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WASHINGTON - The massive leaks about U.S. spying systems caused sharp political and legal aftershocks Tuesday as the Justice Department prepared to file criminal charges against Edward Snowden, a government contractor who has publicly admitted disclosing highly classified telephone and Internet data-gathering operations. The vast scope of the government surveillance sparked the first federal lawsuit challenging its legality, a bipartisan effort in the Senate to declassify secret court orders that authorize the operations, and requests from Google and Facebook for permission to disclose more about National Security Agency requests for users' emails and other online communications.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Proponents of fluoridating Portland's water supply had no trouble getting the local Urban League on board. Here in the biggest city in the country that still doesn't treat its water to prevent tooth decay, studies show that low-income children and kids of color have been hit hardest by untreated cavities. "Do we really want our children to be suffering from something we could prevent? Why would we not want to be involved?" said Jerome Brooks, an Urban League advocacy contractor who has helped marshal the civil rights group behind a fluoridation measure on Tuesday's municipal ballot.

THE BEST WAY TO PORTLAND, ORE. From LAX , Alaska, Southwest, Virgin America and United offer nonstop service to Portland. Southwest also offers direct service (stop, no change of plane);connecting service (change of plane) is offered on Southwest, Alaska, Delta, United and American. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $156.

The last time Manuel Cardenas fell ill, the 24-year-old single father had no choice but to report for work. His employer, a security contractor, doesn't offer sick pay to part-timers like Cardenas, he said, and he can't afford to lose a day's wages. "I probably shouldn't have, but I had to," said Cardenas, a security guard in San Jose. He is among California workers for whom labor groups and others are fighting to secure paid sick leave. Currently, 4.5 million workers in California, about 40% of the state's workforce, don't have sick-pay benefits.

Jeff Foster, 20, a Boise State basketball player from Salinas, Calif., was killed in a traffic accident east of Jordan Valley, Ore., near the Idaho border.

Inner PacifiCorp Inc. of Portland, Ore., has reduced its stake in Equitec Financial Corp. to 49.47%, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Inner PacifiCorp transferred 52,000 common shares to Equitec Executive Bonus Trust at $2.75 a share. Inner PacifiCorp holds 2.5 million shares of the Oakland-based investor in real estate and mortgages.

This tiny town has one of the few lead smelters on earth capable of processing lead ore that also contains varying amounts of silver, copper and gold. The others are in Canada, Europe and Japan. Since the depletion of Montana's deposits more than 40 years ago, most of the ore is shipped from mines in Peru, Bolivia and Australia to the Asarco Inc. smelter here. Less than 5% of the ore now originates in Montana mines.

Tom Copeland of United States International University and Tim Coffey of host Portland State were declared champions of the Portland Rippling River Invitational golf tournament Saturday when a snowstorm ended play after 27 holes at Rippling River Resort in Welches, Ore. Copeland and Coffey, both at one-over-par 107, finished one stroke ahead of Chuck DeSilva of the University of Portland. University of Portland won the team competition with a combined score of 442.

The gig : Andrew Wiederhorn is the chairman and chief executive of Fatburger Inc., a fast-food restaurant chain based in Beverly Hills. The first Fatburger opened on Western Avenue in Los Angeles in 1947 and gained notoriety when rappers Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. all mentioned the restaurant in songs. Since 2003, Fatburger has been owned by Fog Cutter Capital Group Inc., a Santa Monica investment company of which Wiederhorn is also chairman and CEO. Self-starter : Wiederhorn grew up in a single-parent family in Portland; his father died when he was age 9. In high school, he hired a lawyer to help him get permits to rent out jet-skis on the Willamette River.

Vertigo. For most people, the word summons images of Jimmy Stewart dangling from high places in Alfred Hitchcock's classic thriller by the same name. It means something else, however, to hundreds of thousands of people who experience the strange, dizzying affliction. The most common cause of vertigo, known as benign paroxysmal positional vertigo, usually can be treated with one visit to the doctor.

A string of seven fires within a city block in Bend, Ore., started with the scorching of a historic church during the morning darkness Wednesday and continued until after dawn, when firefighters spotted two cars engulfed in flames, officials said. After firefighters arrived at Trinity Episcopal Church's main sanctuary around 2:15 a.m., a slew of other fires were spotted nearby -- one at another building across the street that the church uses to serve homeless people, three that burned outside portions of residences, including a garage and a shed, and two vehicle fires, Bend Fire Marshal Larry Medina told the Los Angeles Times.

