Authorities warn current conditions are ideal for more fires. Officials say embers from the Bootleg Fire can travel long distances on the current 25 mph winds.
Heat-related illnesses have sent hundreds of people to the ER across the region as temperatures hit unprecedented highs. British Columbia reported about 100 excess deaths from Friday to Monday.
The hammer throw competitor turned away from the flag during the national anthem on Saturday after she said she was told it wouldn't play when she was on the U.S. Olympic trials podium.
The brutal heat wave is worse for some residents in the region who live in areas where relatively mild summers have meant that many homes don't have air conditioners.
Racial justice protesters and many who stormed the U.S. Capitol are being charged with civil disorder, under the 1968 Civil Obedience Act. Some argue that the law is unconstitutional.
Oregon state Rep. Mike Nearman, a Republican who allowed far-right demonstrators to breach the state Capitol in December, now faces charges of official misconduct and criminal trespass.
During last spring's racial justice protests, a young man in Portland, Ore., realized that people wanted to do something beyond march. So, he created the Black Resilience Fund to offer small grants.
Demonstrators in Portland, Ore., on Wednesday were said to be anti-fascist protesters. They vandalized the Democratic Party of Oregon's office and held signs rejecting Biden's presidency.
"Donald Trump has made my job a hell of a lot harder since he started talking about Portland," says Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese. The president claimed that the "Portland sheriff" supports him.
False claims that blame left-wing activists for wildfires in Oregon have spread on social media. To stop the rumors, some experts say platforms should take inspiration from the stock market.
"The smoke is so dense," one agricultural worker in Oregon told NPR. "I feel dizzy, my throat hurts and my head feels like it's going to explode." Their employers are also faced with tough choices.
A change in weather conditions is being seen as a needed assist for nearly 30,000 fire personnel battling blazes. Authorities are also attempting to debunk online rumors about the cause of the fires.
One hundred large fires are burning in 12 states across the West — but just five of them have been contained, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the federal agents sent to Portland acted as "an occupying force & brought violence." Brown says federal officers will leave starting Thursday.
The pause comes just before Oregon's Multnomah County, the state's most populous county and home to Portland, was set to start its first phase of reopening.
In the rural Northwest, far-right elected officials and the militia movements they're aligned with are calling for defiance of stay-at-home orders like the one issued by Idaho's Republican governor.
"It's hard to believe that we even have to post this," said police in Newport, Ore. They offered a reminder for residents hunkering down due to the coronavirus: "We cannot bring you toilet paper."
Some residents are so frustrated with Democratic politics they are trying to change the map, so that most of Oregon and a chunk of Northern California would break off and join Idaho, a red state.
A local artist is turning the mountains of plastic garbage that wash up on beaches into dramatic sculptures of the very marine life threatened by the deluge of plastics.
The state, which has one of the higher suicide rates in the U.S., hopes the law will combat stigma around mental illness. Four teen activists encourage others to "admit when they're struggling."
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge will allow Oregon ranchers who were convicted of intentionally setting fires on public land to graze cattle on parts of a federal allotment this season on a limited basis.
The bill makes duplexes allowable in cities over 10,000 people, and quadplexes legal in the Portland metro area. It's part of a growing change to zoning policy amid a national housing crisis.
Prosecutors say it was an elaborate deception that involved roping in friends and family, while using nonsensical pseudonyms and a slew of mailing addresses. The plot seems to have come from China.
It was Oregon's first pediatric case in more than 30 years. "It was difficult to take care of him, to watch him suffer," says Judith Guzman-Cottrill, an infectious-disease specialist.
The measure would limit rent increases to 7 percent annually, plus inflation, and offer renters more protection from eviction. Supporters celebrate as critics fear it will diminish housing options.
