Author: Andrew Selsky
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As bourbon booms, thirst for rare brands breeds skullduggery
SALEM, Ore. • Buttery, smooth, oaky. These are characteristics of the best bourbons, and a growing cult of aficionados is willing to pay an astonishing amount of money for these increasingly scarce premium American spirits — and even bend or break laws. Premium spirits have always been expensive and sought-after. But a surge in interest…
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Police: Oregon kidnap suspect killed 2 men before cornered
SALEM, Ore. • The suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon — a man who spent little time behind bars for a similar crime in Nevada — killed two men before being cornered by officers and fatally shooting himself, police said Wednesday. Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died at a hospital Tuesday night, hours after he…
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Police: Oregon kidnap suspect killed 2 men before cornered
SALEM, Ore. • The suspect in a violent kidnapping in Oregon — a man who spent little time behind bars for a similar crime in Nevada — killed two men before being cornered by officers and fatally shooting himself, police said Wednesday. Benjamin Obadiah Foster, 36, died at a hospital Tuesday night, hours after he…
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Trump, friends mourn conservative counter-protester killed in Portland
PORTLAND, Ore. — A supporter of a right-wing group who was shot dead on a Portland, Oregon, street was mourned by both friends and President Donald Trump as a victim of mob violence while an online fundraising effort raised tens of thousands of dollars in his memory. Just hours before he was shot in the…
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Lawyers spar over case blaming US policy for climate change
PORTLAND, Ore. • In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday over whether climate change violates the rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels. A U.S. Justice Department lawyer said the young people wrongly want the courts to direct energy policy, instead of…
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Unique firefighting crew has common trait: military service
SALEM, Ore. • After being in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of one of America’s newest elite wildfire crews are tasked with fighting fires in rugged country back home. On the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s only hotshot crew focused on recruiting veterans, members have traded assault rifles and other weapons of war for…
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Veterans find community, hard work in rare firefighting crew
SALEM, Ore. — After being in firefights in Afghanistan and Iraq, members of one of America’s newest elite wildfire crews are tasked with fighting fires in rugged country back home. On the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s only hotshot crew focused on recruiting veterans, members have traded assault rifles and other weapons of war for…
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Discovery of dog saves man from conviction
SALEM, Ore. • The discovery of a black lab named Lucy led to the unravelling of a criminal case Monday against an Oregon man who had begun serving a 50-year prison sentence. Joshua Horner, a plumber from the central Oregon town of Redmond, was convicted on April 12, 2017, of sexual abuse of a minor.…
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Veterinarians seek permission to research pot meds for pets
BEND, Ore. — Dr. Byron Maas surveys a supply of marijuana products for dogs that lines a shelf in his veterinary clinic. They’re selling well. “The ‘Up and Moving’ is for joints and for pain,” he explains. “The ‘Calm and Quiet’ is for real anxious dogs, to take away that anxiety.” People anxious to relieve…
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Marijuana states try to curb smuggling, avert U.S. crackdown
PORTLAND, Ore. — Well before Oregon legalized marijuana, its verdant, wet forests made it an ideal place for growing the drug, which often ended up being funneled out of the state for big money. Now, officials suspect pot grown legally in Oregon and other states is also being smuggled out, and the trafficking is putting…