OREGON NEWS

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• Bride-to-be vanishes near Neskowin Beach
The couple walked hand-in-hand toward Proposal Rock, ankle-deep in water Saturday afternoon.

• Clackamas County moving social services to contractors
Faced with falling revenue, rising costs and growing demand, Clackamas County plans to contract out more social services, a move officials acknowledge could reduce aid to some needy individuals and families.

• Corrections
A headline and story in Tuesday's Business section should have said that regulators from all 50 states reached a $1 million settlement with online social lending network Prosper Marketplace Inc.

• Food vendors arrested; fencing alleged
A six-week video surveillance by the Portland Police Department resulted in the arrest of seven downtown food vendors Wednesday, but health codes had nothing to do with it. Rather, the lunch spots are accused of fencing stolen goods.

• Forecast calls for snow in the Cascades
Oregon's snowpack is a paltry 15 percent of average for this time of year, but skiers, boarders and other winter recreationists shouldn't lose heart. It ain't over until the fat snowflakes fly.

• Marines enlist a few good hobbyists
Normally woodworkers can't afford to botch a measurement, not even a fraction of an inch. If they do, a drawer won't shut or a part won't work.

• Oregon trooper gets his man, the old-fashioned way
A couple of weeks ago Trooper Nick Rhoades of the Oregon State Police spotted an arrest warrant out of Marion County for a Hillsboro man wanted on assault and harassment charges.

• Pirates' boldness shocks Oregon cruise ship traveler
MUSCAT, Oman -- An Oregon man taking a cruise ship vacation said Wednesday he was surprised by the boldness of pirates who attacked in the dangerous waters between Yemen and Somalia, and described hearing the sounds of their rifles firing at the luxury liner.

• Plan foresees less haze in Oregon's vistas The Columbia River Gorge and other areas will clear up as PGE cuts coal plant emissions, according to a state blueprint
Here's the forecast on Oregon's sometimes hazy vistas: They should be clearer at the Columbia River Gorge, Mount Hood and Hells Canyon over the next decade. But the view won't noticeably improve at Crater Lake and scenic parts of the Coast Range.

• Portland City Council to settle ex-Sgt. Rocky Balada's disability-pension case
The Portland City Council on Wednesday voted 4 to 1 to support a disability and pension settlement for former Central Precinct Sgt. Rocky Balada, even though those in favor said they don't believe Balada deserves one extra dollar.

• Seeking sanctuary in Portland
Activists from several peace groups will go before the Portland City Council today seeking support for making Portland a sanctuary for military resisters -- service members who have gone AWOL to protest the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

• Sizemore signs tax forms, walks out of county jail
Bill Sizemore was released from the Multnomah County jail early Tuesday afternoon after he complied with a judge's order to file state and federal tax forms for a Nevada charitable foundation that he controls.

• Christian youth camp at ex-Rajneeshee commune gets $30 million gift
BEND -- A Christian youth camp thriving at the site of the former Rajneeshee commune in central Oregon announced a $30 million gift Tuesday and plans for a major expansion.

• Below the tram, above the freeway
CITY OF PORTLAND Decades after Interstate 5 isolated Southwest Portland's Lair Hill neighborhood from the Willamette River, the City Council is set today to approve this design for a pedestrian and bicycle bridge over the freeway. The 700-foot span, promised as part of the decision to build the aerial tram, will cost $11.3 million, with $9.7 million in federal grants. Construction is expected to begin in fall 2009 and be completed in late 2010.

• Big chill returns to medicine %%deck%%Doctors are finding that cooling down body temperatures of cardiac-arrest patients may save lives
It would be too easy to call the death of Derrick Flowers a chilling story. But his return to life is the tale of medical treatment that's very cool. Nearly ice-cold, actually.

• Corrections
The Film Freak feature in Friday's A&E depicted the wrong subject. Anna Song is the conductor/singer pictured here.

• Face time with Obama Kulongoski lobbies for campus spending
Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski got a chance Tuesday to lobby President-elect Barack Obama on his proposal to use billions in federal stimulus dollars to fix up university campuses across the nation.

