KGW NewsChannel 8 Portland

PORTLAND, Ore.  — A husband was found dead inside his Southeast Portland home and his wife was near death when firefighters forced their way inside Wednesday night. Investigators said it appeared that the couple had turned on a natural gas heater for warmth and sealed windows and doors shut to keep out the cold. Problem was, they didn't know that their portable heater was not vented properly and ... Full Story »

   VENETA, Ore. (AP) -- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife agents have trapped and killed a 150-pound black bear that became a too-regular visitor to a rural home in the Veneta area west of Eugene.    Agents say the bear had killed several chickens in a coop on the property and on Monday nudged open a not-quite-closed door to the house. Biologist Brian Wolfer says they found muddy paw prints ... Full Story »

   GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) -- Scientists want to determine if killing the aggressive barred owl that has invaded old growth forests of the Northwest would help the protected spotted owl.    Federal biologists are doing a formal study to decide whether to do the experiment, and laying out the terms if they go ahead. The study will be available for public comment and is expected to be completed by ... Full Story »

BREMERTON, Wash. (AP) — Bremerton-area residents looking out over Sinclair Inlet on Wednesday morning saw wispy white clouds rising from the cold blue surface of the water. National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke in Seattle says the phenomenon is called sea smoke. He tells the Kitsap Sun you need cold temperatures to create it. Western Washington has been experiencing ... Full Story »

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — A southern Oregon elementary school principal's decision to remove a holiday "giving tree" after a family's complaint has created an uproar. Now school district officials have decided to replace the original tree with a holiday display including three trees, snow and gifts for needy children. Ashland School District Superintendent Juli Di Chiro conceded Wednesday the ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland fire officials say carbon monoxide poisoning in a home has killed a man and left a woman in critical condition. Firefighters were called Wednesday evening to the southeast Portland home to find the man dead and the woman unresponsive. Family members who stopped by to visit had called for help. KPTV reports the woman was listed in critical condition Wednesday night ... Full Story »

PORTLAND -- The holiday season could be especially tough for military families who lost a loved one in war. But one non-profit group, Snowball Express, tried to bring some Christmas cheer to surviving children and spouses.. The goal of Snowball Express was to bring a few days of joy with an all-expense paid trip to Dallas, Texas for 1,300 people. KGW caught up with eight families leaving from ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Stopping prostitution on Portland's 82nd Avenue has required a unique approach from Portland Police Bureau -- and neighbors were joining officers and at least one prostitute to tell City Council that the plan has worked well. A year ago, those same city leaders declared 82nd Avenue's prostitution a high-priority problem and asked all the stakeholders to find a solution. Brian ... Full Story »

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The number of Oregonians receiving food stamps has risen 36 percent over the past year and is expected to climb through 2010. Newly released documents show that more than 650,000 Oregonians are now reliant on food stamps. That's one out of six Oregon residents. The documents also show that Washington County, one of the state's fastest-growing counties, has also had the highest ... Full Story »

WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Rep. Brian Baird says he will not seek re-election next year. Baird, in his sixth term representing Southwest Washington, said his job as congressman has been the highest honor and greatest responsibility of his life. Since first announcing his plans to run for Congress in 1995, Baird said, he has done his utmost to work hard, tell the truth, listen, and do what was ... Full Story »

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — An Oregon man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for possession of child pornography while he was on supervised release for a previous conviction in Texas. Federal prosecutors said Brian Wade Castle had been convicted in Texas of aiding and abetting the sexual exploitation of minors. The 48-year-old Castle obtained permission to transfer his supervision to Oregon ... Full Story »

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 »