Redmond City Council passes total ban on fireworks use and sales

KTVZ on August 27, 2026

Spencer Sacks

REDMOND, Ore. (KTVZ) — The Redmond City Council has passed a total ban on the use and sale of fireworks following a second reading. The council voted 5-1 in favor of the measure.

The city considered the ban this month following a public hearing where several residents raised complaints. First responders reported to the council that emergency resources were stretched thin on July 4 after responding to multiple fires, some of which were linked to fireworks.

The second reading served as a formality because the ban had already technically passed. Under the ordinance, using any type of firework is illegal in Redmond, even on the Fourth of July. The measure also prohibits the sale of fireworks, affecting local small clubs and charities that rely on fireworks sales for revenue.

Mayor Ed Fitch supported the ban after emergency personnel reported being overwhelmed during the holiday. “I love fireworks. I enjoyed it with the kids. I enjoyed it growing up,” Fitch said. “But we. The fire risk is too much.”

Councilor Jay Patrick cast the single vote against the ban. “I feel it’s unfairly penalizing those who who want to do right and are trying to do right and are just having fun with their kids on on a national holiday,” Patrick said.

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Residents vent their frustrations to US Rep. Escobar, El Paso officials at Marathon refinery community meeting

KVIA on August 27, 2026

Max Zepeda

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) — The San Juan Neighborhood Association invited residents to attend a community meeting Wednesday to discuss Marathon Petroleum refinery. The meeting comes three weeks after the refinery released more than 15 tons pollutants, according to environmental reports.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said an electrical issue caused the Aug. 4 incident. Emissions left some residents in the area with irritated eyes and nausea.

U.S. Congresswoman Veronica Escobar, and City Representative Josh Acevedo are all expected to attend the meeting tonight, according to the neighborhood association.

In response to the meeting taking place, Marathon provided ABC-7 with the following statement:

We share the goals of transparency, air monitoring, public information, timely notification, and protection of public health. Safe and reliable operations are core principles of Marathon Petroleum. We never want our operations to negatively impact our neighbors, and we are sorry for the disturbance residents experienced due to the event on Aug. 4. We believe it is important to note the actions we took – and have taken – since the event:

This week, we will host our Community Advisory Panel meeting. This is a meeting we have been holding regularly for years with members of neighborhoods near the refinery to share information about our operations and hear about neighbors’ concerns and answer their questions. We will be providing these neighbors with information about the Aug. 4 odor event and details regarding our response.

In response to this event, our operators responded immediately. We shut down the affected equipment, stabilized the unit, deployed mobile off-site air monitoring, and notified the City and the TCEQ, following required notification and reporting protocols.

From that Tuesday night through the following Sunday, we monitored surrounding neighborhoods and locations as far as downtown, taking hundreds of individual readings. Although the odor Tuesday night was undoubtedly strong, our monitoring equipment is calibrated to detect levels that could represent a risk to health, and at the locations and times sampled, the monitoring did not detect levels indicating a health risk. We have shared air monitoring data with EPA.

After the incident, we filed our preliminary findings about the emissions through TCEQ’s reporting system. That report was available publicly and was mentioned in several news stories. The report provided our initial estimate of source emissions on site at the refinery. Those are not the same as ground-level air monitoring in the neighborhoods beyond our fenceline.

On Aug. 18, we filed our final report on the incident with the TCEQ, including refined calculations of what was released. This is a transparent process; this final report is available publicly.

In addition, Marathon Petroleum provides fenceline emissions monitoring data to the EPA which is publicly available through EPA’s website. Also, TCEQ maintains air monitors, including the Womble Air Monitoring Station near the refinery, and makes air quality data from its monitors available through TCEQ’s website.

We support the idea of a better community notification system and have been working with the city of El Paso for the past year to establish a system that can directly call and inform residents of events at the refinery – even when health risks are not involved. This process would be in addition to Marathon’s 24-hour Community Helpline, which has been expanded to manage higher call volumes.

We are also investigating the Aug. 4 event, reviewing the cause, and identifying any appropriate corrective actions. Our trained professionals work every day to operate this refinery safely, reliably, and in compliance with environmental requirements.

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Oregon rental assistance program reaches 500 people in rural areas

KTVZ on August 27, 2026

Kelsey Merison

OREGON (KTVZ) — More than 1,900 Oregon households have received long-term rental assistance since July of last year through a program run by Oregon Housing and Community Services (OHCS).

The program helps people stay housed after exiting homelessness.

More than 500 people in rural Oregon have received help since the program expanded to those communities. That includes people in Curry, Benton, Clatsop and several Eastern Oregon counties.

