SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon House Republican Caucus has ousted Rep. Julie Parrish from its leadership team. Parrish, of West Linn, was the deputy Republican leader, the No. 2 position in the leadership for the minority party. GOP lawmakers voted last night to replace her with Rep. John Davis of Wilsonville.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Legislature is looking at two bills that would curtail access to public records. The state Senate voted yesterday to block access to personal information from electronic fare cards that Portland’s transit agency plans to adopt. Government transparency advocates worry about adding even more exemptions to Oregon’s public records.
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Gov. John Kitzhaber ordered flags at public institutions lowered to half-staff yesterday in honor of a 22-year-old soldier from Portland who was killed in Afghanistan. Specialist John A. Pelham was one of two soldiers killed Feb. 12. The Oregonian reports that nearly 1,000 people attended Pelham’s funeral yesterday in the Portland suburb of Beaverton.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Oregon schools are one step closer to keeping Native American mascots under a bill that cleared the House Education committee yesterday. A statewide ban on school use of Native American symbols or nicknames takes effect in 2017, requiring a number of Oregon schools to change their mascots. But the House committee approved a bill which would allow school districts to get a tribe’s permission to use symbols or names that are meaningful to that tribe.
Copyright 2014 The Associated Press.