Date: 06/16/2015 03:59 AM
AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/263
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – House Speaker Tina Kotek is unveiling a proposal to gradually raise Oregon’s statewide minimum wage to $13 an hour by 2018. Kotek’s proposal would allow cities to select an even higher minimum wage. Critics say it would harm businesses and lead to fewer jobs for lower-wage workers.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Gov. Kate Brown has signed a bill directing the secretary of state to review Oregon’s public records law and recommend improvements. The measure is the first of several ethics bills that Brown requested after she replaced John Kitzhaber as governor in February. Kitzhaber resigned amid allegations his fiancée, Cylvia Hayes, used the governor’s office to earn lucrative consulting contracts.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – After weeks of stalemate, a state legislative committee has advanced a bill setting up Oregon’s legal marijuana system. The approval of the joint House-Senate committee sends the bill to the full House, which can take it up as soon as this week. The compromise would allow local governments to ban recreational and medical marijuana businesses in counties that voted overwhelmingly against Measure 91 in last year’s election.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Bird flu that’s devastated Midwestern farms likely spread by several means, including on machinery and workers, by rodents and possibly even by the wind. U.S. Department of Agriculture scientists say wild birds introduced the virus onto farms, but it appears the virus spread in other ways once there. The scientists found lapses in biosecurity on farms and environmental factors likely contributed to the spread of the disease.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.