The assistance can help with rent, utilities, and supportive services.

Officials say the goal is to give people the stability they need to remain housed — especially in rural areas where housing and services can be limited.

OHCS says more than 3,000 Oregonians have received long-term rental assistance since July 2025.

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Manufacturing jobs in Oregon decline for 14 straight quarters

KTVZ on August 27, 2026

Kelsey Merison

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Oregon’s latest revenue and economic forecast is holding steady overall, but some numbers are raising concerns about the state’s economy.

The forecast shows corporate income tax and corporate activities tax revenue projections dropping by a combined $187 million.

House Republican Leader Lucetta Elmer of McMinnville says the numbers are a warning sign for Oregon.

The forecast also comes as Oregon continues to see losses in manufacturing jobs.

According to the figures cited by Elmer, Oregon has lost about one in ten manufacturing jobs since 2023 — with losses continuing for 14 straight quarters.

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AAA warns travelers of rising prices and roadside risks this Labor Day

KTVZ on August 27, 2026

Kelsey Merison

OREGON (KTVZ) — Happening next, AAA is expecting a busy, and more expensive, labor day weekend for travelers.

AAA booking data shows Alaska cruises, national parks, Central Oregon, and the Oregon coast are among the top destinations for Oregonians.

Many travel expenses are up compared to last year, including domestic flights, hotels, cruises and gas–but rental cars and international flights are costing less.

AAA also says drivers should be prepared for roadside issues.

Last year, AAA responded to more than 404,000 roadside assistance calls nationwide during the holiday travel period — including more than 4,300 in Oregon.

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MU Board of Curators approves changes to MU Health Care employee PTO

KMIZ on August 27, 2026

Ryan Shiner

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Changes are coming to MU Health Care employees’ paid-time off.

An MU Health Care spokesman confirmed the changes were approved by the Board of Curators during an Aug. 4 meeting. MU Health Care had announced pending changes earlier this summer when it announced a slew of layoffs and the closure of Hy-Vee Quick Cares.

PTO and six holidays will be combined into a single PTO bank, with total annual days reduced by three. Holiday poay will be eliminated by consolidating holidays.

Veterans Day will be retained as a separate holiday, as required by state law and holiday and premium pay will remain for that day.

The maximum accrual will be capped at 1.5X, which is reduced from 2X.  

Changes will be in effect on Jan. 1.

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Hawley launches investigation into Flock over privacy, data security concerns

KMIZ on August 27, 2026

Mitchell Kaminski

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

U.S Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) has launched an investigation into Flock’s AI-powered web cameras. 

On Wednesday, Hawley sent a letter to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, demanding answers to what safeguards the company has in place to protect Americans’ data. 

According to Flock, Missouri is one of 49 states using the license plate reader cameras, with more than 3,000 Flock cameras deployed across the Show-Me State. Nationwide, Flock says its network includes roughly 120,000 cameras that scan more than 20 billion vehicles each month.

A release from Hawley says his concerns centered on the vast majority of Americans captured by the cameras being uninvolved in any wrongdoing and the use of artificial intelligence to compile that data into a searchable national database rather than limiting it to specific local investigations.

More than 140 cities across the country have since canceled their Flock contracts or deactivated the cameras amid growing concerns over privacy and potential misuse. 

In the letter, Hawley cited several examples, including the St. Charles County Police Department terminating its contract in August after an audit revealed an employee had run Flock searches for personal reasons unrelated to a law enforcement investigation.

“Sadly, my home state is not an outlier. In Milwaukee, prosecutors charged a police officer who allegedly searched his girlfriend’s license plate 124 times and her former boyfriend’s plate 55 times, entering “investigation” as his justification each time. Worse still, the officer was not caught by the company’s audit systems—he was caught because a private citizen looked up his own plate on a public website,” Halwey wrote in his letter to Langley.  

Several local Mid-Missouri law enforcement agencies, including the Columbia and Jefferson City police departments, have touted Flock’s effectiveness, with Jefferson City Police Chief Eric Wilde previously telling the City Council that Flock cameras helped the department solve three homicides.

However, Hawley also raised concerns about potential false positives from the technology. He cited examples of a Florida woman spending 13 days in jail and faced eight felony charges after a Flock camera alert led investigators to the wrong vehicle. Prosecutors ultimately dismissed the charges seven months later after it was determined that investigators had arrested the wrong person based on a search of Flock’s network using a vehicle description.

