Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-16
If you live in a wildland area, you may end up paying more for wildfire protection. The Oregon Department of Forestry district covering Jackson and Josephine counties is reviewing land classifications on 1.9 million acres in its region to come up with a fairer annual assessment. Some 6,000 Jackson County property owners will receive a letter around the end of the year alerting them that the classification of their property, whether it's grassland or forestland, is changing. The number of propert
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-16
Watch part 2 here . Watch part 3 here . SHADY COVE — Summer steelhead and winter steelhead share the Rogue River in late January and early February as the two runs overlap in the upper Rogue. While upper Rogue anglers often use the exact same baits, lures and flies to catch these steelhead, fishing for summer steelhead and winter steelhead can be as different as the seasons that give them their names. For starters, most summer steelhead fishing is done in July through September when angler
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-16
A Friday morning two-alarm fire damaged the exterior of the Super 8 Motel in Ashland, but no one was injured, according to Ashland Fire and Rescue Battalion Chief Kelly Burns. The rear exterior was engulfed in a “well-developed fire” when the fire crews arrived on scene just after 10 a.m., Burns said, but crews had it extinguished within 7 minutes. “I was told the firefighter had the hose out and ready before the water was turned on, and that doesn’t happen often,”
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-16
With all the current election coverage, I wondered how people can vote who don't have a fixed address. Since ballots are mailed to voters, what happens to those who are homeless? Are they excluded from voting? — Milicent, Eagle Point   Oregon law says homeless people may not be denied the opportunity to register to vote, even if they lack a permanent address. State law also allows homeless people to use a county clerk's office as a mailing address to register to vote and receive thei
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
‘Fighting With My Family’ 3 stars out of 4 Cast: Florence Pugh, Lena Headey, Nick Frost, Jack Lowden, Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson, Mohammad Amiri, Hannah Rae, Julia Davis, Stephen Merchant, Ellie Gonsalves, Aqueela Zoll, Kimberly Matula, Thea Trinidad Directed by: Stephen Merchant Run time: 108 minutes Rating: PG-13 for crude and sexual material, language throughout, some violence and drug content Is there anything Florence Pugh can’t do? It may be a premature thing to ask of
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
A California couple pleaded guilty Friday to torture and years of abuse that included shackling some of their 13 children to beds and starving them to the point it stunted their growth. David and Louise Turpin will spend at least 25 years in prison after entering the pleas in Riverside County Superior Court to 14 counts that included cruelty toward all but their toddler daughter, and imprisoning them in a house that appeared neatly kept outside, but festered with filth and reeked of human waste.
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
SALEM — Faced with a housing shortage and skyrocketing rents, Oregon is poised to become the first state to impose mandatory rent controls, with a measure establishing tenant protections moving swiftly through the Legislature. Many residents have testified in favor of the legislation, describing anxiety and hardship as they face higher rents. Some have gone up by as much as almost 100 percent — forcing people to move, stay with friends or even live in their vehicles. The Oregon housi
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
TALENT -- More than 100 volunteers, most of them learning on the job, are cutting and assembling ceramic and glass tile into a "Bee City USA" panel to go on the front of Talent City Hall. Funded mainly by a $5,000 Lloyd Haines art grant, the colorful, 32-foot-long array of flowers, birds and bees will pretty up the home of Talent government. But its main purpose, said organizer Karen Rycheck, is to raise awareness of the precarious state of pollinators because of pesticides, climate change and h
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
I was working in Sofia, Bulgaria, with the International Labor Organization, a special fund of the U.N. My assignment was to train three Bulgarian colleagues in the basics of management information systems. At the end of my first year, I had a chance to stay a second year. No home leave allowed. I told this to my mother living in New York. With her adventurous spirit and the prospect of us not getting together for more than two years, she made a decision. She would come to Bulgaria, in spite of
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
MEDFORD -- Having a soft spot in her heart for elderly and injured canines, Donna Jones has spent two decades volunteering, privately rescuing and helping transport shelter animals to their forever homes. Elderly and injured dogs too often go overlooked for younger, more vibrant pups, she says. Wherever she has lived, Jones has tried to advocate for the "least likely to get adopted," always hoping to find a way to help even more. Her recent adoption of a senior boxer named Roxie set the wheels i
