1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 03/28/2013 03:59 AM

OR–1st NewsMinute/355
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Homicide detectives are investigating after a young man was killed when several shots were fired yesterday at a gas station in northeast Portland. Police said Edward Jewell Paden, Jr. was standing near a gas pump when he was shot. He died at the scene. Sgt. Pete Simpson says the shooting followed some kind of disturbance in the lot of the Valero Gas Station. Simpson says the shooting appears to be gang-related.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Retired and active government workers say a plan to cut their pension benefits would be unfair and irresponsible. State House and Senate committees heard an earful yesterday from the people who would see smaller payments under a plan to boost current spending by cutting retirement benefits. Democratic leaders have proposed limiting annual inflation adjustments to retirement checks. Retirees say they worked hard and made retirement decisions based on a promise that they’d receive a pension with a 2-percent inflation increase each year. Other critics said Democratic proposal doesn’t go far enough.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – There is another disagreement between Pacific Northwest grain terminals and the International Longshore & Warehouse Union. A lawsuit filed on behalf of Local 40 contends Columbia Grain, which is based at the Port of Portland, wrongfully stopped using union marine clerks. The suit asks a judge to order the company into arbitration with the union. Hank Kaplan, an attorney for Local 40, said yesterday that heading to court is the only way to get Columbia Grain to live up to its contract. The lawsuit is unrelated to the ongoing lockout of longshoremen at the United Grain terminal in nearby Vancouver, Wash.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Sierra Club is opposing a ballot measure to add fluoride to Portland’s drinking water. A spokeswoman for the Oregon chapter of the nation’s largest environmental organization said yesterday that fluoridation would “degrade some of the purest drinking water in the world.” The Portland City Council last year unanimously approved a plan to add fluoride. Opponents, however, quickly gathered more than 30,000 signatures to force a referendum that’s set for May 21.

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.