The holiday season is right around the corner, which means the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree is on.

For those looking to bring home a real tree at an unbeatable price, $5 permits are now available for all Oregon national forests.

Christmas tree permits are available for purchase online at recreation.gov. On the website, just search for the name of the national forest, like Willamette National Forest, and “Christmas tree permit.”

Permits are $5 each (with an added $2.50 processing fee charged by the website). Each permit allows the cutting of one Christmas tree. Households can purchase a maximum of five permits.

EUGENE, Ore. — Geoffrey Cannon, the former director of the Oregon Coast Military Museum in Florence, was sentenced to five years of supervised probation Tuesday for second degree sex abuse of a 15-year-old girl — a sentence the victim and her mother say is not enough.

The abuse happened between August 2024 through July 2025.

Cannon, 27 years old at the time, was indicted in July on four counts of second degree sex abuse of the teen, who was a volunteer at the museum.

We spoke with the victim and her mother following the sentencing, on the condition of anonymity.

The victim’s mother said she discovered the abuse while volunteering at the museum herself.

She went looking for her daughter and found her with Cannon in the museum parking lot.

“He said, ‘I’ll never betray your trust like that, I’ll never break your trust.’ But you know, one of the things I want to say is sexual abuse of a teenager doesn’t usually look like you think it does. It looks like building their trust, becoming friends; he made her feel seen, validated, important, and she is. I mean she’s a pretty awesome kid,” the victim’s mother said.

During the sentencing, the victim, who described Cannon as her first boyfriend, detailed the emotional impact of the relationship — from losing friends and money to becoming a pariah in her small town.

While her mother painted Cannon as manipulative, remorseless and a danger to her daughter.

Though each of Cannon’s four counts carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison each, Cannon took a plea deal to avoid jail time.

Lawyers for Cannon said they believe Tuesday’s sentence was a fair outcome.

But the victim and her mother are frustrated by the sentence and concerned Cannon has no incentive to avoid contacting the teen.

“I told the district attorney that I said, look, you’re talking about a groomed teenager and I know that that sounds unfair, but you’re talking about a child who fell in love with their abuser,” the victim’s mother said. “Most teenagers will defend their abuser, many of them much longer than she did.”

“At this point, I’m like, I’m done. If I could just, like, erase it, it doesn’t exist, and we just move on with life, that’s what I do,” the victim said.

There were good reasons for negotiations in this case, according to Lane County District Attorney Chris Parosa, who said Cannon’s lack of prior criminal history could have led to less supervised probation time combined with prison time, if a plea deal was not offered.

“…we wanted both additional time for supervised probation over Mr. Cannon and the ability to significantly penalize him if he violates his probation,” Parosa said.

If Cannon does not comply with his probation, he is subject to a potential sentence of 34-36 months in prison, Parosa said.

As part of the plea deal, Cannon must undergo sex offender treatment and have no contact with minors.

Cannon took the stand and said he regretted his actions and the impact they had on the victim, her family, and the community.

A statement released by the museum’s board of directors states the museum has a new board and new board president after the resignation of former board president Gary Cannon, Geoffrey Cannon’s father.

The statement says, in part:

The newly appointed Board is committed to restoring the museum and strengthening its operations. The Board brings a range of strengths, including organizational experience, renewed oversight, and a deep dedication to preserving and sharing our military history. To ensure a successful reopening, the Board is currently reviewing records, organizing exhibits, and rebuilding internal processes — a necessary step that will take time but is essential to long-term success.

When the museum reopens, it will begin with limited operating hours, gradually expanding as staffing and resources allow.

The Board anticipates the need for volunteers and welcomes community involvement once the museum is ready for that next step.

Our goal is to reopen the museum in the best possible light. We want to ensure that when the doors open, the community is welcomed into a well-organized, respectful, and engaging space that honors the legacy of our service members.

Senate committee heard testimony on amendments to exonerees law

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Phillip Scott Cannon was convicted of a triple homicide in Polk County in 2000. He spent 11 years behind bars — but he consistently maintained his innocence. But after years of fighting his case was exonerated after bullets and crime scene photos were lost by the Oregon Department of Justice.

Being wrongfully convicted “sucks,” he said. “It’s probably one of the most helpless feelings you can have.”

He is now working with advocates like Janis Puracal with the Forensic Justice Project, an organization working to stop wrongful convictions from happening in the first place.

In 2022, lawmakers passed the Oregon Justice Exonerees Act which would provide wrongfully convicted Oregonians some money if they are exonerated. The act calls for $65,000 for each year a person spent in prison if their wrongful convictions were overturned.

But not many of the exonerees have seen any money. So far, 27 lawsuits have been filed since the Oregon Justice Exonerees Act was passed in 2022.

Part of the reason is the cost involved.

“We actually brought this same concept two years ago, in 2023. And the challenge that came back was, ‘Well, this is going to be really expensive for the state. Can we afford this?’” she said. “So recognizing that, we narrowed down the concept so that we can make this a no-cost solution so that nobody can come forward and say this is way too expensive.”

The Forensic Justice Project narrowed its focus to 3 evidence methods — hair comparison, bite mark analysis and comparative bullet analysis — that were commonly used before DNA was available as a tool.

Monday, Puracal brought that argument before a Senate Judiciary committee hearing on SB-1007 to amend the Oregon Justice Exonerees Act. Advocates want to amend the law to allow convicted Oregonians get a retrial if any of those 3 methods were used during the investigation.

“I have clients who are still sitting in prison today based on hair comparisons and bite mark comparisons that were done back in the ’80s and ’90s,” Puracal said. “They have been sitting in prison for decades, waiting for a law like this so that they could get back into court.”

The state owes Cannon about $750,000 for his time behind bars. But so far he and many other exonerees haven’t seen a penny.

“It’s hard to put into words just exactly how much turmoil it causes in a person’s life,” Cannon said.

Puracal wants to put the amendments to the law in front of lawmakers during the next legislative session in February 2026.

“We need to fix compensation by making it a much more efficient process, so that if you’ve already proved your innocence, you don’t have to do that all over again,” she said.