He also pointed to a report from the Roseville Police Department in California that found that 71% of its Flock alerts were wrong. The Los Angeles Police Department also canceled its Flock contract after an audit found officers had stopped 161 vehicles incorrectly flagged as stolen 

“I want law enforcement to have tools to catch offenders and keep the public safe. But Americans do not surrender their privacy rights when they drive to work, drop their kids off at school, or go to church,” Hawley said in his letter. “The Supreme Court has recognized that a comprehensive, retrospective record of a person’s movements is different in kind from ordinary observation in public. Congress never authorized the network your industry has built. Your company’s internal policies are, in practice, the only safeguards for hundreds of millions of Americans. People across the country are now discovering that fact and demanding answers from their elected officials.”

Hawley’s letter comes as a growing number of residents have begun to express concerns about Columbia’s Flock cameras. On Monday, Dominic O’Connor was arrested by police after protesting Flock on a median. 

Dan Viets, an attorney with the Mid-Missouri Civil Liberties Association, has been one of the more outspoken community members regarding Flock cameras since they were first introduced in Columbia in 2024. He told ABC 17 News on Wednesday that many of the concerns he raised have since come to fruition, and argued that public safety should not come at the expense of constitutional protections.

“If there were no Fourth Amendment, the police could solve a lot more crimes. If they never needed to get a search warrant, if they could invade all of our homes whenever they felt like it. Indeed, they would solve more crimes. It is not worth the tradeoff. It is not worth the sacrifice,” Viets said. “People have a reasonable expectation that when they travel on the streets lawfully for lawful purposes, they’re not going to be placed under surveillance.”

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Idaho to get $89.2M in landmark Meta settlement

KIFI on August 27, 2026

Curtis Jackson

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) — Idaho will receive between $89.2 million and $127.7 million as part of a landmark multistate settlement with Meta valued at up to $18 billion. The agreement resolves claims from 47 states, the District of Columbia and multiple U.S. territories alleging the company intentionally designed Instagram and Facebook with addictive features that harmed young users’ mental health.

The settlement follows a bipartisan, nationwide investigation launched in 2021 by attorneys general into social media industry practices targeting children and teens. Investigators found that Meta engineered platform features to hook young users while internally documenting the resulting mental health harms and failing to warn parents. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced the state’s payout allocation after the trial, which began in federal court on Aug. 18, reached a resolution mid-trial.

Labrador emphasized his office’s commitment to holding tech companies accountable for product design. “Protecting children in Idaho is one of the most critical responsibilities of my office,” Labrador said. “Intentionally engineering any product to addict children is unconscionable. Meta’s design was a cynical attempt to create a lifetime user, regardless of the psychological damage and harm our children were exposed to. When this trial began, I said we would hold Meta accountable and today I’ve kept that promise.”

Under the terms of the settlement approved by U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, Meta will pay 70% of the settlement fund to states in annual installments over the next decade. The remaining 30% is contingent on whether competing platforms YouTube and TikTok agree to make similar financial payments and app modifications.

The agreement mandates sweeping safety adjustments for users ages 13 to 17 across Instagram and Facebook. Meta must enforce a cumulative two-hour daily time limit with mandatory pauses after 15 minutes of continuous use, as well as additional pauses at 60 and 90 minutes.

Platforms must also institute a nighttime block restricting access from midnight to 6 a.m. and a school mode that mutes push notifications on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. during the school year.

Additional mandated features include hiding visible like and reaction counts on posts by minors, blocking cosmetic surgery and extreme makeup filters and expanding age assurance tools to verify young users.

Meta must also strengthen parental controls and provide content safeguards against bullying, content promoting eating disorders and content related to suicide and self-harm.

Meta did not admit to any wrongdoing as part of the agreement and has long denied that its platforms harm children. The company stated in a blog post that ensuring teens have a safe and productive experience is an absolute imperative, adding that it partnered with state attorneys general to establish a new industry standard.

Legal experts and youth safety advocates offered varying perspectives on the resolution. Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center, called the agreement a “watershed moment in holding the tech giant accountable for designing products it knew were harming children and fueling a nationwide youth mental health crisis.”

Meanwhile, Maurine Molak, co-founder of ParentsSOS, called for broader legislative action across the entire industry. “We need a duty of care to ensure that Meta stops designing for addiction both now and in the future and that our children are protected no matter what platform they use,” Molak said.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta stated that the required platform changes are expected to go into effect within months. Both the implementation and ongoing efficacy of the new safety features will be regularly evaluated by an independent auditor and the settling states.

Editor’s Note: This story was adapted from an original on-air broadcast report with the assistance of AI. All content is thoroughly reviewed and verified for accuracy by the Local News 8 editorial team.

