Category: In the News

US Traveler Headed Home After Detainment in East Timor

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A globe-trotting veterinarian will return home six months to the day after she was arrested for being in the wrong car at the wrong time. Stacey Addison, 41, boarded a plane out of East Timor and landed in Singapore, completing the first leg of a trip that

Senators want FDA to regulate e-cigs: ‘They have just failed to act’

EUGENE, Ore. – U.S. senators, including Jeff Merkley of Oregon, are calling on the FDA to change the regulation of electronic cigarettes. By phone from Washington, D.C., Merkley told KVAL News he wants three things by April 25: Childproof liquid nicotine containers Restrictions on selling nicotine in flavors that appeal

Disability cut would be ‘death sentence,’ says Social Security chief

A failure by Congress to shore up the Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund would be a “death sentence” for its beneficiaries, the acting commissioner of the Social Security Administration said Wednesday. At a Senate Budget Committee hearing focused on the fund, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) asked what would happen

‘Better for people and fish’

ASHLAND — Bear Creek’s wild coho salmon will get more water without siphoning it away from irrigators under a $1 million grant that will help jump-start what could become a massive restructuring of irrigation deliveries in the Bear Creek Basin. The federal Bureau of Reclamation has awarded $1 million to

Senators call for VA benefits for post-Vietnam vets exposed to Agent Orange

Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange on contaminated C-123 aircraft after the Vietnam War deserve compensation and benefits, and the Veterans Administration should stop denying them, a bipartisan group of senators led by North Carolina’s Sen. Richard Burr and Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon wrote in a letter on

Lawmakers push for stronger regulations on e-cigarettes

PORTLAND, OR (KPTV) – A group of U.S. senators are urging the FDA to regulate e-cigarettes after a new study reportedly shows high levels of cancer causing formaldehyde can be present in “vaping.” The study from Portland State University claims that high levels of a hidden form of the carcinogen formaldehyde can

President’s 2016 budget would reinstate timber payments

WASHINGTON — The 2016 budget released Monday by the White House calls for the reauthorization of timber payments, funds sage grouse conservation efforts and treats the largest wildfires as natural disasters. The spending initiatives are all familiar to Central Oregon. The Secure Rural Schools program, which compensated timbered counties for

Umatilla superintendent to join Merkley for State of the Union Address

Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley announced Friday that Umatilla Superintendent Heidi Sipe will accompany him as his guest to Washington, D.C., for the 2015 State of the Union Address, Tuesday. Merkley selected Sipe as his guest in recognition of the school district’s efforts to build a successful robotics program and for

Merkley to lead push for federal LGBT protection

WASHINGTON — Earlier this month, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., announced his intention to introduce sweeping anti-discrimination legislation that would provide federal protections for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals. The bill, which Merkley plans to introduce sometime after the 114th Congress is sworn in Jan. 6, will be designed to

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