Perhaps you're thinking about sweets and Thursday's big event -- Valentine's Day. Well, it's possible to find romance even in the gloomy Pacific Northwest, especially when chocolate frosting is involved. Portland, Ore., has a reputation as a growing gastropolis, with foodies from around the country converging on newly opened gastropubs, communal-table style restaurants -- and bakeries . During a recent visit, it seemed as though a visitor could purchase pastries on every other corner.

THE BEST WAY TO PORTLAND, ORE. From LAX , Alaska, Southwest, Virgin America and United offer nonstop service to Portland. Southwest also offers direct service (stop, no change of plane);connecting service (change of plane) is offered on Southwest, Alaska, Delta, United and American. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $156.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Is it possible for an Angeleno to leave home and find love in a region where sunshine is merely a rumor and 50 shades of gray are a daily atmospheric reality? It's helpful if the pursuit of that bliss involves a white-hot controversy that upon occasion dominates headlines and ensnares academics, government officials and medical researchers. I am speaking, of course, of carbohydrate love. Portland - where the constantly caffeinated seem to have an ever-growing selection of pastries to consume with their coffee - is a logical destination.

You don't need a passport to visit Portland, Ore., but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get one. Those who book their next hotel stay at Travel Portland's website will receive a "passport" for free food items instead of free passage. And who doesn't want a free cream doughnut from Voodoo Doughnuts ? The deal: The Portland Passport is a good way to sample some of the city's artisan food stops. Receive a free one-hour beer tour and tasting at Widmer Bros. Brewing , free basket of buttermilk biscuits at the Country Cat , a free cup of seafood chowder at Salty's on the Columbia and a free ice cream cone at Salt & Straw . No extra purchase required to take advantage of the passport.

Dear SOS: We recently had a fabulous dinner at Vitaly Paley's new restaurant, Imperial, in Portland, Ore. Everything was truly amazing. The crowning touch was a gingerbread sticky pudding with cold whipped cream. Is there any way the restaurant would part with the recipe? I would love to make this for our family. Linda Kirk Playa del Rey Dear Linda: It's a gingerbread lover's dream come true. Imperial's rich, dark gingerbread is fragrantly spiced with cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and fresh ginger, and doused with homemade toffee sauce fresh out of the oven, making for an extra-moist cake.

Finally released after spending half of his life in prison, and still he had to wait. So Christopher Boyce hung around the prison parking lot, rubbernecking, taking in the fresh air around Sheridan, Ore., unsure what to make of freedom. A half hour went by before the big Suburban at last came lumbering up the driveway, carrying his father, a former FBI agent, and his mother, once a Catholic nun.

"Prolonged sitting is not what nature intended for us," says Dr. Camelia Davtyan, clinical professor of medicine and director of women's health at the UCLA Comprehensive Health Program. "The chair is out to kill us," says James Levine, an endocrinologist at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine. Most of us have years of sitting experience, consider ourselves quite good at it and would swear that nature intended us to do it as much as possible. PHOTOS: 17 ways to fight the inertia, step by step But unfortunately, a good deal of data suggest that we're off our rockers to spend so much time on our rockers - as well as the vast variety of other seats where we're fond of parking our duffs.

In response to Christopher Reynolds' article on Mexico ["How Safe Is It for Travelers?," Sept. 9], I wanted to share our experiences traveling to Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. Our daughter, who was raised in Huntington Beach, moved with her husband to Ixtapa in 2007, where she is now fluent in Spanish and works in a lovely hotel on Ixtapa beach. We have visited them each year in the spring and fall since 2007. We have had remarkable experiences: surfing at the most beautiful, deserted beaches, walking and gathering shells, photographing the beautiful array of aquatic birds and wildlife.

The Pittock Mansion, a 16,000-square-foot French Renaissance-style masterpiece, reigns atop a 1,000-foot bluff overlooking the city of Portland, Ore. With panoramic views of the Willamette and Columbia rivers and five Cascade mountains, the mansion is a testament to what power and wealth could achieve in 1914, what civic activism could restore in 1965 and what could be a killer setting for a house party in 2012. Why it's a treasure: Henry Pittock, a penniless Oregon Trail pioneer who became a land baron, lumber and paper mill magnate and owner of the Oregonian, which he built into the state's largest daily newspaper, commissioned California architect Edward T. Foulkes to create a showcase legacy for his five surviving children and their families.