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Ernesto Juarez, ‘Mr. Dome Valley Raceway,’ passes away

KYMA on August 26, 2026

Connor Emery

YUMA COUNTY, Ariz. (KYMA) – A well-beloved man in the Yuma community tragically passed away in a car crash.

Ernesto Juarez, better known as “Mr. Dome Valley Raceway,” was the former owner and founder of Dome Valley Raceway in Wellton.

Juarez built the Dome Valley Raceway in 1996. Since then, it has carried a legacy, with multiple sand drag racing events.

“To me, my father was everything. He was my everything we did everything together. He was my best friend,” Esteban Juarez, Juarez’s youngest son, said.

Juarez’s main goal was to bring the Yuma community together with an unfamiliar sport. He would go out of his way to put other racers and everyone else first.

“Even when we had this race track and started very young, he would host events for families that were struggling for churches that needed sponsorships and donate all the proceeds to those individuals and that never left him into the day. He’s always been putting everybody first before himself and that’s one of my greatest memories of my father,” Art Juarez, Juarez’s oldest son said.

Juarez was a healthy man who had big plans ahead of him. Unfortunately, he died in a Phoenix car crash.

Esteban says he was able to spend the day with his dad doing the one thing he loved.

“We were just joking, having a good time. And we went back home for this race car that we’re building,” Esteban said emotionally.

Even though Ernesto is gone, his name will be carried on in the sport of sand drag racing. 

“His story is going to always live, live on forever and his legacy is going to live on forever. And he’s left a dent in the sand drags racing and he’s one of the forefathers of this beautiful sport of sand drags,” Art said.

“All we can do now is hold our heads high and move forward and honor him the best we can our last name will always be his,” Esteban said.

Funeral services and a celebration of life will be held this weekend.

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Glen Allen Project Hosts Special Needs Mixer Party in Pocatello

KIFI on August 26, 2026

Hadley Bodell

POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) – As one attendee said Wednesday morning, “there’s disabled people everywhere,” and in Pocatello, the Glen Allen Project is bringing together the special needs community every week. Aside from hosting weekly art classes, Wednesday’s party was filled with face painting, free food, clay making and live music.

Organizer Stephanie Carr said the event was a party for disabled adults, focused on giving them an opportunity to meet new friends. Attendees were even given a notepad to write down each other’s phone numbers and make future plans.

Attendees showed up for a variety of reasons, many of them saying they were excited to meet other people.

Wheelchair car wash at the Glen Allen Project Special Needs Mixer, August 26

“I’m just hoping to meet some new people and make some new friends and hopefully find somebody I have something in common with and share interest with,” said Stacy Johnson, the mastermind behind the event.

Sunny Sage Bybee is the co-founder of the Glen Allen Project and said the organization is thrilled to help the special needs community in any way.

“We have a really good time here at Lookout Point Park, and we hope we enrich the lives for the downtown neighborhood,” Bybee said.

Johnson has dreamt of being many things in his life, including an artist, musician and scientist. At GAP, those dreams can become a reality.

“He wanted to help the community and thinks it’s important so this mixer was his idea,” Carr said.

People could get their face painted or make a clay sculpture inside the building. Outside was free food and a wheelchair car wash. While live music played the song “Car Wash,” attendees in wheelchairs were pushed through the turf and swarmed with bubbles.

“We just put a lot of effort into making it a fun and engaging experience where people can mingle and get to know each other,” Bybee explained. “And every Friday we have a special needs art class where they can also come to meet people. We’ve done polymer clay and it’s always just something different.”

Johnson said he was eternally grateful to be a part of the project and was thrilled with today’s turn out. Families in the community brought their kids for the music, free food and face painting.

Another attendee, Richard Meisner, also known as “Bubba” said he was invited by a friend during a Cars and Coffee meet up a few weeks back.

“It sounded fun to come make new friends,” he said. “And you should come out because we rock.”

A child gets her face painted, August 26

Cassie Correl is a weekly artist at the GAP and said she came to help spread the word about the special needs community in Pocatello. She said the weekly classes are easy and fun, with beaded necklaces being her favorite kind of art.

“Today I’m coloring and doing art, I’m getting my hair glittered and face paint. We’re doing dancing and there’s just a lot of fun energetic stuff for us to do,” she said. “People can also learn information about the community that they don’t know, not everyone knows there’s disabled people in Pocatello.”

Correl said there are disabled people everywhere and that everyone should help them because they’re just people.

“We’re just normal people,” she said. “We might be a little weird, but we’re just normal people.”

To learn more about the Glen Allen Project, visit https://glenallenarts.org/

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