Date: 03/25/2016 03:59 AM
AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/284
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Oregonians are one step closer to deciding this fall whether they want to buy liquor at the same places they already buy beer and wine. The Oregon Supreme Court has approved the title for a November ballot proposal that’d allow Oregon grocery stores to sell distilled liquor. Grocers behind the measure can now begin gathering signatures to officially place the measure on before voters this fall.
BEND, Ore. (AP) – Higher minimum wages are expected to affect about 11 percent of jobs in central Oregon. The Bulletin reports that a recent article from the Oregon Employment Department challenges the idea that the region’s tourism-based economy is more susceptible to job losses from a sharp increase in the minimum wage in other parts of the state. The department says 10.9 percent of the jobs in the greater Deschutes County area pay less than the minimum wage on July 1, compared to 10.2 percent in Oregon overall.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) – The Marion County Sheriff’s Office says two people have died and two others were injured in a residential fire near Silverton. A spokesman says the two deceased people – a boy and a woman in her 20s – were found inside the mobile home. A man in his 20s was flown to a Portland hospital and a boy was taken to Salem Hospital by ambulance.
ASTORIA, Ore. (AP) – A former county commissioner from Washington state is missing after his plane crashed while trying to help a woman scatter the ashes of her deceased husband. The Columbian newspaper reports that John McKibbin was last seen Wednesday afternoon when he and a woman took off in an antique plane in Vancouver, Washington.
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.