1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 06/13/2014 03:59 AM

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/248
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

DURHAM, Ore. (AP) – The board of Cover Oregon selected a Kaiser Permanente official to lead the troubled health insurance exchange. The board voted to hire Aaron Patnode (PAT’-nohd), who has previously worked as a public relations specialist and hospital administrator in Massachusetts, Minnesota and Oregon. Patnode will be Cover Oregon’s fourth director in six months.

MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – The city of Medford announced that councilwoman Karen Blair has died from lung cancer. Blair represented Ward 2, the western or southwestern quadrants of Medford. She joined the council in January 2011 and was advocate for public art and the preservation of the city’s historic district.

YONCALLA, Ore. (AP) – A small Southern Oregon school district is debating if it can afford to fix an aging high school or merge with a neighboring district. Officials in Yoncalla tell the Roseburg News-Review that repairing the high school is estimated at $5 million. A new school might be more. Interim Superintendent Jim Robinson says it’s likely the district will again approach the district in nearby Drain to see about merger talks.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Federal officials are proposing to kill half the large colony of cormorants in the Columbia River estuary because they consume too many young salmon and steelhead. Officials say despite use of non-lethal methods and reductions in nesting habitat, the cormorant population has continued to thrive. Federal officials are proposing killing half of them, trying to scare off the others and taking their eggs.

 

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