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Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) – A Nike executive accused of cutting his Bethany home’s natural gas line in an attempt to harm his wife and four children has been arraigned on five counts of attempted aggravated murder. The Oregonian reports that 36-year-old James Speidel made a brief appearance yesterday in Washington County Circuit Court. Bail has been set at $1 million and his next court appearance is May 2. It was not known whether he had a lawyer.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A federal judge in Portland who presided over the Columbia River Basin salmon case for years says the Snake River’s four hydroelectric dams should be breached to help wild salmon. U.S. District Judge James Redden made his comments to Idaho Public Television. The Oregonian reports that the brief clips released yesterday were recorded for an upcoming Outdoor Idaho documentary. In the interview, Redden says “we need to take those dams down.”
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is defending the government’s response to the financial crisis in a speech in Oregon. Geithner spoke yesterday to the Portland City Club, and he was asked about criticism from the tea party and Occupy Wall Street Movements directed at financial-sector bailouts. He says there were no other options at the time, and officials had to prevent the financial industry from dragging the economy into an even deeper collapse.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The man who was Oregon’s oldest former state lawmaker has died at age 101. Former State Rep. Denny Jones, a powerful figure in the Capitol until his retirement in 1999, died yesterday at his home in Ontario. His daughter, Karen Dinsmore, told The Oregonian newspaper she didn’t know a cause of death. Jones was a Republican who was elected to the legislature in 1973 and rose to become co-chair of the Joint Ways and Means Committee.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press