Date: 01/15/2013 03:59 AM
OR–1st NewsMinute/363
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Gov. John Kitzhaber says he knows he’s asking lawmakers to make politically risky decisions on public pensions and prisons, but says tough choices are needed to boost school funding. The Democratic governor delivered his state of the state speech yesterday to a joint session of the House and Senate. He also says he’s willing to raise taxes by rolling back certain deductions. Kitzhaber says the cost of prisons and of public-employee pensions is diverting money from higher priorities. He called on lawmakers to cut pension benefits for government workers and change sentencing laws to slow prison growth.
SWEET HOME, Ore. (AP) – Police say Oregon Highway 228 in the Willamette Valley community of Sweet Home was closed for more than two hours after a grenade was found outside a house. The Register-Guard says a bomb squad went to the site Monday morning and determined the grenade was inert. Officers located a resident who told them he placed the grenade near the street after finding it while cleaning his house. Police took the 30-year-old man into custody for a mental health evaluation.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – An Oregon terrorism suspect allegedly waited just 12 minutes to tell a man he thought was an al-Qaida recruiter that he wanted to detonate a bomb in the U.S. The purported recruiter was an FBI undercover agent in his first meeting with 21-year-old Mohamed Mohamud. The agent testified yesterday in the fourth day of Mohamud’s trial on terrorism charges that Mohamud wasted little time in spelling out his intentions. The agent says the meeting wasn’t recorded.
BEND, Ore. (AP) – A Bend couple goes on trial today in federal court in Eugene, four years after an investigation began into what prosecutors call a real estate scheme that left investors $4 million poorer. The Bend Bulletin reports the trial is expected to last two weeks. Tami Sawyer, a former real estate broker, and Kevin Sawyer, a former captain on the Bend police, are accused of siphoning investment money for their own use, such as to pay bills, make car payments and buy a vacation home in Mexico.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
