Eugene, Lane County | featured news

It wasn’t the fat lady singing and it ain’t actually over yet, but Lane County Commissioner Rob Handy did his best today not to end his term on a sour note.

Facing another $90 million in cost overruns, the Oregon Department of Transportation is considering abandoning the ill-fated realignment of Highway 20 just west of Eddyville.

NEW YORK — Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street for the fifth day in a row as traders hoped for more progress in budget talks being held in Washington. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 79 points to close at 13,248 Tuesday.

SALEM — An Oregon legislative committee will hear public testimony Thursday on a bill sought by apparel giant Nike. Gov. John Kitzhaber has called the full Legislature into special session Friday to consider legislation giving Kitzhaber authority to lock-in a key provision of the tax code for Nike.

NEW YORK — The stock market sprang back to life Tuesday, putting the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its biggest gain this month, following hopeful signs of progress in budget talks being held in Washington. The Dow jumped 107 points to 13,277 as of 1:29 p.m.

PORTLAND — Portland police believe they’ve caught this city’s iconic bank robber, a suspect dubbed the “Hipster Bandit” after he used a bicycle in his getaways. A witness to an August bank robbery said the man “looked like a hipster.” Police say the man is 40-year-old Harvie Dale Oglesby III.

LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Legislature gave final approval Tuesday to a bitterly contested right-to-work plan limiting the power of unions, a devastating and once unthinkable defeat for organized labor in a state considered a cradle of the movement.

Homeless advocates have pitched tents outside the Lane County Courthouse, and law enforcement officials are deciding this morning how to deal with them. The 17-tent protest began last night after the Eugene City Council did not address a request to modify the city’s ban on overnight camping on public property.

SPRINGFIELD — Police ordered precautionary “lockdowns” this morning at several Springfield schools after a passerby reported seeing an armed person walking near Springfield High School.

GRAND RONDE, Ore. — A pedestrian was struck and killed on Highway 18 Monday afternoon in Grand Ronde. Oregon State Police say the 57-year-old woman was crossing the highway with another woman after leaving a restaurant when she was hit by a pickup truck.