CHICAGO (AP) – Another man whose family feared had become a victim of serial killer John Wayne Gacy has been found alive, this one in Oregon. Cook County deputies say Theodore Szal (ZAWL) went missing from the Chicago area in 1977 at age 24. His case bore enough similarities to Gacy’s 33 victims that his family’s DNA was compared to eight never-identified Gacy victims. There wasn’t a match, but the sheriff’s office was able to track Szal down in Beaverton.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – Police say officers and Occupy Eugene organizers are negotiating after the City Council told police to break up the movement’s camp. But some members of the camp of about 150 people say they won’t leave voluntarily. The City Council’s 5-2 vote yesterday followed fighting at the encampment that police say seriously injured a 51-year-old man. Police reported five fight-related incidents Monday night.
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – A southern Oregon family has pleaded not guilty to charges that it filled its U.S. military defense contracts with defective knockoffs rather than government-specified parts for Army helicopters and trucks. According to a federal grand jury indictment, Harold Ray Bettencourt Jr.’s firm collected more than $7.5 million in government payments after selling “nonconforming, defective and counterfeit products.”
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – The father of four young children who were locked in a filthy bedroom in Medford have pleaded guilty to child neglect. Jeramy Hon was sentenced yesterday to five days in jail, with credit for time served. The Mail Tribune reports a tip in November led police to check the home where they found the children — ages 7 months to 4 years — had been left in a locked room where a heater vent was used as a toilet. The mother, Kassandra Regain is awaiting trial.
MISSOULA, Mont. (AP) – A 42-year-old man suspected of robbing two banks in Oregon within a week has been arrested at a Montana motel. David Christopher Glass, of Boise, Idaho, was arrested without incident Monday afternoon in Missoula and said he wouldn’t fight extradition to Oregon in Justice Court yesterday.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon State University researchers have found that it takes only a generation for steelhead raised in fish hatcheries to pass along bad genetic traits to wild populations. The findings are the latest in a growing body of evidence showing the downside to hatcheries as a way to rebuild threatened and endangered salmon and steelhead runs.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police have arrested 31 suspected Portland gang members and associates after a federal grand jury indicted some of the city’s most violent elements. Federal and local officers fanned out in the past week to arrest 13 people on charges that included sex trafficking and distribution of cocaine. The majority of the charges involved felons in possession of weapons. Police say that so far this year, 402 gang members have been arrested under Oregon’s Measure 11 law, which specifies the most serious violent and sexual assaults, police said.
RENTON, Wash. (AP) – Wide receiver Mike Williams has been placed on injured reserve by the Seattle Seahawks after suffering a broken left ankle in Sunday’s win over Chicago. Coach Pete Carroll said Williams underwent successful surgery on his injury yesterday. Williams was hurt in the third quarter of Sunday’s 38-14 win when he was tackled after making his second catch.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Oregon Democratic Congressman Kurt Schrader was one of 11 lawmakers who missed the House vote that rejected Senate legislation to extend a payroll tax cut and unemployment benefits for two months. Schrader’s chief of staff Paul Gage says his boss decided to stay home.