• Melamine no threat in U.S. infant formula, OHSU expert says
Many a parent gulped at last week's news that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration had detected the industrial chemical melamine in American-made infant formula.

• PEOPLE'S
and TERESA GRAEDON

• Report on higher ed gives Oregon low marks
Young adults in Oregon are less likely to be ready for higher education, enroll in college and earn a degree than in other states, according to a national report card on higher education released today.

• Revival of cold therapy
Hospitals have been much more likely to chill cardiac-arrest patients since 2002, when two big studies backed up the method. But the idea of cooling to heal is centuries old.

• THE YOU DOCS
Stop smoking, try Retin A to get wrinkles out

• Corrections
Tuesday's FOODday gave incorrect dates for the high tea being offered at the TeaZone. The tea is being served Dec. 6 and 7, and daily Dec. 12-31 (except Christmas Day). The TeaZone is at 510 N.W. 11th Ave. For reservations call 503-221-2130.

• Dog breeder gets probation for neglect
HILLSBORO -- A former Gaston resident was sentenced to five years of probation Monday for letting more than 140 dogs -- mostly Chihuahuas -- live in their own feces and urine.

• Lawmakers seek ban on dogs at Capitol
SALEM -- Now that Oregon's Capitol offices have new carpet and couches, some people say it's time to replace the "frat house" atmosphere that sometimes prevails with a decorum that's, well, more professional.

• Oh, deer. 'Made in Oregon' on its way out in Old Town
The University of Oregon wants its name in lights. Crushing the Beavers' Rose Bowl hopes just ain't enough.

• Oregon's rural landowners in legal limbo
A percolating batch of legal rulings -- one in federal court and several in state courts -- have thoroughly dissolved any agreement Oregonians thought they had achieved on property rights.

• Portland police say three homicides aren't linked
When Portland detectives began to canvass the neighborhood after the Nov. 23 fatal shooting of a 35-year-old man in a Southeast Stark Street apartment, they interviewed Roland Jackson Dir, who was walking to his home about a block away.

• Two die in crashes over holiday weekend Thanksgiving traffic deaths in Oregon fall to a nine-year low
The number of people killed in automobile crashes in Oregon declined to a nine-year low during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the Oregon State Police said Monday.

• U.S. Postal Service offers tips to ship holiday packages The agency offers advice to ensure gifts arrive on time and intact
As retailers settle in for the holiday shopping season, the U.S. Postal Service offers tips to ensure Christmas gifts make it under the tree on time and intact.

• U.S. Postal Service offers tips to ship holiday packages The agency offers advice to ensure gifts arrive on time and intact
As retailers settle in for the holiday shopping season, the U.S. Postal Service offers tips to ensure Christmas gifts make it under the tree on time and intact.

• Chopin -- for tips -- in the park
The couples, families and dog-walkers who passed through the South Park Blocks on Sunday afternoon got a surprise concert. But it wasn't Christmas music.

• Gaming: It's a career path now
At age 7, Christopher Hernandez created a video game out of paper. He drew characters, painstakingly cut them out, then arranged them on his bedroom floor for his younger brother to pretend to play. He didn't have a computer. He had never heard of someone making a living as video game designer.

• News update
What happened: Jayda Kempas, 7, was twirling on a tire swing Nov. 20 when a 90-pound pit bull or pit bull mix named Titan locked onto her left leg. When Jayda's father, Steven Hehr, tried to pry the dog off, Titan released the girl and attacked him, biting his hands and chest. A Clackamas County sheriff's deputy ultimately shot and killed the dog.

• Oregon's Storm King reconsiders gale of 2007
The Storm King was skeptical.

• Eroding jetty the backdrop for Tillamook Bar wreck
Even as sheriff's deputies search Tillamook Bay beaches for survivors of Friday's crab-boat wreck, quarry workers are trying to find boulders more massive than elephants to repair the bay's eroding jetty.

• EVENTS
Here's a guide to events large and small in the Tigard-Tualatin area.

