnesday as 41-year-old Robert Strichart. An autopsy was performed, but medical examiners were awaiting the results of a toxicology test to ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A Lincoln High School coach was sentenced to five days in jail and three years probation for drunk driving. Last month, David Leonard Adelman was found guilty of drunken and reckless driving by a Multnomah County judge. The school district said he would be allowed to keep his job. Adelman was arrested last February near NW 23rd Ave. and W. Burnside St., and charged with DUII ... Full Story »

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- The former chief of the state agency responsible for training and certifying police officers will not be prosecuted for "inappropriate interactions" between him and a subordinate staffer, officials said Monday. John Minnis is a former legislator and husband of former Oregon House Speaker Karen Minnis. He submitted his resignation Nov. 24 in the wake of an attorney general's ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Oregon Humane Society has sent a team to rescue as many as 100 dogs living without shelter in cold weather on rural property in Eastern Oregon. Officials said some of the dogs are living underground in holes covered with planks, while others are chained to farm equipment and have little or no shelter from the snow, wind and subfreezing temperatures. The Humane Society ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Blame Mother Nature for traffic problems across Portland on Tuesday, according to the city Bureau of Transportation and county TriMet authorities. The NE 72nd Avenue traffic light at Sandy Boulevard froze overnight, the city said, causing quite a headache for commuters heading toward downtown. The single traffic light directs traffic for a half dozen avenues of traffic at the ... Full Story »

BEAVERTON, Ore. -- The city of Beaverton is the safest city in the Pacific Northwest, according to a study conducted by CQ Press. The study looked at city crime rankings for 2009-2010, comparing a total of 393 cities with a population over 75,000. Overall, Beaverton ranked 47th in the U.S., but it was first in the Northwestern region. The crime rate rankings of cities and metropolitan areas are ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. – The painful hits just keep coming for the Portland Trail Blazers. Blazers' Rudy Fernandez  underwent a procedure Tuesday to alleviate pain in his right leg, and was expected to miss four to six weeks of the season. General Manager Kevin Pritchard announced the 24-year-old had a microdiscectomy to relieve pressure from a nerve root in his lower back at Southwest Washington ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- A West Linn soldier was killed by an explosive in Afghanistan on Saturday. The body of Spc. Elijah John-Miles Rao will arrive in Delaware Tuesday.  Rao served two tours in Iraq before his June deployment to Afghanistan. He was fatally injured when a roadside bomb detonated near his convoy, which had stopped upon the site of a recent IED detonation, according to the U.S ... Full Story »

SALEM, Ore. -- Anti-tax activist and GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill Sizemore requested a speedy tax evasion trial in order to continue his quest for the governor's mansion. Sizemore and his wife, Cindy, made their first court appearances on Monday. They were indicted last month on tax evasion charges for failing to file returns for the tax years 2006, 2007 and 2008. Sizemore called the charges ... Full Story »