2nd Oregon News Minute from the AP

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon officials will release statewide unemployment figures for March on today. The jobless rate was 8.8 percent in February — the same as the month before. The rate has mostly been falling the past two years, as Oregon follows the nation’s general pattern of economic recovery. But the drop in Oregon’s figure also reflects — in part —people leaving the job market.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s new health care reforms have drawn interest from outside the state, and some legislators say they don’t want it. Legislators such as Rep. Mitch Greenlick and Sen. Alan Bates, both Democrats, say the reforms are supposed to be managed locally.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has sentenced the former director of Oregon’s federal halfway house to 18 months in prison for embezzling nearly $200,000 from the facility. While her lawyer asked for probation yesterday, Laura Edwards apologized to Judge Ancer Haggerty in Portland and said she’d been driven by a shopping addiction.

ASHLAND, Ore. (AP) — A recent Chamber of Commerce survey has found widespread concern among business owners about aggressive panhandling in Ashland, home to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. The Medford Mail Tribune reports that business owners told the Ashland Chamber they were concerned for the safety of their patrons and employees and worried that the panhandlers would deter tourists.