1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 06/21/2013 03:59 AM

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/265
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – An Oregon Senate committee has heard public testimony on proposals to increase state revenue and cut taxes for certain business owners. Yesterday’s hearing signals potential progress toward a compromise that could a stalemate over the next budget. Finance and Revenue Committee Chair Ginny Burdick says steeper cuts to public-employee benefits could also form the basis for a compromise.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – A man arrested in the 1997 fatal stabbing of a man in north Portland has pleaded no contest to first-degree manslaughter. The Oregonian reports that a plea agreement calls for Samuel Lee Etheridge to be sentenced to more than 16 years. Etheridge was arrested last year in his home state of North Carolina after cold-case detectives discovered leads in the death of John Frederick Phillips.

SHADY COVE, Ore. (AP) – The Jackson County sheriff’s office says a southern Oregon community center is unsafe after a car crashed into the building. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Andrea Carlson said 47-year-old Juliette Van Weeghel of Trail, Ore., was trying to park yesterday when her foot accidentally slipped off the brake pedal. The resulting crash took out the southwest corner of the Shady Cove facility.

WILSONVILLE, Ore. (AP) – Workers plan to wrap bee-proof netting around blooming trees in the parking lot of an Oregon shopping center to prevent the deaths of more bees. Portland-area bee experts estimate at least 25,000 bumble bees have died since last weekend. The Oregonian reports officials say tests to confirm the cause of the deaths could take two or three more days.

 

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.