An expert witness for the prosecution testified Tuesday that Islamic charities based in Saudi Arabia, including the one an Oregon tree surgeon is accused of smuggling money for, were regular conduits of funding to Muslim fighters in the volatile Caucasus region.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) -- A 127-year-old building at the Oregon State Hospital is getting a fresh coat of paint.

After working his way up for 20 years at the Oregon Convention Center, Event Services Director Mark Williams has moved on to different pastures. A pasture filled with lions, tigers and bears at the Oregon Zoo.

In an unassuming building, the new Gateway Center for Domestic Violence sits nestled inside the Gateway Children's campus in East Portland. Off the MAX blue line at 102nd and Burnside Street, the yellow building will be a one-stop shop for women and men who feel unsafe in their relationships.

For a week, a group of homeless people had made a clean and well-organized camp in an industrial part of Portland. Nestled in between a fenced-off area of Water Bureau property and a blackberry-covered hill on North Wheeler Avenue, the residents thought they had discovered a perfect, out-of-the-way place to live.

UPDATE: All tickets have been awarded.

The circus is coming to town and your family could be the lucky recipient of free tickets courtesy of The Skanner News! The Wringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey's circus is one of the preeminent circus entertainment organizations in America. Winners will receive four tickets to one of the shows held on Sept. 4 and 5. There will 20 winning families

While banks around the nation are getting stingier about loaning money – a trend that's led to a catastrophic drop in the homeownership this summer — the Portland Housing Center just won $750,000 to continue building on its record number of clients turned into first time homebuyers this year.

U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Northeast Portland Aug. 5 featured a VIP-studded press tour of a Stimulus Act-funded housing weatherization pilot program. During her visit to inspect the project, Pelosi was joined by Rep. Earl Blumenauer, Mayor Sam Adams, and a host of North and Northeast Portland businesspeople — all celebrating the Portland program's launch as well as a new $20 million federal grant to take the effort statewide over the coming year.

During a disaster, saving lives often depends on how well communities have planned and built partnerships in advance.

Newly-elected Portland Police Association President Daryl Turner sat down with The Skanner News last week to answer questions about his priorities in office and to sketch out big issues in the labor negotiations between the union and the city.