Chris McGinness

2 weeks ago | kgw.com | Chris McGinness

PORTLAND, Ore. — Electric vehicles are a small, but growing segment of Oregon's car market that's helping reduce greenhouse gas emissions and fuel costs for drivers. The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality will soon restart a program that could help more people buy EVs. Oregon now has over 112,000 registered electric vehicles — about 3% of all cars, trucks and SUVs on the road.

3 weeks ago | kgw.com | Chris McGinness

WARM SPRINGS, Ore. — Steelhead are returning to Central Oregon, and Portland General Electric (PGE) and the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs (CTWS) are calling it a "win" on the Deschutes River. It signals a potential turning point in the long battle to restore native fish runs blocked by dams since the 1960s.

3 weeks ago | kgw.com | Chris McGinness

PORTLAND, Ore. — This Earth Day marks a major milestone for Free Geek, the Portland nonprofit that has been transforming old electronics — and lives — for 25 years. What began as a small Earth Day recycling pop-up at Pioneer Courthouse Square has grown into a national model for e-waste reduction and digital equity. Inside Free Geek’s Southeast Portland warehouse, the hum of tools and soft clatter of computer parts sets the scene. Here, stacks of donated electronics are given a second life.

3 weeks ago | kgw.com | Chris McGinness

CARLTON, Ore. — On a sunny spring morning in Oregon wine country, Tabula Rasa Farms hums with quiet purpose. Chickens scratch among wildflowers and a gentle breeze rustles cover crops in fields alive with biodiversity. But what’s growing here goes beyond vegetables and pasture-raised meat. It’s a vision, decades in the making, for farming that heals the land. “We call it the 100-year plan,” said Brenda Smola-Foti, co-founder and Chief Farming Officer at Tabula Rasa.

1 month ago | kgw.com | Chris McGinness

PORTLAND, Ore. — A bill to legalize lane filtering — the practice of motorcycles riding between other vehicles on a highway — is making its way through Salem right now. House Bill 3542 would allow motorcyclists to essentially ride the dashed lines on congested Oregon highways under specific conditions: the freeway is clogged with stop-and-go traffic moving 10 mph or less, and motorcyclists can travel no more than 10 mph faster than the overall flow.