Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Nearly 10,000 state workers who enrolled a
new health program face a monthly penalty since they didn’t fill
out a required online survey by the deadline. The Public Employee
Benefit Board says about 14 percent of the nearly 70,000 people who
agreed to take part in the program didn’t complete a health
assessment by March 31. So, starting in July, they’ll pay a monthly
surcharge of $17.50 per person. A union representative says some
workers had technical problems with the survey.
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) – Prosecutors in Fairbanks, Alaska, say
they’re waiting for results of blood alcohol tests before filing
additional charges against a 31-year-old man suspected of driving
drunk and crashing his pickup truck into a car, killing two men –
one of them, from Oregon. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports
Paul Augustus Kirsteatter was arraigned Saturday on charges of
assault and driving under the influence. Twenty-two-year-old Colton
Fettig of Corvallis, Ore., was among those killed.
ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) – Ashland police say three repeat offenders
are mostly to blame for a spike in theft and burglary cases
reported in 2011. The Daily Tidings reports there were 689 cases of
theft and burglary in 2011, up from 558 in 2010. Police Chief Terry
Holderness says three low-level offenders account for the bulk of
that increase. He says the offenders seem to have learned that they
will be released quickly after being arrested for low level crimes
as a result of overcrowding at the Jackson County Jail.
BEND, Ore. (AP) – State labor officials say youth unemployment
continues to rise in Oregon even as overall unemployment slowly
declines. Oregon Employment Department regional economist Carolyn
Eagan tells The Bulletin of Bend that the overall unemployment rate
last year was 9.4 percent. But she says it was 19 percent for
workers age 16 to 24, compared to about 11 percent in 2007. Guy
Tauer, another regional economist, says the group has lost more
employment than other age group.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
AP-NY-04-09-12 1036EDT