Date: 01/18/2013 03:59 AM
OR–1st NewsMinute/339
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The federal government is giving Oregon $226 million to finish creating an online marketplace where people can shop for health insurance. The grant will help the health insurance exchange become fully operational. Cover Oregon, as the exchange is branded, will allow individuals and small businesses to compare health coverage options and access financial assistance under the federal health care overhaul. Nearly all Americans will be required to have health insurance by next year.
SEATTLE (AP) – The FBI has finished interviewing a passenger taken off an Alaska Airlines flight from Kona, Hawaii, by law enforcement officers after a caller said the man was a possible hijacker. FBI Seattle spokeswoman Ayn Dietrich said last night that the agency was “not anticipating an arrest.” The man was not identified. Two military jets from the Oregon Air National Guard escorted Alaska Flight 819 to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport after the threat call was received at the Honolulu FBI office.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Inadvertent recordings of undercover FBI agents celebrating during debriefings took center stage in an Oregon terrorism suspect’s trial. A federal judge yesterday didn’t allow the airing of the audio, some of which was made after the agents wondered aloud whether they were being recorded. At least one recorder was indeed still running. An undercover agent identified only as “Hussein” was posing as a radical Islamic jihadi during the FBI investigation into Mohamed Mohamud of suburban Portland. Mohamud is charged with attempting to blow up Portland’s 2010 Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. No one was hurt.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Canadian driver whose bus crashed on an icy Oregon highway last month, killing nine passengers, has been banned from operating a commercial vehicle in the United States. The U.S. Department of Transportation took the action yesterday, saying that Haeng Kyu Hwang was driving too fast for the conditions and ignored federal limits on the amount of time he could spend behind the wheel. However, police have not said what caused Oregon’s deadliest crash since 1971.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.