MISSING SKIER-RECOVERY EFFORT
Search for missing skier on Mt. Hood becomes recovery effort
(Information from: KEZI-TV, http://www.kezi.com/)
HOOD RIVER, Ore. (AP) — Authorities say the search for a 57-year-old man who went missing on Tuesday while skiing on Mt. Hood has become a recovery effort.
Sgt. Pete Hughes with the Hood River Sheriff’s Office told television station KEZI that after consulting with a doctor, authorities believe Steve Leavitt has not survived.
Leavitt, a Subaru dealership sales manager in The Dalles, was skiing at Mt. Hood Meadows in the middle of a snow storm that dropped more than five feet of snow over the week. Searchers suspect that Leavitt may have fallen into a deep tree well.
Tree wells form when snow falls on an alpine tree and branches keep the snow from building up at the trunk, creating a deep hole.
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RESILIENCE MAPS-NATIVE SPECIES
Conservation group maps land protection strategy in 3 states
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — A conservation group has created maps identifying key landscapes in the Pacific Northwest most likely to sustain native species amid climate change, and is distributing money to protect private lands through use-limiting easements or outright purchases.
The Nature Conservancy says it received $6 million from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation that it’s now distributing among local land trusts in Idaho, Oregon and Washington for easements or acquisitions.
In all, the publicly available maps cover some 355,000 square miles in those three states plus portions of Montana, Nevada, California and Utah.
The Nature Conservancy says so far about $4.5 million in grants have been identified to conserve about 70 square miles of private land.
BOOZE INDUSTRY JOBS
Alcohol industry jobs outpace software sector in Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oregon’s software industry has been growing fast, but the state’s economic development agency says it has been outpaced by another sector — the alcohol industry — since the Great Recession.
The Oregon Department of Economic Analysis says software employment was up by 6,900 jobs between January 2008 and September 2016. But the alcohol industry was up by 7,400 jobs during the same time span.
Senior state economist Josh Lehner says people who brew beer, distill alcohol and make wine may have lower wages on average than those in the software industry, but the booze business brings other economic benefits.
Lehner says alcohol production is a value-added industry with a geographic spread across the state, impacting agricultural production, equipment manufacturing and marketing services.
He says software remains a high-wage and fast-growing sector that contributes to Oregon’s economic diversity.
SOUTHERN OREGON-TINY HOMES
Demand for tiny homes rises in southern Oregon
(Information from: Herald and News, http://www.heraldandnews.com)
KLAMATH FALLS, Ore. (AP) — Residents in southern Oregon are learning how to build tiny homes that are cost-effective and don’t come at the expense of quality of life.
The Herald and News reports that Oregon Tech held its first Tiny House Symposium Saturday to teach Klamath Falls residents and others about building tiny homes.
The need for small homes at low costs has risen in the city and elsewhere.
Andrew Duncan of Southern Oregon Tiny Homes says residents need to be creative when building 200-square-foot homes. He says making sure the homes are weather resistant is a key component of building but that the process can take up to about a year for someone balancing a full-time job.
The discussion around tiny homes comes as the Oregon Legislature works to address laws surrounding the structures.
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WHEAT WORRIES
Farmers consider alternatives amid lower wheat prices
(Information from: Lewiston Tribune, http://www.lmtribune.com)
LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) — Some wheat farmers in the northwest are considering switching crops as prices slip below the break-even mark.
Soft white wheat and club wheat — two varieties commonly grown in parts of Washington, Oregon and Idaho — were selling for $4.67 to $4.90 a bushel last week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Portland.
Washington Wheat Commission member Gary Bailey told the Lewiston Tribune that many farmers are looking for new avenues of income. He says some eastern Washington farmers are putting more acres into garbanzo beans, which fetch a higher price.
Sam White of the Pacific Northwest Farmers Cooperative in Genesee, Idaho says there hasn’t been a wheat crop failure in three years, with Russia, Ukraine and Argentina all harvesting good crops last year and Australia reported to have a record harvest this year.
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SEX OFFENDER SENTENCED
Habitual sex offender sentenced to life in prison
(Information from: The Oregonian/OregonLive, http://www.oregonlive.com)
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A habitual sex offender has been sentenced to life in prison without parole.
The Oregonian/OregonLive reports that 49-year-old Terry E. Iversen received the sentence Friday in Washington County Circuit Court.
Iversen in January pleaded guilty to public indecency after getting caught masturbating on a MAX train in October.
The charge was a felony because of Iversen’s extensive past sex-related cases and allowed for the life sentence under an Oregon law aimed at predatory sex offenders.
At the hearing on Friday, a probation officer said Iversen should spend the rest of his life in prison.
Current and retired detectives who investigated cases involving Iversen also testified.
Terry Beach, Iversen’s attorney, sought a prison sentence of eight years, four months.
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OFFICER SHOOTING
Man who shot police officer gets 30 years in prison
GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) — A 46-year-old man who shot a Gladstone police officer and held a woman hostage for two hours before being shot by a member of a SWAT team has been sentenced to 30 years in prison.
Jeffrey Giddings apologized to the Subway restaurant worker he took hostage in a southern Portland suburb but directed an expletive at police before receiving the sentence Friday.
Giddings pleaded guilty to attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, first-degree criminal mischief, coercion, unlawful use of a weapon, felon in possession of a firearm and possession of methamphetamine.
Authorities say Giddings in August fired 15 times at Lee Jundt, a Gladstone police officer who was in his patrol car.
Jundt was struck at least once in the arm, and the injury ended his police career in Gladstone.
IGUANA RESCUE
Fire crews rescue iguana from eastern Oregon house fire
PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — Fire crews slipped an oxygen mask over the face of a 20-pound iguana after rescuing the creature from a house fire in Oregon.
Pendleton Fire Department Assistant Chief Shawn Penninger tells the East Oregonian that only an adult human and the reptile were home at the time of the fire on Friday afternoon. The person was unharmed.
Penninger says crews removed the iguana from the heavily damaged home and gave it oxygen.
The fire department on Saturday said they didn’t know the iguana’s name.
Investigators say a preliminary investigation shows the cause of the fire to be improperly disposed smoking material.
An estimate of damages to the home — where a family of three lives — also wasn’t available.
Copyright 2017 The Associated Press.
