Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
Legally, it’s called a shed. It’s only 8-by-8 feet, but you can live in it. You can construct the shell in a few days for $1,500, then insulate and outfit it as you wish. These tiny houses can be planted on the ground or put on trailers. They are heated, with electric units. Tiny houses can shelter homeless people by parking them in church parking lots and other locations and providing a portable restroom, and that’s what’s probably going to happen to the tiny ho
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
Well maintained trails are still a novelty to me. On the South Coast where I grew up, a seemingly endless wall of blackberry bushes made exploring much of the southern Coast Range a decidedly prickly proposition. Since moving to the Rogue Valley six months ago, I've made a point to tackle as many of the area's less-traveled trails as my work schedule will allow. The other weekend, Mail Tribune digital copy editor Forrest Roth and I decided to make the trek up Wagner Butte, a five-mile, 2,000-foo
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
What's happening in the case of Donald Courtney Biggs, the former Medford pastor who was arrested a couple years ago? — No name given, via email   Biggs, 38, formerly a youth pastor with Mountain Church in downtown Medford before his 2015 arrest, has a trial set for June 12 in Medford, U.S. District Court records show. He is lodged in the Jackson County Jail without bail, where he's been since January 2015 on federal charges alleging he secretly recorded minors while they were c
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
Residents of Jackson and Josephine counties need to get mowing and chainsaw work done before 10 a.m., following just-announced fire season restrictions by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Today the ODF raised the forest fire danger to "extreme" for all of southwest Oregon. Two wildfires in Josephine County last week, along with temperatures reaching near triple-digit intensity, necessitated the change. "It was a clear sign that it was time to raise the fire danger level," said Brian Ballou, OD
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
I read about the Roberts Road house fire with interest, especially the part about paint on the neighbor's house blistering from the heat. Are there any rules in Central Point, where I live, about the amount of firewood that can be stored between houses? Many people store firewood (including me), but my neighbor has six to eight cords of it stacked tightly in one pile between his house and ours. If his woodpile ignited, I think I would have a problem much worse than blistering paint. — Kyle
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
My son has a jet ski and the required boat card to drive it on the lakes in Oregon. I would like to ride his jet ski when I go to the lake with him. Do I have to have a boater's license to ride it? — George S., Medford George, first things first. When are you guys going to the lake, and would he allow a handful of licensed Since You Asked wave riders to take a spin on the jet ski? You can get back to us on that. So long as your son has his boater's license and is driving the "personal wate
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-16
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Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
A split grand jury decided it would not bring charges against an Eagle Point police officer who fatally shot a mentally ill man in the back after a struggle inside a Carl’s Jr. bathroom. Officer Daniel Cardenas and his backup CJ Davis were justified in the shooting death of 33-year-old Matthew Thayer Graves because they thought he had a gun, the grand jury decided 5-2. An officer’s black stun gun that fell to the floor during the struggle showed signs that Graves deployed the nonleth
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
Area governments aren’t required to prepare for giant earthquakes and wildfires and they can’t legally force anyone else to get ready, but we should be keenly aware that the Cascadia Subduction quake is going to be a whopper, lasting five minutes (compared to only 30 seconds for the 1989 Loma Prieta disaster in the Bay Area) — and you’ll need two weeks worth of food on hand, not the 72-hours worth we’ve always been told to stockpile. That was the word Sunday from As
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-14
TALENT — The manufacturing world craves the battery and electric storage technology Brammo Inc. developed. It's one thing to develop ideas into viable technology; it's another to provide it on a global scale as policymakers from Beijing to Berlin and Washington seek to replace fossil-fueled vehicles. Even so, Brammo founder Craig Bramscher knew he lacked the resources to meet the demand in an industry changing at bullet-train speeds. Now Bramscher has turned to someone with the capability
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
