SEATTLE (AP) -- With winter half gone, some weather experts say the Green River Valley south of Seattle may have avoided catastrophic flooding, at least this season. The El Nino weather pattern affecting the Pacific Coast has helped bring a warm January to the Pacific Northwest, along with drenching rains and snow to California.

COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (AP) -- Ben West was scheduled to fly into Haiti's second-largest city on Jan. 15, to launch a project designed to address a critical problem in a country stripped of as much as 99 percent of its forests. Haiti needed stoves. Haiti needed stoves because an estimated 800,000 of its residents cook either on an open fire or with an unimproved stove that resembles a baby's crib with no mattress in it -- "horribly inefficient," said West, general manager of the fledgling company StoveTec, a for-profit spinoff of the Cottage Grove nonprofit Aprovecho Research Center...

In response to appeals for charitable causes, a new movement in generous giving is sweeping the nation: Text message donations.
It was recently reported that U.S.-based cell phone users had already contributed millions of dollars towards Haiti disaster relief efforts using a Short Message Service (SMS). Additionally, an increasing number of mobile marketing companies (MMCs) and celebrities are encouraging donations from text messengers.

Former state Sen. Avel Gordly filed a formal petition to recall Portland Mayor Sam Adams on Wednesday morning. If Gordly is successful in gathering 32,183 valid signatures by April 20, a special election would then be held to determine the fate of Adams...

Dr. Joy DeGruy, author of "Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome," delivers the keynote address at Redefining the Blues II, Saturday Jan. 23, 2:15-4:30 p.m. at the Emmanuel Temple's Community Room, 1033 N. Sumner.

In order to learn about a year-long program that aims to help Oregon National Guard members, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, visited the offices of the Oregon Partnership last week...

SEATTLE (AP) -- Seattle, you're greasy. Really greasy. It's estimated that 544,000 gallons of grease slip down Seattle's drains each month, enough to fill seven large swimming pools. Most of it comes from dirty dishes and food waste, and it's a problem. In the last five years, grease-clogged pipes caused about one-third of Seattle's sewer backups ...

It all started with a simple question. Nearly 24 years ago, two women from Denver wanted to know why the city of Portland didn't have a street named for Martin Luther King Jr...

Isaiah Scott is 10 years old, and like other kid his age, he enjoys playing and watching sports. He also has a passion for playing video games. Isaiah has been playing fewer sports and more video games lately because of his stay at Doernbecher Children's Hospital. On Sept. 16, 2009, Isaiah was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

As a Chicago native, Sylvia Dollarson is no stranger to cold winters. But when Portland first went into a freeze in December, her apartment wasn't holding heat, and her pipes froze. She was alarmed...