Oregon – Sinkholes and creeping mud put three homes at risk, pushed a barn off its foundation and left homeowners fearful of what will move next. As the rains continue, they say only one thing is clear: No one is coming to the rescue.

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The Oregonian

Sinkholes, slides endanger entire neighborhood in Tillamook

 

A neighborhood of seven homes overlooking the Tillamook River are banding together after extreme weather has caused their hillside to shift, sending bits of road, mud and trees onto their homes and barns.

Laura Gunderson | The Oregonian/OregonLive

By Laura Gunderson | The Oregonian/OregonLive
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on December 13, 2015 at 7:00 AM, updated December 13, 2015 at 7:01 AM

Seven families in a cluster of hillside homes above the Tillamook River spent the past week watching the two roads they live on slip, buckle and tangle into a slide of rocks, mud and trees.

It began Monday as a few little cracks on Burton Hill Road, just outside Tillamook. By Wednesday the cracks had collapsed into a quarter-mile series of sinkholes and creeping mud that put three homes at risk, pushed a barn off its foundation and left homeowners fearful of what will move next.

As the rains continue, they say only one thing is clear:

No one is coming to the rescue.

Morgan Kottre, 27, said she and her neighbors – some of them relatives – have been told by county, state and federal officials that they don’t qualify for assistance because Burton Hill Road and the lower Hillside Drive are private roads on private land. Same story from at least one insurance company. Kottre said a representative told one family the devastation qualifies as an “act of god,” which the insurer doesn’t cover.

“In theory, we could try to fight it,” she said, “but right now we’re just trying to fight the land.”

Storms over the past week that have brought flooding and landslides across northwestern Oregon. On Saturday afternoon, blizzard conditions closed three highways in Southern Oregon. The extreme weather has caused at least two deaths in Oregon and federal officials set early damage estimates at about $15 million.

Tillamook County was among the 13 counties where Oregon Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency. In fact, not far from Kottre’s home on Saturday night, the town of Oceanside was cut off as the only road out of town was closed due to a failed culvert.

 

Read More and See Additional Photos Here

Portland, Oregon – Floods, landslides, road closures and even a sinkhole brought about by storm and the next wave of heavy rains is expected by tuesday.

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Wettest day in Portland history causes landslides, floods

KGW.com Staff 8:14 p.m. PST December 7, 2015

(Photo: KGW)

 

PORTLAND, Ore. — Monday was the wettest calendar day in recorded history in Portland, and the rain is expected to stick around for days.

KGW meteorologist Matt Zaffino said nearly 2.7 inches of rain on Monday tied a record for one day, from 12:01 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. The previous record was set on Nov. 19, 1996. More rain is forecast for Monday night, and Zaffino said the record is sure to break.

The storm that caused floods, landslides, road closures and even a sinkhole is expected to bring its next wave of heavy rain on Tuesday, possibly during the evening commute.

People should expect delays in every mode of transportation in the metro area for the next several days, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation.

Authorities were offering sand bags to any area residents who need them.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, Portland Bureau of Transportation spokesman Dylan Rivera called the weather an “extraordinary event that had extraordinary impacts.”

Rivera said 5.61 inches of rain have fallen so far this month, with three inches falling within a 12-hour period.

The December average for rainfall in the metro area is 5.49 inches.

KGW Meteorologist Rod Hill said said the worst of the storm has not even hit yet.  That will likely happen on Tuesday night and continue into Thursday.

 

Read More Here

11/19/2015 : 8 Earthquakes registered in Lakeview, Oregon ranging in magnitude from 2.5 to 4.2

 

 

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City Data . com

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8 earthquakes

1. M 3.0 – 70km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 05:50:58 UTC 10.7 km

2. M 2.8 – 68km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 05:48:48 UTC 11.3 km

3. M 3.4 – 69km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 05:27:21 UTC 10.8 km

4. M2.7 – 69km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 02:17:39 UTC 11.0 km

5. M 2.5 – 69km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon2015-11-19 02:15:32 UTC 10.5 km

6. M 2.6 – 68km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 02:01:42 UTC 11.4 km

7. M 4.0 – 69km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 01:50:17 UTC 12.1 km

8. M 4.2 – 70km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

   2015-11-19 01:40:02 UTC 12.9 km

 

 

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• M 4.0 – 69km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

  2015-11-19 01:50:17 UTC 12.1 km

 

 

 

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• M 4.2 – 70km ESE of Lakeview, Oregon

  2015-11-19 01:40:02 UTC 12.9 km

 

 

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E. Coli Outbreak : All Chipotle restaurants in a four county region in Oregon and all in Washington state have closed.

