Category — Portland, Oregon

Oregon City has hired David Frasher as its new city manager, with current City Manager Larry Patterson set to retire at the end of the month. “I think this is so important in the life of the community and I think it was important to us that we have a seamless transition,” Mayor Alice …

Catlin Gabel School claimed its third state Mock Trial title when it defeated Grant High School in the championship round March 13 at the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in Portland. The private school won the title in 2001 and 2004. Portland’s Grant High School finished second and two …

It’s crunch time for the Oregon College of Art and Craft. In order to receive a $900,000 challenge grant from the Kresge Foundation to help double facilities on the 8245 S.W. Barnes Road campus, the 103-year-old arts college must raise $670,000 in donations by a looming March 31 …

Beaverton’s Optimization Technologies is plugging in to a new market with its OpConnect Electric Vehicle Charging System. Its system is a networked smart charging station that serves up to four electric vehicles at a time. With a swipe of a credit card, customers can hook in and charge up …

Beaverton schools are bracing for a third year of deep cuts as the district grapples with yet another difficult budgeting process for the 2010-11 school year. Despite the passage of Measures 66 and 67 by voters in January and legislators tapping the state’s Rainy Day Fund in February’s …

The Beaverton City Council race is looking to be more competitive than usual. Every position up for vote in the May primary election has multiple candidates, and if there’s an apparent theme among last-minute candidates, it’s this: They are unhappy with Beaverton’s current …

Relations on the Metro Council must be getting a little chilly right about now, as Commissioner Rex Burkholder, President David Bragdon and Commissioner Robert Liberty jostle over bridge plans and election hopes. Burkholder is running to replace Bragdon, and he faces opposition from former 1000 …

When Portland City Auditor LaVonne Griffin-Valade ran for her position last May, she hadn’t given much thought to reviewing complaints against the police. But after winning the election and being sworn into office, she quickly learned that one of the most time-consuming parts of her job is …

Democrats dismiss them as cranky right-wingers and nut cases. Libertarians hail them as new recruits to the cause. Republicans view them — sometimes warily — as a force to be harnessed to help reenergize the conservative movement. They’re participants in the local “tea …

TIGARD — Even under the best of circumstances, road construction is a bit of a nuisance. The traffic congestion, the noise and the dust kicked up from all those heavy machines can be aggravating to motorists and business owners, and when the construction in question is a $4.66 million, …

Miechel Barksdale knows kids. The Tualatin resident, and first-time author, is a professional nanny and mother of a 4-year-old girl. And what’s one thing she knows about kids? Sometimes, they don’t like being told what to do. (Hardly a revelation, as any parent knows.) Her new …

Recalling the situation, most everyone involved remembers the blood. And the boy lying in a pool of it on a road on Mount Hood. “There was so much blood, it was more than I’d ever seen before,” Alex Epp said. Thank-fully, three local high schoolers were on hand to help save the …

Those wondering about the extension of Tualatin’s Central Urban Renewal District will have to wait a little longer. A looming decision on plans to extend the district by 25 years and $120 million was pushed back this week after city officials decided to regroup in an effort to come to a …

Catlin Gabel School has much to celebrate as one of its own placed among the top 10 honorees at the Intel Science Talent Search awards ceremony Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Yale Fan, an 18-year-old senior, placed ninth among the top 10 winners, earning him a $20,000 award for his research that …

Lake Oswego City Council will soon decide whether or not to develop a new design review process for single-family homes – a process about which the Infill Task Force and the Planning Commission disagreed. The council meeting is scheduled in April but a firm date has not been set. Check the …

The latest lawsuit has put Lake Oswego School District in the middle of more finger pointing with Robinson Construction — the general contractor that completed the LOHS project. The district owes money in three claims related to a handful of construction projects funded through the $85 …

Lake Oswego orthopedic surgeon John R. Tongue, M.D. was elected the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons’ second vice president at its 2010 annual meeting in New Orleans. “I became an orthopedic surgeon because, simply put, I wanted to fix things for my patients,” said Dr. …

The leaky roof at Lake Oswego High School, which was constructed in 2005, will likely cost upwards of $1.1 million to repair. Since last year the scope of the problem has grown and district Finance Director Stuart Ketzler says that it will likely cost more than the last estimate of $1.1 million, …

Doing some spring cleaning? Catholic Charities is gladly accepting donations of new or laundered blankets, coats and socks to benefit its housing transition program for single homeless women. The organization will hold a blanket drive during its March 28 Rose City Collectors Market Show, the first …

The Oregon Ducks’ offseason has been eventful and negative – one that has left the team’s football fans to wonder what to think of their Rose Bowl squad. Arrests, court appearances, suspensions and dismissals have filled the news. Eight players, including starting quarterback …

When it comes to third-graders, rocket ships, hot-air balloons, blimps, submarines and dragon boats definitely count as modes of transportation. So do the more mundane ways of traveling across, above and below Portland’s bridges: by helicopter, ship, bike, skateboard, scooter and car. About …

An Oregon City massage therapist is being held on $257,500 bail after he was arrested charged with sex abuse today. Police are also looking for other potential victims of Rick McDaniel, 50, of Clackamas, who runs a massage therapy studio on Seventh Street in Oregon City. Police said a woman in …

Efforts to permanently dock a large pirate ship in St. Helens have hit a snag as a committee works to determine if the project still is, as they say, ‘sea worthy.’ St. Helens officials have been trying to determine the feasibility of purchasing a dormant San Francisco ship — the …

A planned residential treatment facility for drug-addicted women is running into resistance from residents living in the Rainier neighborhood in which it plans to operate. Mountain Ministries Ranch bought the old Rainier Middle School at 604 E. St. last November and won a conditional use permit …

Derek White spends his days imagining the ways Columbia County may be destroyed. As the newly-appointed county Emergency Management Department director, White oversees the county’s preparedness for disasters — making sure we are protected, physically and economically, from any number …

Columbia County’s parry to convert a downward economic spiral of job and business loss into an upward spiral of business creation and job growth took another step forward last week with a call for a county economic development director. The posting comes with just two weeks remaining of …

A levy proposed to fund jail services, and hence open county general fund revenue for increased Columbia County Sheriff’s Office patrols, is now headed to the Columbia County commissioners for approval to appear on the November ballot. The proposed permanent levy is intended to lock down a …

The man sometimes known as Bobarino Gravittini believes in the mystical power of big underwear – the notion that beneath the outward ego of all people, undergarments represent true human identity. If it sounds like jingoistic cult-speak, congratulations, you’ve played right into Brady …

The body of a 22-year-old Portland man who had been missing since Feb. 18 was found Wednesday afternoon in the Willamette River. A volunteer with the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry found the body of Tyler Brady at about 1 p.m. floating in the river near OMSI’s USS Blueback submarine …

After steering TriMet through more than a decade of good times and bad, General Manager Fred Hansen is leaving the regional transit agency at the end of June to pursue opportunities in the sustainable planning field. “I don’t know exactly what I’m going to do, but I’m very …