Date: 10/19/2012 03:59 AM
OR–1st NewsMinute/251
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – A man serving life sentences for the murders of three Salem women has been sentenced to another life term after confessing to a fourth killing. The Salem Statesman Journal reports that 53-year-old William Scott Smith pleaded guilty yesterday to strangling Terry Cox Monroe in 1981. Salem police credit their cold case squad with linking Monroe’s death to Smith.
GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) – Gresham police are looking at surveillance video and have recovered potential evidence in the disappearance of a 21-year-old woman. Whitney Heichel (HY’-kel) was reported missing Tuesday when she failed to show up at work. Her car was later found at a Wood Village parking lot with the passenger side window smashed.
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – The state of Oregon is denying a water permit for an Australian mining company that wants to develop a gravel pit along a tributary of the Rogue River. The Oregon Department of Water Resources says there is already too much water being taken out of Grave Creek, which flows into the Rogue at the start of the section that is one of Oregon’s most popular whitewater runs.
BEND, Ore. (AP) – Two companies have begun an experiment to see if they can create a geothermal electrical generating plant at the dormant Newberry Volcano in Central Oregon. The Bend Bulletin reports the project supporters hope eventually to generate 50 megawatts of power, enough for 50,000 homes. The developers say an operating power plant is years away.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.