• Fine print on returns: It pays to squint
Long lines, clogged parking lots, inaccurate price tags, sold-out items -- you name it, this weekend presents shoppers some of their more frustrating experiences of the year.

• For artists with a creative spark, Tualatin has the outlets
TUALATIN -- Tualatin is a small city with a growing art collection and spaces to display more visual creativity, local artists and supporters say.

• It all adds up to a city rivalry
Tigard and Tualatin have a towering rivalry, an enmity rooted in the mists of time, a storied battle royal between two proud cities each determined to prove itself the Queen City of Interstate 5 between mileposts 280 and 291, or thereabouts.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Yamhill County

• On his own terms, everyday

• Theater company blooms into drama powerhouse
TIGARD -- The Broadway Rose, the region's professional musical theater company, is transforming a 29-year-old school cafetorium into a state-of-the-art playhouse where it will open its 18th season with an original holiday program.

• Veteran got her love of volunteering from mom
Modlin Collected toys for Iraqi children Murphy Uses skills to help those less fortunate Broome Work has included arts education

• 2 feared dead as crab boat sinks at Tillamook bar
BARVIEW -- In town to visit relatives for Thanksgiving, Mark Headley thought it would be fun Friday morning to join locals watching the fishing boats cross the Tillamook bar. Instead, the Eugene resident watched a boat capsize, leaving two presumed dead and setting an ominous tone for the crabbing season that opens Monday.

• Black Friday shopping slow across Portland
Avid shoppers admitted they had to be out Friday, the symbolic holiday shopping kick-off celebrated with door-buster deals and all-day discounts.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Astoria

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Beaverton

• Traffic fatality
Alan M. Bautista, 17, of Auburn, Wash., died about 5:25 p.m. Thursday when he was struck by a car while running across Interstate 5 at the Donald/Aurora interchange, the Oregon State Police said. The car's driver, Casey R. Stone, 24, and her passengers, Lacey A. Thornton, 19, and Ashley D. Morris, 22, all of Salem, were taken to Salem Hospital for evaluation. No citations were issued.

• Crash, bang: $120,000 goes on down the road
Sherri Kane was driving home with a pizza on Dec. 27, 2005, her 32nd birthday, when she stopped at a Southwest Farmington Road traffic light between 170th Avenue and Kinnaman Road.

• Gas price slips below $2 a gallon
Average Oregon gas prices fell below $2 a gallon Thursday, down from $3.15 a year ago, AAA-Oregon/Idaho reported.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Gaston

• Today's holiday events Macy's Holiday Parade: The parade steps off at 8:45 a.m. at Lincoln High School, 1600 S.W. Salmon St. The parade will be televised on KGW (8) at 9 a.m.
Tree-lighting ceremony: This traditional community tree-lighting celebration marks the beginning of the holiday season in downtown Portland with music, singalongs and Santa Claus. It starts at 5:30 p.m. at Pioneer Courthouse Square; www.pioneercourthousesquare.org

• Corrections
Erik Spoelstra, who grew up in Portland and played basketball for Jesuit High School and the University of Portland, coached in Portland as an NBA head coach for the first time Wednesday night when the Trail Blazers played Miami. An article Wednesday incorrectly said it was the first time he coached against Portland.

• FREE THANKSGIVING MEALS
Union Gospel Mission's Thanksgiving Day Meal: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. "Love Your Neighbor Day" is a Thanksgiving meal for anyone in need. Union Gospel Mission, 15 N.W. Third Ave.; www.ugmportland.org or 503-274-4483

• HOLIDAY CLOSURES
Here is the schedule of closures for Thanksgiving Day:

• Lend ear to National Day of Listening
%%deck%%StoryCorps - The group wants people to record conversations to celebrate our lives

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Hillsboro

• Pennies from heaven? No, motorist's C-notes
$100 bills by highway? They belong to motorist

• Portland school gives homeless students a taste of Thanksgiving
Today, as Oregon families gather at tables stacked with turkeys and trimmings, 10-year-old Kyla Smith will probably wait in the dark for the day to pass.

• 'Thanks,' says zoo. Come and visit
A reminder: You can watch polar bears feast on pumpkin pie ice treats today when the Oregon Zoo opens its doors to the public for a free open house.

• Clackamas County to overhaul social services
OREGON CITY -- Clackamas County plans to reorganize -- and in some cases possibly reduce -- delivery of social services to aid the needy, disabled and infirm.

• Corrections
Washington County Senior Deputy District Attorney Bracken McKey said in court that Mikkal Kane Buxton sexually assaulted Alla Bogdanov before he killed her, but Buxton never admitted to the assault. He admitted to abuse of corpse, which can include engaging in sexual activity with or dismembering, mutilating, cutting, or striking a corpse. An article Tuesday in Metro mistakenly said Buxton admitted to sexually assaulting Bogdanov.

• Don't drop it on your foot: more holiday travel hazards
Luggage! Can't travel with it, can't travel without it.

• FREE THANKSGIVING MEALS
Today

• Got low cholesterol? Statins still might help
A study out this month raises questions about who might benefit from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins. Between 16 million and 20 million Americans already take such drugs.

• Governor pledges 5-year plan expand health care to all
A plan to give every Oregonian access to affordable health care within five years was presented Tuesday to Gov. Ted Kulongoski and legislative leaders.

• HOLIDAY CLOSURES
Here is the schedule of closures for Thanksgiving Day:

• Just how safe is 'off-label' use of drugs?
When women seem bound to give birth early, many doctors give them a drug called nifedipine to try to delay delivery.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Portland

• New Vancouver Red Cross site ready for holiday blood donors
Forget turkey and football. Pam and Brent Kirk have their own Thanksgiving tradition.

• OHSU sees statin link to eye ailment
Oregon Health & Science University researchers have detailed a rare eye disorder linked in rare cases to use of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs.

• PEOPLE'S
and TERESA GRAEDON

• THE YOU DOCS
When it comes to your health, the Bill Clinton of old shouldn't be your role model. The former president needed a quadruple coronary bypass in 2004 after he decided to quit taking a cholesterol-lowering statin drug.

• TriMet to expand rush-hour transit
TriMet will deploy more buses and light-rail trains to rush-hour routes starting Sunday to ease overcrowding.

• The state alleges the Department of Energy is moving too slow and fears more waste will leak into the Columbia River
Washington state has decided to sue the federal government over its slow cleanup of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, arguing that the window is closing to safely remove Hanford's 53 million gallons of radioactive waste from storage tanks before they leak.

• Your disease defense: exercise
Our rainy, cozy carbohydrate season officially begins Thanksgiving Day, when we'll eat like sumo wrestlers at a Las Vegas buffet, argue bitterly with dear relatives and crash on the couch -- for the next five months.

• Kulongoski tells Obama campus projects will create jobs
A fast way to put millions of people to work and help bring the economy out of its nosedive would be a massive public works project on university campuses, Gov. Ted Kulongoski said Monday.

• Environmental groups go to court over the spotted owl
A large alliance of environmental groups is joining its foes, the timber industry, in opposing a federal blueprint for protecting the northern spotted owl, the threatened Northwest bird that has stood in the way of logging federal lands.

• Anti-gay group no match for Silverton
SILVERTON -- The counterprotesters outside City Hall in this Marion County town Monday significantly outnumbered the protesters who inspired them: three young women and a man from a Kansas church, here to register their disdain for the recent election of the nation's first openly transgender mayor, Stu Rasmussen.

• A Scientology center's guard kills an Oregon man
A man shot and killed Sunday in front of a Scientology building in Los Angeles was a Florence resident who was on probation for stalking a Lane County judge. Also, he recently had served time in a Florence jail for threatening a tow truck driver.

• Corrections
Matthew Marcum and his brother were outside their boat when their dog set off a shotgun that wounded Matthew. Marcum's name was misspelled and the circumstances incorrectly reported in The Sunday Oregonian's Metro section.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Portland

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Seattle

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Portland

• PGE Park plan goes 'through the wringer'
A new task force will evaluate a controversial proposal to remodel PGE Park and build a new Portland baseball stadium, slowing the process and opening it to greater public scrutiny.

• Traffic fatalities
Buddy Ray Bowman, 55, of Seaside died about 4:30 p.m. Monday when a sport utility vehicle driven by his wife rolled over on U.S. 30 about two miles west of Clatskanie, the Oregon State Police reported. Cynthia J. Bowman, 52, suffered lesser injuries.

• Updated: Massage therapy student sentenced to life in prison for killing classmate
HILLSBORO -- Alisa Bogdanov held back tears Monday as she faced the man who admitted killing her sister.

• COMMUNITY HELPERS
Standard Insurance employees raised more than $600,000 for nonprofits during their annual campaign. The company matched the donations, bringing the total to more than $1.2 million.

• Biker was more like a steamroller
S yd Maiden was a symbol of determination on the streets of Gresham, an older man wearing a bright green stocking cap under his bicycle helmet, pedaling his recumbent three-wheeler very slowly, two orange flags fluttering behind him.

• FREE
THANKSGIVING MEALS

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Baker City

• Aloha murder called a revenge
HILLSBORO -- Jildardo Blancas-Perez shook his head in disagreement Friday as he listened to Washington County Chief Deputy District Attorney Robert Bletko work to tie him to an Aloha murder more than a year ago.

• Corrections
Mike Delman, who ran unsuccessfully for the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners, worked at the county but not as a sheriff's deputy. An article Aug. 21, 2007, misstated his role. Additionally, Delman was asked to resign from his job with PGE Park. An Oct. 7 article misstated the circumstances of his departure.

• FREE THANKSGIVING MEALS
Wednesday

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Aloha

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Pullman, Wash.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Lacey, Wash.

• Oregon State Police dog hit by car near Bend
State police dog hit by car near Bend

• Resident's night hunch leads to arrest of car-prowl suspects
TIGARD -- Thomas Lipscomb will often glance out his bedroom window late at night. Usually it's to see whether it's raining. At around 1 a.m. Friday, he took a peek and saw a stranger walking in front of his house.

• Traffic fatalities
Lynne M. Angland, 59, of Powell Butte died about 7:45 a.m. Friday after her car went out of control on an icy stretch of Oregon 22 west of the Santiam Pass and collided nearly head-on with an unloaded log truck, the Oregon State Police reported. Trucker John L. Freeman Jr., 31, of Bend sustained minor injuries.

• Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde celebrate 25 years of restoration
GRAND RONDE -- Signs of prosperity pepper this stretch of Oregon 18: Billboards beckon with the promise of casino jackpots, travelers line up for some of the cheapest gas in the state, and fresh, smooth asphalt leads the way there.

• Corrections
Juliette's House is a private nonprofit that receives some state money through the Yamhill County Multi-Disciplinary Child Abuse Team. An article in Monday's Metro section incorrectly described the source of its funding.

• Envoy invites Oregonians to visit Iraq
Qubad Talabani, dressed impeccably in a dark suit and sporting a trimmed goatee, wants to dispel misconceptions that all Iraq is a war-shattered no-man's land of bombs, troops and terror.

• Football draws State Police to lonely U.S. 95
Football draws patrols to lonely U.S. 95

• Lewis & Clark prof among tops in nation
A psychology professor at Lewis & Clark College was named one of four national professors of the year Thursday in Washington, D.C.

• Masks Wyden calls for a rollback of interpreter rule
WASHINGTON -- Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden strongly urged Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday to discard a controversial new policy that prohibits Iraqi interpreters from wearing masks to disguise their identity when serving with U.S. forces.

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Tigard

• NEWS IN BRIEF
Hillsboro

• Portland's green-builders outgrow show
The world's biggest conference for the green-building industry may have become too basic by Portland standards.

• Up against the wall -- and saving it
Clawing up the 100-foot Electric Everything route of the Madrone Wall, Keith Daellenbach knew he'd discovered an Oregon jewel. A haven for native wildlife, ancient basalt formations and unusual trees, the climbing area in eastern Clackamas County epitomized the reasons the engineer had moved back from New York.