3rd Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 04/03/2013 10:24 AM

OR–3rd NewsMinute/306
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – If you include people who gave up looking for work and underemployed people in part-time jobs, Oregon’s unemployment rate last year was more than 17 percent of the workforce – almost double the state’s official jobless rate. Figures just released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics show 173,300 Oregonians were unemployed in 2012. Another 167,800 were underemployed or unemployed and not counted.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – A Salem-Keizer special education teacher who was fired by the Willamette Education Service District says school officials failed to return many of the items she bought for students with her own money. At a meeting yesterday school board members upheld the decision to fire Natalie Liggett for poor performance reviews. The Statesman Journal reports Liggett complained the district failed to provide supplies and she spent $12,000 of her own money on books, toys, dolls, art supplies and snacks.

EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – Oregon State Police say a fleeing driver reached a speed of 120 miles per hour with his 3-year-old son in the back seat during a 40-mile chase on Interstate 5 yesterday afternoon north of Eugene. The chase ended when the fleeing car collided with another car on an off ramp. No one was injured. Troopers arrested 32-year-old Kameron Michael Payne of McCleary, Wash. The boy who was in a child safety seat was taken into protective custody by welfare workers.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – A Marion County sheriff’s spokesman says a small fire discovered last night in the dorm area of the county jail’s work center was quickly extinguished. Spokesman Don Thomson says no one was hurt. Salem firefighters quickly put out the blaze. The cause is under investigation. Thomson says the fire caused 135 inmates to be moved to the main jail.

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.