3rd Oregon News from the AP

AP-OR–3rd NewsMinute,343
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Oregonian reports it has received a
letter from David Joseph Pedersen, who’s accused with his
girlfriend of killing four people in a crime spree through
Washington, Oregon and California. The newspaper reports Pedersen
explained a racist motive for killing a black man in Northern
California. Pedersen and Holly Grigsby also are accused of killing
a 19-year-old in Oregon and taking his car. They also are charged
with murder in the deaths of Pedersen’s father and stepmother in
Everett, Wash.

TALENT, Ore. (AP) – The police chief in the southern Oregon town
of Talent says an 18-year-old woman’s quick cell phone call may
have saved her when she was attacked near a park. Chief Mike Moran
says she had her cell phone in her hand as she walked back from
meeting a friend on Oct. 13. When a man suddenly appeared and
grabbed her by the neck, she managed to hit a speed-dial button
that connected her with the friend. The chief says apparently the
friend’s voice on the other end of the line scared the attacker,
who ran off but was arrested nearby.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A federal investigation has found that at
least $7 million in federal stimulus money intended to provide jobs
for unemployed Oregonians instead paid wages to 254 foreign
workers. The Oregonian reports the money went for forest cleanup
jobs in central Oregon in 2009 when unemployment was over 11
percent. Contractors told federal regulators they could not find
enough local workers for the jobs and brought in foreign workers.

NORTH BEND, Ore. (AP) – In North Bend  the high school marching band has gone casual. The band director says the old uniforms were in sad shape, and with the band growing in size, there weren’t enough to go around. Nor was there money for new uniforms. So the solution was a new look for this season: T-shirts, knit caps and jeans. The World of Coos Bay reports
(http://bit.ly/rmHmUx) the band is raising money for new uniforms
next year.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-10-21-11 1030EDT