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
This year I started hearing all these questions about different types of diplomas. What is the Medford diploma versus the Oregon diploma? What is a modified diploma? — Katy Amid all the different diploma options offered in Jackson County school districts, Katy, the most important one to remember might be the Oregon diploma. That is, after all, the standard that remains equal across the state. High school students in Oregon must earn a total 24 credits, including four English language arts
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
What are the definitive rules for growing marijuana on rural residential properties? We don't know much beyond tall fences and the 75-foot setback, which is ignored. Many people in rural residential zones grow pot, but some are getting very pushy, growing maybe 100 plants. Many strangers come and go. We neighbors keep quiet, mouths shut, eyes, noses and ears averted, fearing reprisal. Does the county have an answer? — Rural residential homeowner   Recreational marijuana grows are not
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-23
A while back the Mail Tribune ran a story about Trilobyte trying to raise enough money to produce a new game through crowdfunding efforts. Has the gamer made its goal? — Tony D., Ashland Medford-based game maker Trilobyte announced in late October it planned to raise $435,000 to fund the third and final episode in its "7th Guest" franchise. While more than 1,600 people pledged more than $121,000, it was well below Trilobyte's 39-day target for its Kickstarter campaign. However, the global
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
We’ll agree with House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, that Oregon has a housing crisis and solving it is going to take creative thinking. That said, Kotek’s belief that the Legislature is somehow better equipped to solve the problem than are local governments in Bend, Medford or La Grande is wrong. She ignores the role played by state land use planning laws that strangle city expansion and is the driving force behind a measure that does away with single-family zoning in much of Oreg
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
Families fleeing drug cartel violence in southwestern Mexico’s crime-ridden Michoacán state have taken refuge with relatives living in Southern Oregon, leaving local schools scrambling to accommodate the surge of Spanish-speaking students. Since mid-February, 148 kindergarten through 12th grade students from Michoacán and the neighboring Guerrero state have enrolled in the Medford School District, impacting nine elementary schools, both middle schools and North and South Medford high schoo
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
BEAUMONT-SUR-OISE, France (AP) — Master Yoda, dust off his French, he must. It's now easier than ever in France to act out "Star Wars" fantasies, because its fencing federation has borrowed from a galaxy far, far away and officially recognized lightsaber dueling as a competitive sport, granting the iconic weapon from George Lucas' saga the same status as the foil, epee and sabre, the traditional blades used at the Olympics. Of course, the LED-lit, rigid polycarbonate lightsaber replicas ca
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
DIAMOND LAKE — The team of four huskies pulls Laura Crocker and her sled down a groomed trail, heading toward dog mushers’ nirvana. Left behind is the howling of hyped-up huskies tethered to Crocker’s pickup, which build to a crescendo as one by one she hooks the harnessed dogs to the cable just before takeoff. They’re muscling down the trail now, and as the rumblings of nearby snowmobiles disappear into the trees around Diamond Lake, the 16-pawed orchestra begins to play
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
Ban Mai Thai isn’t just another Thai restaurant. It creates its own signature cocktails, has a long specialty menu, and on weekends it doubles as a sushi bar. Located at 1887 N.E. Seventh St. in Grants Pass, Ban Mai Thai is a simply decorated establishment with an open floor plan allowing servers to move easily throughout the dining room and help customers. My husband and I spent our Valentine’s Day dinner there and were pleased to find other couples doing the same. We were seated ri
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tyson Timbs admitted he'd sold drugs, and he accepted his sentence without a fight. What he wouldn't quietly accept was the police seizing and keeping the $40,000 Land Rover he'd had when arrested. On Wednesday, the Supreme Court sided with him unanimously in ruling the Constitution's ban on excessive fines applies to the states as well as the federal government. The decision, in an opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, could help efforts to rein in police seizu
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-02-22
CENTRAL POINT -- Tina Scheer lines up the blade in her hand with the stump on a metal easel, about to reveal exactly what it means to be a Chic with an ax. With a rhythmic over-the-head toss, Scheer sends the ax exactly 20 feet with one full rotation before the metal blade digs into the bullseye target painted on the stump. "You do that, it's not only fun, but you feel good inside," Scheer says. "It's good to feel good inside." Scheer is just one of thousands of people participating in this late