A summer of smoke has lit a fire under Southern Oregon legislators looking for a way forward after the region’s economy and health took a beating in 2018. “People were having this existential moment as they were besieged by fire and smoke,” said Rep. Pam Marsh, D-Ashland. “Fire season is now 60 days longer than it ever was before.” In the short term, local legislators, who will convene Jan. 22 for the opening day of the 2019 session, want to better protect vulnerabl
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
A lawyer representing the parents of a mentally ill man shot dead by Eagle Point police in a Carl’s Jr. bathroom said they plan to file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Eagle Point Police Department after seeing bodycam footage of the shooting released Wednesday. David Linthorst, with the Medford-based law firm of Andersen Morse & Linthorst, said he was with Mike and Vicki Graves when they saw the bodycam video for the first time. It shows how their son, 33-year-old Matthew Graves, was
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
Four high school seniors aiming to tackle youth vaping are among the winners of Rep. Pam Marsh’s “There Oughta Be a Law” competition held in November. “That was exciting, because we were actually impacting things we really cared about,” said Molly Bloom, a senior at Ashland High School. She and her classmates Chloe Boucher, Danae Haldane and Katie Cropper submitted the idea for a bill to tighten restrictions on online vaping stores to try to curb use by minors. &ldq
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-14
A man will serve at least 25 years in prison after admitting he killed a man he considered his friend in a drug-fueled dispute. Frank Joseph Hernandez Jr., 25, of Central Point, was sentenced to 25 years after pleading guilty to murder Thursday in Jackson County Circuit Court, admitting he was high on drugs when he shot 25-year-old Jordan Scott Andres of Medford last April during an argument over drugs and money outside a Medford apartment complex. Police said Hernandez then used death threats t
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
The race for Oregon House District 6 pits Medford City Councilor Kim Wallan against Michelle Blum Atkinson, a former small-business owner and community volunteer. District 6 encompasses most of the city of Medford. The seat is open because Rep. Sal Esquivel is retiring. The district has a Republican registration advantage of more than 2,000, although non-affiliated voters outnumber both Democrats and Republicans. Wallan, the Republican nominee, has a law degree from Willamette University, where
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-13
GRANTS PASS — The half-brother of Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, is facing a drunken-driving charge after an arrest in Oregon. Oregon State Police said Thomas Wayne Markle Jr. was visibly intoxicated when he was pulled over at about 1:30 a.m. Friday in Josephine County. Authorities said his blood-alcohol content was 0.11 percent, above the legal limit of 0.08 percent. The 52-year-old from Grants Pass was taken to a detox center, according to the AP. As of Saturday evening, Markle has not b
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-08
WASHINGTON (AP) — With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week. Trump's Oval Office speech — his first as president — will be followed by his visit Thursday to the sout
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-08
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayers who are owed refunds will be paid on time, despite the government shutdown that has closed many federal agencies, a Trump administration official said Monday as concern mounted over the risk that the payments could be delayed. The acting director of the White House budget office, Russell Vought, said customary rules will be changed to make the payments possible. He told reporters that an "indefinite appropriation" was available for the refunds, which would go ou
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-08
On the evening of Dec. 28, soon after shoppers and staff at Food 4 Less called 911 for a cardiac arrest occurring at the front of the store, news of the emergency streaked beyond the store to a wider community. Those people weren’t all listening to a police scanner. Some were in nearby apartments. One was in the Food 4 Less parking lot. Another was in Denny’s, and two more were in the Ramada Hotel and Conference Center. What they had in common was the PulsePoint Respond app, which se
Mail Tribune (Medford, OR — Wayback)
· snapshot 2019-01-08
Many homeless people sleep in vans or motor homes at night, but they often run into trouble with police or local residents because there are few legal parking options in Medford. As a result, the City Council is exploring the possibility of allowing up to three vehicles a night in a church parking lot. “If there was such a place, I would definitely be utilizing it — someplace where we can park and not worry about it, and not just the neighborhood watches and the police, but a lot of