Date: 09/11/2013 03:59 AM
AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/306
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) – A cleanup is underway in the Marys River in downtown Corvallis where drilling mud from a natural gas pipeline project oozed into the river Aug. 15. The Gazette-Times reported yesterday that state biologists found dead invertebrates but few dead fish. The spill was bentonite, a clay used as a drilling lubricant.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A former Beaverton middle school teacher who fled after he was convicted of possessing child pornography has been sentenced to eight years in prison. Prosecutors said in federal court yesterday that 37-year-old Logan Storm had plotted the escape, stealing his father’s passport and cashing out his insurance policy to finance it. He was found guilty in January and the next day cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet. Authorities arrested him in Mexico City weeks later.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregon health officials are considering whether to use the state’s authority to approve or reject health insurance premiums as a tool to drive down health care costs. The idea is one of several suggestions for improving the health care system that Gov. John Kitzhaber has asked the Oregon Health Policy Board to consider before state lawmakers return to Salem in February. He wants to expand Oregon’s health care reform efforts, which so-far have focused primarily on Medicaid.
GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) – A Portland-area fire official is being credited with putting out a house fire just as it was getting started – and all he had was a garden hose. The Oregonian says Gladstone Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Smith was driving by a house yesterday afternoon just as a porch ashtray was catching the outside of a home on fire. Fire department spokesman Lt. Kirk Stempel says Smith spotted smoke coming from the siding, told everyone to get out, grabbed the hose and extinguished the blaze.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
