With public opinion continuing to turn sharply against the safari hunting escapades of American trophy hunters and a cascade of major airlines announcing they won’t transport trophies from the African Big Five, there was other big news on other fronts – in particular, on factory farming and puppy mills. At the top of the list is a federal court ruling earlier this week striking down Idaho’s ag-gag law, which criminalized whistleblowers who record animal cruelty or other abuses in factory farms. It’s the first judicial ruling on the merits of a series of statutes manufactured by the agribusiness lobby to stop undercover investigators from exposing harsh and sometimes illegal practices toward

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HILLSBORO, OR – (August 5, 2015) – Big Bottom Distilling, producer of award-winning Big Bottom Small Batch whiskey and gin, continues the expansion of their in-house distilled line of spirits. They have released an Oregon Pear Brandy which is the first of the two fruit brandies set to release in 2015. The Oregon Pear Brandy is proofed at 80 and retails in Oregon at $44.95 for a 750 ml bottle.

Since bringing distillation in house in 2014, Big Bottom Distilling strives to distill products that capture the spirit of Oregon. Their Oregon Pear Brandy is made from a blend of Asian pears that were grown and hand harvested locally from the Willamette Valley. Exhibiting a fresh ripe Asian pear nos

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A unique evening of interactive community theatre, helping to break the stigma surrounding mental illness

PORTLAND, Oregon - Mental health issues affect us all in one way or another, yet the shame and stigma surrounding mental illness keeps many of us silent. For one night only, Break the Silence, Break the Stigma uses the power of theater combined with real life stories of Oregon residents that have experienced hard and often silent adversities. These stories will help lift the veil surrounding mental illness and start a dialogue toward healing.

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Three Oregon cities and one county in the state have exercised the option to prohibit the sales of recreational marijuana.

Douglas County, the home of Roseburg, is the only county to so far prohibit pot sales after Oregon voters approved the notion last fall. Pot became legal in July. Sales are set to start Oct. 1.

The cities of Brownsville, roughly between Corvallis and Eugene, and Ontario and Vale in far Eastern Oregon have also prohibited cannabis sales. Oregon's new rules include an opt-out for communities that choose not to allow sales, which are overseen by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission.

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The ACLU is suing Kenton County sheriff’s Deputy Kevin Sumner, who works as a school resource officer at Latonia Elementary School in Covington.

The sheriff’s deputy now faces a federal lawsuit for handcuffing elementary school children who were acting out as a result of their disabilities, the American Civil Liberties Union said.

Sumner is accused of handcuffing an 8-year-old boy and a 9-year-old girl, who both have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The ACLU was able to obtain access to a video showing one incident in which Sumner talks to a boy handcuffed in a chair. The boy is so small that he’s handcuffed not around the wrists, but around his biceps.

“You don’t get to

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A Boston children’s hospital is guaranteed “phantom-free” after the cast of the new “Ghostbusters” film showed up to cheer up kids.

The movie is shooting in Boston and the the staff at the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center posted signs in the windows with the original movie’s signature line, “Who ya gonna call?”

The all-female ensemble of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones showed up with ghost traps and proton packs. They checked closets and under beds not so much to ease patients’ worries about ghosts but their doldrums about being stuck in hospital beds.

“That was wonderful of them to take the time to put a smile on my son’s face.”

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If kittens, cuddles, and saving lives are up your alley, we’ve got just the volunteer job for you.

In hopes of making shelter kitties more adoptable—and providing them with the love and care they need early in life—Best Friends Animal Society in Salt Lake City, Utah and Los Angeles, California have created a volunteer snuggling program.

Currently, kitten nurseries across the country are populated with orphaned kittens taken in from shelters, offering intensive, 24/7 care for kittens as young as a few hours old. At this stage, orphaned baby kittens are very fragile.

A number of essential, life-saving tasks are performed for them around the clock, but the most fun, and arguably one of

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WILSONVILLE, Oregon - Fry's Electronics is one of those supercenter stores where you generally enjoy roaming around to see what's new and what you may not need but would enjoy having if nothing else but to play with it, usually a computer or video part. You can spend hours looking around at all the gadgets, some of the more recent computer deals or big screen TV, or perhaps even a motherboard you'd like to try your hand at assembling.

But this isn't an ad. It's a review, a complaint about the Fry's Electronics store in Wilsonville, Oregon.

Okay, let me jump right in. I purchased three modules of computer RAM memory recommended to me by Fry's staff. It didn't work. Microsoft's MEMORY te

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The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who was being operated on August 19, 1999 by a surgeon named Joseph Bruner. The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if he was removed from his mother's womb.

Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

Just as surgeon Dr. Joseph Bruner was closing the incision in Julie Armas' uterus, baby Samuel's thumbnail-sized hand flopped out. Bruner lifted it gently and tucked it back

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Within days of the anniversary that a Spanish fleet wrecked in a hurricane off the coast of Florida 300 years ago, a family of treasure divers uncovered a million dollars in rare gold coins and artifacts hiding in just 15 feet of water.

1,000 feet off the coast of Fort Pierce, Eric Schmitt and his family rejoiced in the discovery after diving in the area for several years. They will get half the bounty of everything recovered, once the state claims up to 20% if some rarities should be in a museum.

The Florida salvage company who owns the rights to excavate the 300 square-mile underwater area, Queens Jewels, LLC, will get the other half.

The gold was part of a huge bounty of riches a

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