Browse All News Articles on Salem-News Page 363

Crisis in Iraq Sends Oregon Fuel Prices Soaring

Diesel prices are holding fairly steady. Oregon’s average gained two cents to $3.94.

(PORTLAND, Ore. ) - Gas prices are edging up as violence in Iraq has intensified.

The national average for regular unleaded adds two cents this week to $3.66 a gallon while the Oregon average gains three cents to $3.93, which is the year-to-date high. In fact, all of Oregon’s measured metro areas are at their peak price so far for 2014.

California, Washington and Oregon all remain in the top 10 most expensive states. California is second, Washington is fourth and Oregon is eighth.

U.S. Senators: How to End the NSA Dragnet (Op-Ed)

Reforms would erect safeguards against the further erosion of our right to privacy, and ensure greater transparency and openness.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - One year ago this month, Americans learned that their government was engaged in secret dragnet surveillance, which contradicted years of assurances to the contrary from senior government officials and intelligence leaders.

On this anniversary, it is more important than ever to let Congress and the administration know that Americans will reject half-measures that could still allow the government to collect millions of Americans' records without any individual suspicion or evidence of wrongdoing.

President Set to Sign Historic Order Banning LGBT Discrimination

Close to one quarter of the workforce in the country is made up of federal workers.

(NEW YORK) - President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order that will ban government contractors from discriminating employees base on sexual orientation or gender identity.

The order would build on existing workers’ protections, which prohibit federal contractors and subcontractors from showing prejudices on employees base on their sex, religion, race, color, or national origin.

Sri Lanka Condemns Violence Against Muslims

Stronger international oversight urged to ensure accountability and protection of ethnic and religious groups.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The United States Tamil Political Action Council strongly condemns the attack on the Muslims in the town of Aluthgama in Sri Lanka on Sunday and calls on the international community to address the rampant impunity on the island.

News reports are emerging that Muslims were attacked by Sinhala nationalist extremists and their properties were destroyed in Aluthgama and neighboring areas.

The United States` Tragic Role in Iraq

"It is particularly bizarre that some of the very people who supported the illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq are now trying to somehow blame Obama for the unfolding fiasco."

(SANTA CRUZ, Calif.) - The dramatic rise of the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)—which even al-Qaeda deemed too extreme to remain part of its network—is a tragedy by any measure. It would also be tragic if we allowed the very forces that created this mess to explain it away.

Despite claims by the Bush administration and its supporters to the contrary, outside of a few dozen fighters in a remote valley of the Kurdish autonomous region, there was no Al-Qaeda or related Salafi extremist presence in Iraq under the Saddam Hussein regime. But now, thanks to the U.S. invasion and occupation, the extremists control most of the northern and western parts of the country, including Iraq’s second largest city.

Proxy Wars

Today we have a new crop of Messianic warriors who have taken on the mission in the name of western democracy.

(LONDON) - The Messianic warriors are at work again. Their mission is not to spread the word of God, though that is their cover, but to serve their own God; the God of Mammon, greed and avarice.

This is not new. It’s been an ongoing process since the advent of the Industrial Revolution when the British ruled the world and the English firmly believed that God was an Anglo Saxon. It was the Empire on which the sun never set or, as some said, the blood never dried.’

Marine Families: Victims Of Toxic Wells

Government Moves to Dismiss Lawsuits and Make the Problem Go Away

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - The US Supreme Court this week decided a case in favor of an environmental polluter in North Carolina that affects family members of Marine veterans who were stationed at Camp Lejeune and injured by the base’s toxic water wells.

It’s no coincidence that the Obama Administration formally sided with CTS Corporation in CTS Corp. v. Waldburger by submitting a friend of the court briefing, which made it clear where the government stands on injuries and deaths to Marine family members.

Motorcycle Rear Ends Semi on I-5 Near Salem

Salem-News.com will have more on this story as soon as it becomes available.

(SALEM, Ore. ) - Salem-News.com is on scene of an accident on Interstate 5 at the Delaney Rd exit, Exit 248.

A motorcycle hit the rear-end of a semi-truck police tell Salem-News.com. The motorcycle rider was taken by ambulance to Salem Hospital, and their condition is not know at this time.

Governor Says Oregon`s Job Growth on the Right Track

Oregon's seasonally adjusted job gain was 4,200 in May and 6,200 in April.

(SALEM, Ore. ) - Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber on Tuesday released the following statement on the Oregon Employment Department’s latest numbers for the state labor market.

The Department announced that Oregon’s unemployment rate was holding steady at 6.9 percent and that the state gained 4,200 jobs in May and 6,200 in April.

Financial activities was the only major sector without a jobs recovery. It employed 91,000 in May, a level that hasn't changed much in the past four years.

Benghazi Attack Ringleader Captured in Libya

The U.S. will try him in a civilian court rather than hold him at the military detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) - Ahmed Abu Khattala was taken into custody in a secret U.S. military raid in Libya on June 15.

U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed in the attack.