2nd Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 10/23/2013 09:30 AM

AP-OR–2nd NewsMinute/296
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

 

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Police are investigating two bar robberies early today in north Portland, and the robber in both cases was wearing a grey hoodie and carrying a handgun. A robber held up the Farmers Barn Tavern and then the Venture Inn within a half hour. Cash was taken in both robberies.

THE DALLES, Ore. (AP) – