WILLIAMS, Ariz. - A 65-year-old diabetic man from St. Louis was missing after being kicked off an Amtrak train in a national forest outside Williams, Ariz. Police reported that Roosevelt Sims was on his way to Los Angeles when he was asked to leave the train at a railroad crossing 5 miles outside Williams for being drunk and unruly, Phoenix's KPHO-TV reported Thursday. "He was let off in the middle of a national forest, which ... [full story]

La Pine Rural Fire Protection District announced Thursday that it will cut two full-time and one half-time positions and reduce services beginning July 1, 2007. The La Pine Fire District Board of Directors gave final approval in mid June to a plan aimed at recovering from funding challenges caused by defeat of the local option levy. After repeated attempts to pass a Local Option levy to support staffing, the loss of budget dollars has prompted ... [full story]

A new study shows that nonsmokers can absorb a major cancer-causing chemical from secondhand smoke, underscoring the important protection Oregon's new Smokefree Workplace law will bring to bar and restaurant workers. The research, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was conducted by Oregon public health researchers and appears in the August edition of the American Journal of Public Health published today. It found that nonsmoking employees who were exposed to tobacco smoke in the ... [full story]

State and federal public health officials warned consumers today not to eat Veggie Booty snack food. An ongoing investigation has identified Veggie Booty as the source of a multi-state outbreak of salmonellosis, with cases occurring as far back as early March.  The makers of Veggie Booty, Robert's American Gourmet, on Thursday announced an immediate recall of all Veggie Booty products. Oregon is one of 17 states to have received reports of salmonellosis cases linked to ... [full story]

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A bomb exploded in Mogadishu, Somalia, Thursday, killing two Ethiopian soldiers. Witnesses told Shabelle Media Network the roadside bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Ethiopian and Somali troops in northern Mogadishu. "(There) were two military pickup trucks and a mixture of Somali and Ethiopian troops were onboard," said one witness. "When the bomb blew up four soldiers fell off the second car. Two were wounded and two others were dead." Two civilians ... [full story]

NEWPORT, R.I. - U.S. President George Bush said Thursday that the United States needs to be prepared to promote democracy in Cuba when Fidel Castro dies. Bush, responding to a question about South America after a speech at the Naval War College, said that there is "only one non-democracy in our neighborhood." Castro's brother, Raoul, has been in charge in Cuba since aging leader Fidel Castro had surgery last year. "It's in our interests that ... [full story]

Duke DA Mike Nifong should face criminal charges Where do you turn for help when the people assaulting your kids are the authorities themselves? When I was in high school, the local cops decided they’d had enough petty crime from some teenaged hooligans.  They started picking up the kids on the street, driving them into the woods, and beating the tar out of them.  Having kids acting like jerks is scary, but having officers of ... [full story]

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Researchers at Oregon State University have received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the North American Carbon Program to determine how climate and human activities affect the terrestrial “carbon balance” in Oregon, Washington and California. The research will examine areas covered by forests, crops, shrubs, woods and grass, and things that affect carbon sequestration or release, such as wildfire, logging and urbanization. The work will also consider the effects of climate variation, ... [full story]

House­cats around the world can now trace their an­ces­try back to the Near East­ern wild­cat, Fe­lis sil­vestris ly­bica, re­search­ers say af­ter a new DNA anal­y­sis. Do­mes­tic cats come from a “found­er” pop­u­la­t­ion of five or more fe­lines that were do­mes­ti­cat­ed in the Fer­tile Cres­cent zone of the Near East probably some­time over 9,000 years ago, they said. A wild­cat, Fe­lis sil­vestris ly­bica, which was trapped as part of the re­search in­to the or­i­gin of cat ... [full story]

At the recent Take Back America Conference in Washington, 3,000 grassroots progressives were in a joyous, euphoric mood.  For a quarter-century they had been on the periphery of American politics, but not now.  Having led opposition to the Iraq War, liberal Democrats have the most to crow about as their party basks in dreams of winning the White House and electing a filibuster-proof Congress next year. Think how far they had come from the Reagan ... [full story]