Date: 01/23/2014 03:59 AM
AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/260
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A federal judge in Eugene has consolidated two lawsuits alleging Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the U.S. Constitution. Judge Michael McShane also set oral arguments for April 23. Similar lawsuits have been filed in other states. Federal judges in Oklahoma and Utah recently struck down gay marriage bans as unconstitutional.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Representatives of Portland Public Schools and the Portland Association of Teachers plan to meet today for the first time since contract talks stalled on Jan. 16. A Portland Public Schools spokesman says today’s meeting won’t involve mediators and won’t include contract negotiations. The two sides have been talking about a new contract for nine months.
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – State authorities want to reduce high levels of mercury in resident fish in the Rogue River and other popular whitewater and sport-fishing rivers. A draft assessment by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality shows tests of northern pikeminnow taken from the Rogue had 10 times the state standard for mercury. Reducing mercury levels is likely to be difficult. It is found in the local geology and falls in rain from atmospheric sources produced by burning coal in Asia.
WEST LINN, Ore. (AP) – A hawk injured in a collision with a tractor-trailer rig near Oregon’s Willamette Falls Viewpoint on Interstate 205 has been rescued by the Audubon Society. KATU-TV reports that police who came to the scene yesterday and untangled the bird from the truck’s passenger side mirror decided its left wing was probably injured.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.