Portland-area home sale prices in December were 2.4 percent lower than a year earlier, and they were 3.4 percent lower in November than the prior November, according to CoreLogic, a Santa Ana, Calif., real estate information company. Sales of foreclosed homes and other distressed property helped ...

His fans have known for years that Justin Hopkins has the voice of a superstar. But next week he will have to prove it to America. Hopkins, a Tigard-native turned-LA singer/songwriter, is one of dozens of performers who will appear on the NBC singing competition “The Voice” in its ...

A Gladstone police sergeant was fired for potentially criminal misconduct that had nothing to do with the 2011 killing of Higbee Benton, according to a document released Thursday by the city at the advice of the Clackamas County district attorney’s office. In a Dec. 12 memorandum, Police ...

TIGARD – It’s no secret that downtown Tigard has struggled to draw in customers during the hard economic times. But special events like street fairs and community get-togethers could be the answer to bringing people back to Southwest Main Street and the surrounding commercial ...

Lake Oswego resident Greg Macpherson has made it official: He will run for mayor in the 2012 election. “I am undertaking this new public service because I see a city council that is too divided,” Macpherson said in a statement issued Wednesday afternoon. “Disagreement over public ...

TIGARD — When students at Deer Creek Elementary School were challenged to raise $15,000 in their annual jog-a-thon, they were told they’d receive a special surprise if they made that goal: They’d get to cover their principal in gooey, green slime. That kind of incentive got kids ...

TIGARD – After more than 20 years of putting on the Tigard Area Farmers Market, Stan Baumhofer and Marland Henderson are calling it quits. “We (are leaving) because we’re getting old,” joked Henderson, who also serves on the City Council. “I have enjoyed it and I am ...

Cats may have nine lives, but there’s a certain group of dogs in Tualatin that have their own new lease on life. After operating out of a pet store for more than four years, Oregon Dog Rescue now has its own, permanent home at 6700 S.W. Nyberg St. in Tualatin, where the founders are busy ...

It’s often said an unjust, metaphorical “glass ceiling” prevents women from advancing upward beyond a certain point in the historically male-dominated workplace. On Saturday morning, however, a female gang of Habitat for Humanity volunteers were too busy raising a wood-framed ...

Results of a survey on the Tigard-Tualatin School District website show that most people are opposed to allowing the district’s on-campus health center disperse birth control to students and staff. For weeks the School Based Health Center’s advisory board has been seeking public input ...

Lake Oswego School Superintendent Bill Korach suggested planning for a K-5 Spanish immersion program to begin in the fall while keeping an expansion of the school district’s Mandarin immersion program on deck for now. “We are not positioned right now to do two languages,” Korach ...

When the final bell rings at Rosemont Ridge Middle School on a Friday afternoon, a throng of students migrate from the school, across the street and to the Cascade Station shopping mall. There, the kids hang out, buy snacks, grab a sample at the frozen yogurt store or maybe get a slice of ...

The West Linn Rotary Club recently honored Brian Grant with its 2012 Service Above Self Award. A West Linn resident and a former Portland Trail Blazer, Grant is known for his commitment to the community, to kids and to his foundation. Each year, the Rotary Club selects a member from the community ...

Ryan Lee Johnson’s father looked out into a sea of faces lit by flickering candles Saturday and knew his family was not alone in its grief. “He was deeply loved, and it shows,” a tearful Tim Davis told members of the community who gathered in the Aloha High School football ...

A memorial service will be held Saturday for 22-year-old Ryan Lee Johnson, who was fatally shot Jan. 26 outside the Bales Thriftway in Aloha. The service will take place from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Life Church, 5585 S.W. 209th Ave. in Aloha. It will be followed by a reception. The community is invited ...

Opposition is growing to a proposed independent board that would set Portland utility rates for water, sewer and stormwater management services. The city’s Charter Review Commission may ask Portland voters to approve an Independent Utility Commission in the November election. The idea is a ...

Suzanne Bonamici’s resounding defeat of Rob Cornilles Tuesday night is good news for national Democratic Party leaders, but might be bad news for local voters, according to Jim Moore, director of the Tom McCall Center for Policy Innovation at Pacific University in Forest Grove. As Moore sees ...

Who says sports announcing can’t be a contact sport? Not Bill Schonely, longtime Portland Trail Blazers announcer, now a team ambassador and the man who gave us the basketball sayings “Rip City” and “Bingo Bango Bongo.” Portland Tribune: The most exciting event ...

Portland housing officials took note last week of a new study from Seattle appearing to show that controversial Housing First policies, such as those implemented this year at the Bud Clark Commons in Old Town, can help residents decrease their addictions. The $47 million commons project, which ...

One of the public’s most common associations with hazing might be the classic scene from “Animal House.” But in real life, there’s nothing funny about hazing. So says Sue Lipkins, a New York psychologist, hazing expert and author of the book, “Preventing Hazing: How ...