Ashland News

Peggy Rose, 86, plays video poker machines her only vice, she says at Lava Lanes in Medford Friday.

The very few transients who are besmirching and defiling downtown Ashland, threatening and bothering folks and generally making a real pain of themselves, are also making things even harder for the big majority of Ashland's poor and homeless.

Ashland police estimate that about a dozen people per year could be affected by a proposed three-strikes-and-you're-out downtown exclusion zone.

Log trucks will begin hauling timber from the Ashland Watershed's Horn Gap area and exiting the city through downtown starting in mid-June. Four to five trucks will drive the route each day for about a month supporting a commercial thinning project west of Forest Service Road 2060, said Chris Chambers, Ashland Fire & Rescue's forest resource ... (more)

Andy Joffer, 49, raises sport cattle on his five acres in Jacksonville, outside of Ashland, as well as on leased pastures in his community.

Afew months after the discovery that genetically modified crops were being grown in the Rogue Valley, Jackson County officials have confirmed they have the authority to ban them.

Presila Quinby plays Molly Sweeney, John Leistner plays Mr. Rice and Doug Warner plays Frank Sweeney in Next Stage Repertory's "Molly Sweeney." "Molly Sweeney" was penned by the greatest living Irish playwright, maybe the greatest playwright working today, says Doug Warner, director of Next Stage Repertory's production of "Molly Sweeney." Brian ... (more)

Ashland's Frankie Hernandez and Medford's Michael Whipple lay down layers of riffs and beats in their "electro, acoustic, funkadelic pop." Hernandez, whose "permanent" move to Texas a year ago turned out to be not so permanent, is back in the Rogue Valley, where he has teamed up with Whipple to present groove-based originals at local music venues.

Donation boxes to help the homeless will not be installed before Memorial Day as Ashland Chamber of Commerce representatives had hoped.

Jane Hickinbotham has decorated nearly every inch of her Geo Metro in a collage of Happy Meal toys, cartoon characters, mirrors, jewels, artificial grass, beads and other trinkets - all glued with silicone - and dubbed it Esmerelda Carllage.

The Foxfire Trio will perform its show, Beyond Bluegrass, at 7 p.m. Friday, May 25, at The Playwright Public House, 258 A St.

Pierre Bensusan, considered one of the world's leading acoustic guitarists, taught himself to play when he was 11 years old.

Guitarist and songwriter Cole Cullen will perform original blues at 9 p.m. Thursday, May 24, at Thai Pepper Satay Bar, 84 N. Main St., Ashland.

Look for the lowest gas prices in Ashland and elsewhere around the Rogue Valley with this interactive map and chart from GasBuddy.com . Drivers can compare gas prices via a number of sites on the Web.

A Rogue Valley sunset casts warm light on a vineyard near Griffin Creek Elementary School.

Stephen Gagne of Ashland is one of the directors of the documentary 'Thrive,' showing Thursday at the Varsity Theatre and Friday at Southern Oregon University.

The man who helped send James Auchincloss to jail on child pornography charges is suing the half-brother of Jackie Kennedy Onassis for almost $1.5 million for lost wages, defamation of character and other civil complaints.

Monday, 2:36 p.m. - A 23-year-old man and a 50-year-old man who yelled out obscenities at another man on the corner of Ashland and Liberty Street were charged after the three men were involved in an altercation in the street.

The cost of repairing damage caused during a March 19 fire on the Ashland Plaza has topped $300,000, said property and business owners.

Drugs - Eric Ziegler, 39, of the 200 block of South Oakdale Avenue, Medford. Medford police Monday arrested Ziegler on charges of possession of methamphetamine, unauthorized entry of a motor vehicle, second-degree theft and second-degree criminal mischief.