AP-OR–2nd Right Now/1092
GRESHAM SCHOOLS-LEAD
2 Gresham schools show elevated lead levels in water
GRESHAM, Ore. (AP) — District officials say elevated lead levels have been found at two Gresham schools after recent drinking water tests.
Gresham-Barlow School District officials said on their website that water sample tests at Dexter McCarty Middle School and at Powell Valley Elementary Schools came back Wednesday showing lead levels higher than 15 parts per billion.
The fixtures at Dexter were located in a special education classroom, a functional skills classroom and in the kitchen. At Powell, the fixtures are in the kitchen and a reading intervention classroom.
Officials say follow-up tests will be conducted and that the water supply will remain shut off to those fixtures until they are remediated and the problem has been resolved.
Tests at three other district elementary schools found no elevated lead levels, officials said.
AKAWANA FIRE
Wildfire threatens about 1,200 homes in central Oregon
SISTERS, Ore. (AP) — A wildfire driven by wind in central Oregon is burning about 2,000 acres and threatening an estimated 1,200 homes, prompting officials to notify residents to be ready to evacuate.
Oregon Department of Forestry officials say the Akawana Fire was reported Tuesday and is burning on private forest land some 13 miles north of Sisters.
Homes in a subdivision near Lake Billy Chinook are about three miles from the active part of the fire, which is burning in heavy brush and beetle-killed ponderosa pine fuels.
Forestry officials say they expect the fire to continue growing in the next 24 hours due to wind in the area.
Gov. Kate Brown on Wednesday authorized firefighters and equipment from around Oregon to be dispatched to the wildfire.
HIKER-SEXUAL ASSAULT
Hiker sexually assaulted near Union Creek
(Information from: Mail Tribune, http://www.mailtribune.com/)
MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) — Jackson County authorities are looking for a suspect accused of sexually assaulting a woman who had been hiking near Union Creek.
The Mail Tribune reports that the woman told police she was attacked on Saturday on the Natural Bridge Trail.
The sheriff’s department says the victim had been able to escape and called police.
The suspect has been described as a man in his 40s with a beard and tattoos covering his left arm.
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ANIMAL ABUSE-SENTENCE
Horse trader heads to jail for violating probation
(Information from: Daily Courier, http://www.thedailycourier.com)
GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — A woman convicted of animal abuse has been ordered to serve at least two months in jail for violating probation and unlawfully having animals on her property.
The Grants Pass Daily Courier reports that Kandi Crow was sentenced on Wednesday to six months in jail, with the option of serving four of the months in home detention.
The 65-year-old woman, who traded miniature horses, has two convictions related to animal abuse, one in 2009 and the other in 2013.
Last year, animal control officers found horses, dogs and cats on her property in violation of her probation stemming from the 2013 case.
Crow told the judge at Wednesday’s sentencing that her contact with the animals had been unintentional.
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YELLOWSTONE HOT SPRING-SEARCH-THE LATEST
The Latest: Nothing to recover after man goes in hot spring
YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK, Wyo. (AP) — Rangers have suspended efforts to recover the body of an Oregon man who fell into a highly acidic hot spring after wandering away from a designated boardwalk at Yellowstone National Park.
Park spokeswoman Charissa Reid said there were no remains left to recover at the site where 23-year-old Colin Nathaniel Scott slipped into the hot spring on Tuesday.
Reid says Scott’s sister was with him at the time of the accident, looking at thermal features in the Norris Geyser Basin. They were about 225 yards away from the boardwalk in violation of park rules.
Days earlier, a 13-year-old boy was burned in a different hot spring in Yellowstone.
At least 22 people are known to have died from hot-spring injuries in or near Yellowstone since 1890.
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OREGON SCHOOLS-LEAD
State advances plan to test all Oregon schools for lead
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon health and education officials say they will team up with school districts and child care programs statewide to help test for lead in school drinking water.
The plan announced Wednesday comes on the heels of belated disclosures about lead in the drinking water of some Portland Public Schools.
That disclosure has motivated other school districts around the state to test their water for lead, which is a neurotoxin.
Now the Oregon Department of Education and the Oregon Health Authority are recommending that all schools test for lead over the summer.
The state will provide technical support and a list of certified labs to test the water.
The plan also calls for a statewide database built from the testing that will be made available online this fall.
MOTOR VOTER
‘Motor voter’ law hopes to add another 145,000 Oregon voters
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — State elections officials say they’ll begin reaching out by mail to 145,000 Oregonians this week with voter registration paperwork as part of Oregon’s new “motor voter” law.
The group represents people who applied for or renewed a driver’s license or state ID card during 2014 and 2015, which would’ve gotten them automatically registered if they had done so this year instead when the automatic voter registration system kicked in.
The Oregon Secretary of State’s office says it’ll begin sending out the mailers on Friday.
It’ll mark the second and final phase of the new law, which registered nearly 52,000 new voters through April and is being replicated in at least three other states. Although it’s unclear how many will respond.
OREGON-LEGAL MARIJUANA
Oregon races to finalize rules for marijuana, issue licenses
PORTLAND, Oregon (AP) — The Oregon Liquor Control Commission is racing to finalize regulations for growing, processing and selling recreational marijuana and issue licenses to hundreds of businesses within a few months.
Commission Chair Rob Patridge says the commission is trying to accommodate everybody.
The commission issued its first recreational marijuana licenses on May 2 to eight businesses and is dealing with more than 1,500 applications.
Oregon’s revenue department processed $10.5 million in marijuana tax payments through April 29 — far more than expected. The Legislative Revenue Office then increased its estimate of net tax revenues from recreational marijuana from $8.4 million to $35 million through June 30, 2017.
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Follow Andrew Selsky on Twitter @andrewselsky
Copyright 2016 The Associated Press.
