Oregon

Ammon and Ryan Bundy won’t be allowed to wear their preferred cowboy attire at trial

Brothers Ammon and Ryan Bundy won’t be sporting their preferred cowboy look during their conspiracy trial for the seizure of a national bird sanctuary in Oregon. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown of Portland, Oregon, inspected the brothers’ federally approved attire on Wednesday and pronounced it acceptable, the Oregonian reports. Ammon…

Sep 8, 2016 10:00 AM CDT

Actual innocence is needed for claim of sentencing malpractice, Washington Supreme Court says

Corrected: The Washington Supreme Court has upheld dismissal of a legal malpractice suit filed by a man who won resentencing in his rape case but didn’t get a new sentence until 12 years afterward. The state supreme court ruled (PDF) on Thursday that actual innocence is needed to establish criminal…

Jul 8, 2016 10:49 AM CDT

Veteran can use ‘nonbinary’ to describe gender, Oregon judge rules

An Army veteran who petitioned for a judgment of sex change may be referred to as “nonbinary,” an Oregon judge ruled Friday. Judge Amy Holmes Hehn of Multnomah County allowed veteran Jamie Shupe to choose the “nonbinary” description, the Oregonian and CNN report. Shupe’s petition was filed under an Oregon…

Jun 13, 2016 11:55 AM CDT

With help of new laws, Aloha State says hello to tourists, goodbye to some among homeless population

With a cost of living that is one of the highest in the country, Hawaii has a limited supply of affordable housing. But, due in part to its warm weather, the Aloha state also has a substantial homeless population, comprising more than 7,600 individuals among some 1.4 million residents, according…

Jun 3, 2016 2:32 PM CDT

Jury awards $1.6M to man in supermarket slip-and-fall, including $1M in punitives

A jury in Portland, Oregon, awarded $1.6 million on Friday to an 85-year-old man in a suburban supermarket slip-and-fall case, including $1 million in punitive damages. Attorneys for Christopher Armstrong-Stevenson, who was 84 at the time of the accident, argued to the jury that the Safeway chain that owns the…

May 17, 2016 1:30 PM CDT

Suit claims BOGO meat deals are illusory at Albertson’s and Safeway

A lawsuit filed in Oregon claims consumers aren’t getting a deal in “buy one, get one” meat promotions at Albertson’s and Safeway stores. The May 4 suit (PDF) claims the stores raise the per-pound price of meat offered in the BOGO promotions and the free product is “illusory,” the Oregonian…

May 11, 2016 5:45 AM CDT

Ethics complaint against Ammon Bundy’s lawyers dropped by Oregon state bar

A professional employment solicitation complaint regarding a law firm whose attorneys visited the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge occupation has been dismissed, the Oregonian reports. Other ethics complaints are pending. Lissa Casey and Bryan Boender went to the Oregon federal bird sanctuary and handed occupation leader Ammon Bundy a letter on…

May 4, 2016 3:15 PM CDT

Oregonians get a chance to erase marijuana-growing convictions

When voters in five jurisdictions legalized recreational marijuana, "overcriminalization" was one of the arguments they considered. Among other things, proponents of legalization argued that it's unfair and unnecessary to stigmatize people for life with criminal convictions for nonviolent drug use.

May 1, 2016 3:30 AM CDT

Monitoring of my Twitter account showed racial bias, state lawyer says in labor complaint

A lawyer with the Oregon Department of Justice claims he was the victim of racial bias when co-workers investigated his tweets that used the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter. Erious Johnson Jr. has filed a civil-rights complaint with the state labor department, along with a notice of intent to sue. Johnson is civil…

Apr 18, 2016 8:59 AM CDT

Cops are accused of forfeiture misdeeds

Police and prosecutors in 43 states have an incentive to seize property under civil forfeiture laws that allow their departments to keep anywhere from 45 percent to 100 percent of the proceeds. But two recent prosecutions allege officers broke the law in their handling of seized cash, according to a…

Apr 15, 2016 2:36 PM CDT

Woman who died alone in jail ‘just didn’t seem that sick’ to medical staff

The day before she died alone in her Oregon jail cell at age 26, Madaline Christine Pitkin was having trouble standing up and said in a written request for medical treatment that she felt “very close to death.” In the form she was required to fill out, Pitkin also wrote:…

Apr 12, 2016 10:00 AM CDT

Judge rules woman’s alleged confession to counselor about grandmother’s death is admissible

Angela Judd had gotten away with murder, authorities say, before she confessed to a social worker in late January that she had smothered her 92-year-old grandmother to death a month earlier. But it wasn’t until Tuesday that Judd was charged with murder in the death of Nada Bodholdt, after an…

Mar 23, 2016 4:10 PM CDT

Federal judge tells Skechers to stop selling shoes ‘confusingly similar’ to Adidas

Saying that he himself couldn’t see a difference between the “Stan Smith” white tennis shoe with a green heel patch manufactured by Adidas and a Skechers look-alike from three feet away, a federal judge in Portland, Oregon, has ordered Skechers to stop selling that shoe and two other styles “confusingly…

Feb 19, 2016 4:05 PM CST

Lawyer wants sexual harassment payment returned, says plaintiff violated nondisclosure deal

Oregon lawyer Ross Day says he has no obligation to pay a $140,000 sexual harassment settlement—and he wants his first payment of $2,500 returned. In a pending lawsuit (PDF), Day says he doesn’t have to pay Andrea Meyer, a former employee at his Tigard law firm, because she violated a…

Feb 17, 2016 5:45 AM CST

Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy is charged in 2014 cattle-graze standoff as he heads to Oregon protest

After Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy and militia supporters prevailed in an armed 2014 standoff concerning cattle trespassing on federal land, the government wasn’t in any hurry to bring criminal charges. However, when Bundy traveled this week to Portland, Oregon, in a reported plan to support two of his sons after…

Feb 12, 2016 11:20 AM CST