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Food Poisoning Bulletin

E. coli Outbreak Linked to Chipotle Restaurants in OR, WA

The Oregon Health Authority released a statement today saying that there is an E. coli outbreak linked to Chipotle restaurants in Washington state and Oregon. At least 19 people are sick in Washington and 3 are ill in Oregon.

 

Eight of those sickened have been hospitalized in this outbreak. No one has died. The patient age range is from 11 to 64 years old. Those sickened live in Clackamas and Washington counties in Oregon, and in Clark, King, Skagit, and Cowlitz counties in Washington. The patients have reported eating at six of the restaurants in those states.

If you or someone you know ate at any Chipotle restaurant in the Northwest between October 14 and 23, 2015 and has been sick with vomiting and bloody diarrhea, see your health care provider. Mention this outbreak.

All Chipotle restaurants in the four county region in Oregon have been voluntarily closed.  All of the Chipotle restaurants in Washington state have closed.

 

Read More Here

Roseburg resident Says Obama Not Welcome After UCC Shooting Remarks

 

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Lee Stranahan

 

Published on Oct 3, 2015

Roseburg Beacon publisher David Jaques says a problem Obama is not welcome after his comments politicizing the shooting death of nine people at Umpaqua Community College.

 

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Roseburg Protester to Obama: Chicago Need You

Lee Stranahan

Published on Oct 9, 2015

Pro-Second Amendment protester in Roseburg Oregon explains why she’s caring a sign saying Chicago need you.

State Takes Legal Action to Seize $135K From Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple

 

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  The Daily Signal

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / October 01, 2015

Aaron and Melissa Klein were ordered to pay $135,000 for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. (Photo: Patchbay Media/The Daily Signal)

The agency that ordered Aaron and Melissa Klein to pay $135,000 in damages for refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex couple began the legal process last week to seize the money the Oregon bakers are refusing to pay.

“Our agency has docketed the judgment and is exploring collection options,” Charlie Burr, communications director for the agency, told The Daily Signal. “They are entitled to a full and fair review of the case, but do not have the right to disregard a legally binding order.”

Docketing the judgment is a preliminary step the agency must take in order to seize the Kleins’ house, property, or other assets in lieu of payment.

On July 2, Brad Avakian, commissioner of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, ordered the Kleins to pay $135,000 for the emotional, physical, and psychological damages they caused Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer for refusing to make a wedding cake.

 

Read More Here

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   The Daily Signal

State Silences Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple, Fines Them $135K

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / July 02, 2015 / 4871 comments

Melissa Klein. (Photo: Patrick Frank)

Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they denied service.

“This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” Avakian wrote. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”

>>> Related: Colo. Bakery Makes Case for Not ‘Expressing’ Support for Same-Sex Marriage

In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.

“This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights,” the Kleins, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed, wrote on their Facebook page. “According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech.”

 

Read More Here

 

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  The Daily Signal

Emails Raise Questions of Bias in Case Against Bakers Who Denied Service for Same-Sex Wedding

Kelsey Harkness / @kelseyjharkness / June 01, 2015 / 808 comments

The Daily Signal has exclusively learned that the government agency responsible for enforcing Oregon’s anti-discrimination law appears to be working closely with a powerful gay rights advocacy group in its case against Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa.

Communications between the agency, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, and the LGBT organization, Basic Rights Oregon, raise questions about potential bias in the state’s decision to charge the Kleins with discrimination for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.

In April, a judge for the agency recommended the Kleins be fined $135,000.

Communications obtained through a public records request show employees of the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries—which pursued the case against the Kleins—participating in phone calls, texting, and attending meetings with Basic Rights Oregon, the largest LGBT advocacy group in the state.

 

Read More Here

Jackson County, Oregon Landslide victory against Biotech crops being grown within it’s borders. : Despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent by companies like Monsanto.

