10 July 2013
Kitzhaber will keep stumping for pensions, taxes
Governor John Kitzhaber says he’s not done with his fight for more substantial savings in the state pension system. The governor said Tuesday he’ll hit the road and travel to places with the most financially struggling school districts in an effort to round up support for a special legislative session.
The Legislature adjourned for the year on Monday after months of fruitless negotiations over pension cuts, tax increases and tax breaks for small businesses. A last-ditch effort failed in the Senate last week.
Kitzhaber says he’ll give lawmakers a few weeks to decompress from a tense, five-month legislative session. He’ll then call a special session only if work has been done behind the scenes to line up votes for a deal.
North Bend Man Admits Killing
Court documents filed by police in the slaying of a North Bend woman says her husband admitted shooting her. Wayne Raymond Hagner was arraigned Monday in Coos County Circuit Court on a charge of murder in the death last week of Anna Lee Hagner in the couple’s home.
An affidavit filed by police says friends from the couple’s church visited Friday. One of them, a retired psychiatric nurse, asked Hagner if he was hearing voices.
The affidavit says Hagner replied that he was; took a gun out of a drawer and fired one shot into the floor and another toward the kitchen where his wife was.
The couple immediately left and called police who responded and found Anna Lee Hagner dead from a single gunshot wound to the head.
Gas Prices on an Elevator
The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Florence is the same today as it was a week ago… but in between it slowly drifted lower before suddenly spiking yesterday.
One station in Florence took a 15-cent a gallon hike yesterday afternoon alone.
This week’s average in Florence is $3.68. That’s 8 cents less than the Oregon average of $3.76 as measured by Triple-A and 20 cents higher than the national average of $3.48.
Marie Dodds, with Triple-A, says gas prices may have bottomed out for the summer and despite recent declines, are still higher than they were a year ago when the national average was ten cents less.
Are you ready?
What if you or your neighbor needed emergency medical help and you called 9-1-1 and nobody answered? Or if they did, they had nobody to send…
That could by the case in the event of a widespread disaster according to Joan Edwards with West Lane Emergency Operations Group. WE-log, as the group is known, is offering the monthly ‘Living on Shaky Ground’ class this Saturday morning. This month’s class will focus on neighbor helping neighbor and disaster first aid.
There’s no cost for the three hour session, but Edwards says you need to pre-register by calling Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue by Friday.
