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Oregon lawmakers have staunched a big part of a sizable funding hole in the state’s health care system, sending the second major bill of the 2019 legislative session to Gov. Kate Brown for signing.

Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Thursday in 10 Oregon counties hit by severe winter weather. 

Those counties are Coos, Curry, Deschutes, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, Klamath, Lane, Linn and Marion.

The emergency declaration directs the Oregon Office of Emergency Management to coordinate with the Oregon Department of Transportation, Oregon State Police and the Oregon National Guard to offer support to those counties as needed. 

The state of emergency will be in effect for 30 days unless Brown ends it earlier.

A vaccination debate enlivened by a measles outbreak in the Portland area drew hundreds to the state Capitol on Thursday for the first hearing of a bill that would eliminate some of Oregon’s existing vaccine exemptions.

Normally sedate hallways were packed with giggling kids, their rapt parents gathering around any TV broadcasting a hearing of the House Committee on Health Care. Two overflow rooms quickly filled with people — many wearing stickers opposing House Bill 3063 — after the hearing room hit capacity well ahead of the 3 p.m. start time.

Oregon is the first state in the nation with statewide rent control.

Gov. Kate Brown signed Senate Bill 608 into law Thursday. It takes effect immediately. 

Brown called the legislation a groundbreaking, bold start.

“(This) will provide immediate relief to Oregonians struggling to keep up with rising rents and a tight rental market, but it doesn’t work on its own,” the governor said. “It’s going to take much more work to ensure that every Oregonian in our communities large and small have access to housing choices.”  

Pacific Gas and Electric says it's "probable" that its equipment caused the Camp Fire in Northern California, the deadliest and most destructive in the state's history.

Guerneville, Calif., "is officially an island," the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said after heavy rains caused the Russian River to rise nearly 14 feet above its flood stage Wednesday night. The high waters isolated both Guerneville and nearby Monte Rio.

The Russian River's flood stage in Guerneville is 32 feet. But it reached nearly 46 feet Wednesday night, and the National Weather Service predicted that major flood conditions will continue Thursday because it will take time for all that water to recede.

When Isa Peña was a senior in high school in 2012, she enjoyed a privilege that so many students hope for: She drove herself to school.

But that privilege came with a responsibility. She also had to drive her parents and two younger siblings anywhere they needed to go.

That meant using school time, and even leaving school early some days, to take her father to work. 

André Previn, a celebrated musical polymath, died Thursday morning; he was a composer of Oscar-winning film music, conductor, pianist and music director of major orchestras. His manager, Linda Petrikova, confirmed to NPR that he died at his home in Manhattan.

Oregonians might get to vote on a sweeping statewide firearms ban next year.

Earlier this week, retired constitutional lawyer Greg Wasson filed the "Common Sense Gun Regulation Act of 2020," which would ban a variety of semiautomatic firearms. 

A similar petition was thwarted by legal challenges in 2018, and Wasson is hoping to have this one on the Oregon ballot in 2020. 

Wasson doesn’t think every weapon deserves constitutional protection.

A survey of women incarcerated at Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF) shows widespread reports of past domestic violence and childhood trauma. 

Sixty-nine percent of women surveyed said past trauma led to their involvement in the criminal justice system.

The survey was conducted by the Oregon Justice Resource Center in partnership with Portland State University.

Central Oregon asphalt turned white this week after storms dumped snow, and thousands in the Willamette Valley are still without power.

Lane Electric Cooperative expects the majority of its 9,000 customers won’t have electricity throughout the weekend, or longer.

Oregon's highest-ranking Republican in state government died Tuesday at age 69 following an earlier brain cancer diagnoses.

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown ordered that flags be lowered to half-staff in honor of Secretary of State Dennis Richardson on Wednesday.

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, one of half a dozen Democratic senators running for the White House, is reintroducing a bill on Thursday that would fundamentally end the federal government's prohibition on marijuana.