Genetically engineered crops banned in Jackson County, Oregon in landslide victory against GMOs

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger

(NaturalNews) A ban on the growing of all genetically engineered plants appears to be a landslide victory in Jackson County, Oregon. With 100 percent of the precincts reporting and a huge voter turnout of over 50 percent, nearly 66% of voters elected to ban all genetically engineered crops from being grown in the county.

The vote ran 39,489 to 20,432 in favor of the ban, and it sends a clear signal that the People of Jackson County, Oregon — a largely agricultural area of the country — absolutely do not want genetically engineered crops to be growing anywhere near them. (Click here to see county election results.)

This is on top of the recent victory in Vermont where lawmakers passed a mandatory GMO labeling law that requires foods to be honestly labeled with their GMO content. (The evil biotech industry and its Grocery Manufacturers of America front group plant to sue Vermont to keep consumers in the dark.)

“Destroy all genetically engineered plants”

This ordinance in Oregon requires everyone to “destroy” all genetically engineered plants except those grown under indoor laboratory conditions (i.e. those which are safely isolated from the wild). This will allow scientists to continue to study GMOs without risking the lives of everyone else in the process.

Click here to read the full text of the ordinance (PDF).

Read More Here

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Oregon counties ban cultivation of GMO crops

Published time: May 21, 2014 16:37
Edited time: May 22, 2014 11:18

Reuters/Ints Kalnins

Despite the flood of corporate money poured into two small Oregon counties, local residents voted on Tuesday to ban genetically engineered crops from being planted within their borders.

Although Jackson County itself is home to less than 120,000 registered voters, the measure to ban genetically modified crops (GMOs) made headlines around the nation when it was revealed that large biotech companies like Monsanto were pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into the area in order to affect the vote’s outcome.

As RT reported previously, Monsanto and five other corporations spent at least $455,000 in an attempt to defeat the initiative, and opponents of the GMO ban had gained an eight-to-one spending advantage as of April. According to the Associated Press, nearly $1 million of the $1.3 million spent during the campaign was used by opponents.

When the results were tallied, however, 66 percent of Jackson County residents voted in favor of the ban.

“We fought the most powerful and influential chemical companies in the world and we won,” local farmer and anti-GMO advocate Elise Higley told the Oregonian.

“It’s a great day for the people of Oregon who care about sustainability and healthy ecosystems,” added the group GMO Free Oregon on its Facebook page.

Read More Here

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Missouri house committee votes to nullify federal hemp ban

Ploëzal (Côtes-d’Armor, Bretagne, France)

Hemp labryrinth at the Château de la Roche-Jagu.

By  :  Barbetorte

Wikipedia.org

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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.. – April 24, 2014. Yesterday, a Missouri house committee gave approval to a bill which would authorize the growing and production of industrial hemp within the state, effectively nullifying the unconstitutional federal ban on the same.

Introduced by Rep. Mike Colona and cosponsored by Reps. Galen Higdon and Paul Curtman, House Bill 2054 (HB2054) passed by a vote of 16-1 in the house committee on economic development.

The bill states, quite simply, “Industrial hemp production, possession, and commerce in industrial hemp commodities and products shall be permitted in this state.”

HB2054 sets up “shall issue” licensing program. In short, the Missouri department of agriculture will be required, under broad parameters, to issue licenses to those wishing to grow industrial hemp or become an industrial hemp seed producer. A similar requirement was included in a bill passed by the Tennessee legislature earlier this month.

Three other states – Colorado, Oregon and Vermont – have already passed bills to authorize hemp farming, but only in Colorado has the process begun in practice.  Farmers in SE Colorado started harvesting the plant in 2013 and the state began issuing licenses on March 1, 2014.  In Vermont and Oregon, hemp farming was authorized, but no licensing program was mandated, so implementation has been delayed due to regulatory foot-dragging.

HUGE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL

Experts suggest that the U.S. market for hemp is around $500 million per year.

But, since the enactment of the unconstitutional federal controlled-substances act in 1970, the Drug Enforcement Agency has prevented the production of hemp within the United States. Many hemp supporters feel that the DEA has been used as an “attack dog” of sorts to prevent competition with major industries where American-grown hemp products would create serious market competition: Cotton, Paper/Lumber, Oil, and others.

