Category — Portland, Oregon

Korean families and individuals hoping to brush up on their Korean language skills are in for a treat. Beaverton’s sister city of Cheonan, South Korea, last month contributed more than 1,000 Korean language books to the Beaverton City Library’s world languages collection. The new …

After more than six weeks of testimony and deliberation, jurors now face their final question: Should convicted killer Ricardo Serrano die for his crimes? “The answer to that question is ‘yes,’ ” Washington County Deputy District Attorney Robert Bletko told jurors Wednesday …

After an explosion of public outcry against the proposed bridge that would extend Tualatin Road over the river at Community Park last week, city officials voted early Tuesday morning to remove the project from the urban renewal plan. The vote came just before 2 a.m. Councilors had been meeting …

Have you ever wanted to know what the inside of a colon looks like? No? Good thinking. It’s not exactly pretty. But last Thursday, visitors in the main lobby of Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center got that view up close and personal, when the giant, inflatable Super Colon came to town as …

Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center’s ongoing effort to secure a zoning change — and make expansion easier in the future — hit a wave of neighborhood resentment this week. Dozens of residents stormed the council meeting to protest the idea of building a large office complex on …

The proposal to continue Tualatin’s Central Urban Renewal District by another 25 years leapt at least one major hurdle last week: the Tigard-Tualatin School Board voted 4-1 to approve the plan last Thursday. The decision came on the heels of Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue’s vote …

The luck of the Irish will bless Lake Oswego during the first-ever Maher’s St. Patrick’s Day Festival Friday through Sunday and again on St. Patrick’s Day itself, Wednesday, March 17. The festival begins at 11 a.m. at 464 First St., the site of the former Lakeside Gifts at the …

Almost everyone in Lake Oswego and West Linn has a coyote sighting story, but an incident happened last Friday afternoon that was scarier than most. Two 10-year-old girls, Juliana Sahni and Sarah May-Varas, were playing in the backyard of the Sahni family’s home in the Westlake neighborhood …

Diane Satchwell said February’s Library Lovers’ Month was an appropriate title. For the new director of the West Linn Public Library, every day in March also holds a reason to visit the facility — even if it’s just to stop and say ‘hi.’ “So many people …

West Linn’s mayor is poised to quit sending e-mails out of frustration with a state law that allows the public to view copies of correspondence related to city business. “From here on out, I will not be using email to communicate as I am regularly charged with turning over my emails to …

A hero must be in town in West Linn. That is because 11th Street is festooned with yellow ribbons, American flags and signs, and over Willamette Falls Drive hangs a banner that says “Welcome Home Ross.” Lt. Col. Ross Scott returned home last week after a year of service with the U.S. …

A West Linn resident plans to file a complaint with the state’s Government Ethics Commission, alleging that West Linn City Councilor Jody Carson violated rules restricting councilors from using public office for personal financial gain. Lynn Fox told the city council Monday she is concerned …

Aanen Trelstad is coming clean about the laundry business. “I’m a huge consumer of resources,” he says matter-of-factly about the water and natural gas his washing and drying business uses each day. But he’s doing something about it. The Northeast Portland family man is …

Grant Heizenrader is hooked on racing karts 1½ inches above a track as fast as 85 mph. “I just have a need for speed,” the Mountain View Middle School seventh-grader said. “I’ve never really understood football, basketball or any other sport like that. “I’ve …

A former teacher at M.I.T.C.H. Charter School says that she was sexually discriminated against and fired after she learned that she would not receive paid maternity leave. The teacher, Gracia H. Merrill, is suing the charter school — and its founder Debi Lorence — in federal court …

It may not seem like it, but approving a framework for the Portland Public Schools high school redesign this week was the easy part. The hard work is still ahead for Superintendent Carole Smith, the School Board and the community – all of whom will no doubt suffer headaches and heartache as …

Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler vaulted overnight into statewide office Tuesday when Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed him interim state treasurer, two days after Treasurer Ben Westlund’s unexpected death from cancer. But Wheeler is taking a risk by dumping his shoo-in re-election campaign …

As the Portland City Council moves closer to deciding the fate of Memorial Coliseum, two larger questions are starting to loom – what to do with the rest of the Rose Quarter and how to pay for all the improvements that the city and other interests would like to see. By the end of May, the …

As executive director of the Oswego Heritage House, some odd jobs are required of Jude Graham. But none has been more unusual than her seeking to move a grave from a front yard to a cemetery. Especially when she was not receiving any cooperation. “For a body or a tombstone to be moved …

Damascus voters failed to pass four measures on the March 9 ballot. The initiatives proposed prohibiting light rail in Damascus without a vote, limiting the city’s use of emergency clauses to put ordinances into effect faster, limiting city spending increases to no more than 2.5 percent a …

A fire around 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, completely destroyed an apartment in a duplex at 18305 N.E. Wasco St., displacing a family of four, including a father, mother and two teenage children. The fire was reportedly started when someone in the apartment burned debris in the fireplace. Some of …

To speed or not to speed — that was the question facing Nicholas Morrell, 17, a junior at Centennial High School, as he took the field at Mt. Hood Community College the morning of March 6. Nicholas had just earned his driver’s license the day before and was one of 37 teenagers, as well …

City staff members have proposed expanding elements of a package of small-business incentives unveiled last month by Mayor Shane Bemis during his state of the city address. Gresham city councilors considered the proposal – designed to get home-based business owners into vacant storefronts …

Mayor Sam Adams insists there is sufficient money in the Bureau of Environmental Services budget to kick start the new bicycle master plan without delaying approved sewer projects. According to Adams, the city finance office has identified $15.4 million in recession-generated cost and contingency …

Multnomah County’s Ted Wheeler was among the three Democrats and one Republican who filed Tuesday to run in the May primary for the state treasurer’s position. They were among 310 people who filed for positions across the state, including governor, the U.S. Senate and all 60 state …

TriMet says its ridership went up in February for the first time in a year. The transit agency said that 7.9 million trips were taken in February up 1.4 percent from February 2009. MAX ridership showed the most gains, in part due to the new Green Line and the shift to free rides only on rail in …

Convicted killer Ricardo Serrano will not take the witness stand in his defense as a jury decides whether to impose the death penalty for the November 2006 slayings of a Bethany mother and her two young sons. Speaking through a Spanish interpreter Tuesday afternoon in Washington County Circuit …

Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler was named Tuesday as the new state treasurer, filling the vacancy left by Sunday’s death of Ben Westlund. Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced the appointment in the morning, saying Wheeler “brings the perfect balance of expertise from both the public and …

After 4½ hours of impassioned testimony, the Portland School Board voted on two hot-button issues Monday evening: moving forward with the high school redesign process, and renewing a contract for the U.S. Department of Defense-funded Starbase program. Both issues attracted a high amount of …

Ted Wheeler’s appointment as state treasurer has set off a scramble to fill the two Multnomah County commission seats up for election this year — the ones occupied by Wheeler and Commissioner Jeff Cogen. Until Tuesday morning, no one with any political experience had filed against …