Multnomah County (Ore)

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    Small Plane Crashes Into Oregon Townhouses, Leaving 3 Missing

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    A Cessna crashed into a row of townhouses in Fairview, Ore., on Saturday, sparking a large fire, officials said.A small plane struck a row of townhouses in Fairview, Ore., according to the authorities, who said at least three people were missing.KPTVA small plane crashed on Saturday morning in a residential neighborhood near an airport in Fairview, Ore., according to the authorities who said that three people were missing.The plane had at least two people on board when it struck a row of townhouses around 10:30 a.m. local time, with a fire spreading from two units to four, according to Chief Scott Lewis of the Gresham Fire Department of Gresham, Ore., a neighboring city.Two people who were aboard the plane and one person from a home were missing, he said.At least five families were displaced from their homes. Two transmission lines from Portland General Electric were down as a result of the crash, which happened near an airport in Troutdale, Ore.Video footage from the scene showed flames rising from a building in a neighborhood with townhouses that are tightly packed together.At some point during the crash, a power pole or tower fell, starting a brush fire, according to John Plock of the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office. “That fire, luckily, was kind of adjacent to a swampy area, so it didn’t really spread,” he said.The Federal Aviation Administration said the plane was a twin-engine Cessna. The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash along with the F.A.A.Fairview is a city of about 11,000 people that is roughly 12 miles east of Portland, Ore. More

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      in Elections

      Voters Oust Progressive Prosecutor in Portland

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      Mike Schmidt, the progressive prosecutor in Portland, Ore., who has held office during a tumultuous period of street protests, drug overdoses and violent crime, lost his seat to a co-worker who has called for more aggressive prosecution of criminals, The Associated Press said on Wednesday.The co-worker, Nathan Vasquez, a deputy district attorney in the Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office, had mounted a campaign that blamed Mr. Schmidt for the city’s recent problems. Mr. Schmidt, a Democrat, was one of a series of progressive prosecutors around the country who had vowed to reshape the criminal justice system.But in the years since Mr. Schmidt’s election in 2020, voters in Portland have signaled an interest in cracking down on crime and homelessness. As businesses fled the city center, people reported feeling unsafe on the streets. Homicides and overdoses soared.Mike Schmidt in 2020.Sean Meagher/The Oregonian, via Associated PressMr. Vasquez called for a new approach, setting up a bitter campaign against his boss. He promised to take on lawless behavior and petty crimes, differentiating himself from Mr. Schmidt, who had won four years ago with pledges to move away from focusing on low-level crimes.Mr. Schmidt tried to highlight the progress seen in the last year, when car thefts dropped rapidly and homicides were coming down from record highs. He backed an effort to partially roll back Oregon’s drug decriminalization law.Mr. Vasquez, an independent who previously was a registered Republican, is the latest public official in a West Coast city to be elected with a promise to be tougher on crime. In 2021, voters in Seattle elected a Republican as the city prosecutor after she vowed more action on low-level crimes. The next year, voters in San Francisco recalled the progressive prosecutor Chesa Boudin.The district attorney position in Portland is nonpartisan, and with only two candidates on the primary ballot Mr. Vasquez’s victory means he is set to take over the office next year. More