Related articles

• Missouri house committee votes to nullify federal hemp ban

The City of Portland, Oregon water supply, 38 million gallon reservoir, flushed after man filmed urinating through fence.

 

Portland, Oregon flushes water reservoir after man urinates in it

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Portland, Oregon flushes water reservoir after man urinates in it

By Teresa Carson

PORTLAND, Oregon Wed Apr 16, 2014 9:04pm EDT

 

(Reuters) – Portland, Oregon is flushing 38 million gallons (143 million liters) of drinking water down the drain because a 19-year-old man urinated in an open reservoir early on Wednesday morning, city water officials said.

Three teens were observed at the reservoir in a Portland park at about 1:00 a.m. Wednesday, Portland Water Bureau spokesman David Shaff said, and one of them was filmed urinating through an iron fence into the water.

The other two tried to climb the fence and one got into the secure area around the reservoir, but Shaff said it is not clear what he did then.

The 50-million-gallon (189-million-liter) reservoir was taken off line and was tested for possible contamination and the results will be known Thursday. But in the meantime, the city has decided to “discard” 38 million gallons of water and clean the reservoir, Shaff said.

“That water goes directly into people’s homes,” David Shaff, Portland Water Bureau administrator said. “There is no way to re-treat it.”

 

Read More Here

 

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Four workers injured after natural gas plant explosion in Washington state

• About 200 people evacuated from nearby homes after blast
• Three treated in hospital for non-life threatening injuries

• Associated Press in Plymouth, Washington
• theguardian.com, Monday 31 March 2014 16.18 EDT

Williams Northwest Pipeline plant is seen after a natural gas pipeline ruptured at the plant in Plymouth, Washington. Photograph: Sarah Gordon/AP

A large explosion and fire Monday at natural gas processing plant near the Washington-Oregon border injured four workers and led to the evacuation of about 200 people from nearby homes as flames and a mushroom-shaped cloud of black smoke reached high into the air.

The 8:20am blast at the Williams Northwest Pipeline plant in the town of Plymouth, along the Columbia River, also punctured a liquefied natural gas storage tank.

Benton County sheriff Steven Keane said some gas leaked from the tank to the ground in a containment area and evaporated into the air, but it was only a small amount. “I think if one of those huge tanks has exploded, it might have been a different story,” he said.

Of the four workers injured, one was treated at the scene and three with burns were taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, Oregon. The three were treated in the emergency room for injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, hospital spokesman Mark Ettesvold said.

Across the Columbia River, the blast shook the home of Cindi Stefani.

“It was just a very loud boom,” she said. “I looked across the river and saw a giant mushroom cloud and flames at least a couple hundred feet high.”

Animals on neighboring farms were running around, she added.

“At that point we were pretty scared. I was thinking, ‘We need to get out of here.'”

 

Read More Here

 

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Sheriff’s update on natural gas fire

Tri-City Herald

 

 

Published on Mar 31, 2014

Joe Lusignan of the Benton County Sheriff’s Office briefs the media on the evacuation. (Video by Bob Brawdy)

 

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Oregon Public Broadcasting

At Least 4 Injured, 400 Evacuated After Explosion At LNG Plant

AP | March 31, 2014 9:14 a.m. | Updated: March 31, 2014 4:23 p.m.

A large explosion and fire Monday at a natural gas processing plant on the Washington-Oregon border injured four workers, led to the evacuation of about 400 people from nearby farms and homes, and sent a mushroom cloud of black smoke high into the air

Witnesses reported hearing a large boom and giant mushroom cloud from the explosion Monday morning.

Courtesy Scott Lucas / Via East Oregonian

The 8:20 a.m. blast at the Williams Northwest Pipeline plant in the Washington town of Plymouth, along the Columbia River, also punctured one of the facility’s two giant storage tanks for liquefied natural gas.

Benton County Sheriff Steven Keane said some gas leaked from the tank to the ground in a moat-like containment area and evaporated into the air, blowing away to the northeast. But it was a relatively small amount, he said.

“I think if one of those huge tanks had exploded, it might have been a different story,” Keane said.

One of the four injured workers was transported to a Portland, Ore., hospital specializing in burns, he said. The other three were taken to Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, Ore., where spokesman Mark Ettesvold said they were treated in the emergency room for injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening.

 

 

Read More Here

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