PPS graduation rate increases by 5 points

PPS graduation rate increases by 5 points

Portland Public Schools' overall on-time graduation rate rose 5 points from the previous year to 59 percent in 2011, according to data released by the Oregon Department of Education.

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Local fugitive to be featured on America's Most Wanted

PORTLAND, Ore. - A man who impersonated a police officer, kidnapped two women and attempted to rape them remains at large nearly two years later and will now be featured on America's Most Wanted.

Paul Evans Winklebleck, 43, is wanted on felony warrants for kidnapping, criminal impersonation, assault, attempted rape and robbery. He is also wanted for child sex abuse and failing to register as a child sex offender.

The charges stem from a March 4, 2010 incident where two women were approached outside the Roseland Theater just before midnight by Winklebleck, who told them he was a police spotter. He said he would help them get home because they might be intoxicated.

The two women believed Winklebleck and agreed to let him drive them home in their car. Once the women were inside the vehicle, Winklebleck displayed a knife, drove south on Interstate 5 and took the Detroit Lake exit near Salem.

A Viking returns home: PSU's Lanz is back on the court

Some athletes show their love of the game by always playing with a smile on their face but the same can't be said about the star of Portland State University's women's basketball team. But off the court, this home grown talent is nothing but sweet.

Last chance to see 'The Woman in a Blue Dress'

Last chance to see 'The Woman in a Blue Dress'

This weekend is the last time you'll get an opportunity to see 'The Woman in a Blue Dress' by artist Titian. The painting is on display at the Portland Art Museum and it's the first time it's been shown in the United States (it's on loan from the Galleria Palatina in Florence).

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City calls Portland emergency notification test a 'failure'

PORTLAND, Ore. - Most local residents hoping to get a phone call or text message Thursday morning during a city-wide test of an emergency notification system got nothing, a spokesman for the department conducting the test said Thursday afternoon.

Randy Neves, spokesman for the Portland Bureau of Emergency Management (PBEM), said that while the test was still technically ongoing Thursday afternoon, he was calling the results so far "a failure."

Neves said only 2,100 of the 317,000 people who signed up for a phone call or text message from the system actually got a notification and apparently no one outside the city limits received a message.

The system is designed to send out information during a natural disaster or other large-scale emergency. It should send information to people with a home phone or who are signed up to receive a call or text message on their mobile phone.

Firefighter: Willamette rescue was 'most dangerous' of career

PORTLAND, Ore. – Firefighters, two fishermen and a bicyclist teamed up to rescue a man struggling in the cold, fast-moving waters of the Willamette River late Wednesday night.

Portland firefighters said cyclist Dan Sinclair was riding down the Eastbank Esplanade at about 11:15 p.m. Wednesday when he heard cries for help coming from the river and spotted a man struggling in the water about 25 yards from shore.
 
Firefighters said two other men, Sam Policar and Justin Wisdom, were sturgeon fishing from shore nearby and also saw the man in the water. Policar and Wisdom attempted to hook onto the man with their fishing lines to pull him to shore while Sinclair went to nearby Fire Station 21, which is located along the esplanade near the Hawthorne Bridge.

The crew on duty immediately took action to pull the man from the water, which is running fast, cold and at high levels following a week of heavy rain and snow in the Northwest. They also alerted other firefighters to launch a boat into the Willamette River from the Old Town area.

Portland to test emergency notification system Thursday

PORTLAND, Ore. – The Portland Bureau of Emergency Management will test the community notification system for the first time Thursday, Jan. 26.

During the citywide test, PBEM will send a single message via land line phone, cellphone, text and email to as many Portland residents as possible in the shortest amount of time, according to PBEM spokesman Randy Neves.

The test will occur at 11 a.m., Thursday.

The new system has been used before in real, small-scale emergencies, but has never been successfully tested on a large scale, Neves said.

“We want this test to expose any weaknesses in the system,” said PBEM Director Carmen Merlo.

PBEM is asking Portland residents to sign up for public alerts so they can receive the test message. Personal information users provide during registration is kept private and only used to send geographically tailored emergency messages, Neves said.