Oregon Live

10 hours ago | oregonlive.com | Maxine Bernstein

A stripped-down gun control bill is headed to the Senate floor after lawmakers voted to drop provisions to raise the age for gun possession and extend Oregon’s waiting period to buy a gun. The Senate Rules Committee voted along party lines to forward a much narrower Senate Bill 243 to the full Senate.

15 hours ago | oregonlive.com | Maxine Bernstein

The second-in-command of Portland’s 18th Street gang was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in prison for running the gang’s drug trafficking operation and possessing guns. Federal investigators placed wiretaps on Noah Herrera’s phones to track his crimes as early as 2022, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Edmonds. Edmonds said the gang sold significant amounts of methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl. Agents seized more than 15 guns during the investigation,he said.

15 hours ago | oregonlive.com | Maxine Bernstein

Natalie K. Wight, the former Oregon U.S. attorney who left that job in February at the request of the Trump administration, is now executive director of a federal halfway house in Portland. Wight began working May 7 as the executive director of the Northwest Regional Re-entry Center, taking over the job vacated by Brian Martinek. “We are honored to welcome Natalie to the NWRRC leadership team,” Martinek said in a statement.

19 hours ago | oregonlive.com | Maxine Bernstein

A federal judge in Portland ruled Tuesday that the government had illegally arrested a Venezuelan man in Portland under the Alien Enemies Act using “shoot first and ask questions later” tactics that violated the basic rule of law. U.S. District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai particularly criticized what he said were false suspicions about tattoos on the arms of Diego Armando Morales Jiminez that federal agents cited among the reasons for questioning him and later detaining him in April.

1 day ago | oregonlive.com | Jonathan Bach

A bill in the Oregon Senate aims to make new apartment projects on the margin viable in exchange for affordable units. Senate Bill 684 would establish a fund, seeded with state dollars, for apartment developers to tap low-interest loans. The loan fund was inspired by a similar program in Montgomery County, Maryland. Championed by Sen. Khanh Pham, D-Portland, the bill has garnered bipartisan support, advancing out of two committees so far and now before the Joint Committee on Ways and Means.