President Barack Obama strongly signaled that Democrats will move forward on a health care overhaul with or without Republicans, preparing his party for a fight whose political outcome will rest with voters in November.

A federal program that began as a safety net for Pacific Northwest logging communities hard-hit by battles over the spotted owl in the 1990s has morphed into a sprawling entitlement that ships vast amounts of money to states with little or no historic connection to timber.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced a crop of timber sales for Bureau of Land Management lands that will help keep Oregon mills open while the Obama administration works on a long-term forest management strategy.

Historic legislation to expand U.S. health care and control costs won its first Republican supporter Tuesday and cleared a key Senate hurdle, a double-barreled triumph that propelled President Barack Obama's signature issue toward votes this fall in both houses of Congress.

Vandals splattered feces on a window in front of a life-size cutout of President Barack Obama. The News-Review newspaper reports the excrement coated the window and covered the eaves Tuesday at the Democratic party office in downtown Roseburg.

Old people get sick more than young people, and in most states that adds up to them paying a lot more for their health insurance premiums. President Barack Obama and congressional Democrats want to restrict that practice.

Oregon and Washington have joined a little-known federal program to pay out unemployment-style benefits to those planning to make money as entrepreneurs. And now the program could be in jeopardy.

Serving on three key committees, the Stanford- and Princeton-educated Jeff Merkley has become deeply immersed in crucial and heady issues. Those include health care reform, global warming and finding solutions to the nation's financial crisis.

Oregon congressional members have proposed new protections for three areas in southwest Oregon. A series of bills introduced by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and Rep. Peter DeFazio seek wilderness designation for nearly 30,000 acres in the Siuslaw National Forest known as the Devil's Staircase.

Les Schwab Tire Centers is gathering Oregon political support in its effort to stop curbs on tires from China.

The vast majority of Les Schwab's $1.6 billion in annual tire sales comes from private-brand tires, as opposed to name brands like Goodyear or Michelin, the company wrote in its brief. Those brands are more likely to come from China or other foreign plants.

The military had originally ordered the members of the Oregon brigade to be broken up into more than 20 smaller units and attached to other active Army brigades under different commanders.

A push for new taxes on soda, beer and wine to help pay for Americans' health care is stirring up more than just the beverage industry.

Costs are emerging as the biggest obstacle to President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to provide health insurance for everybody. The upfront tab could reach $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion over 10 years.

Senators get down to work this coming week on turning ideas into legislation to cover some 50 million people without health insurance and contain costs for everyone else. Hopes are high that Democrats and Republicans can find common ground for a bill to emerge by summer.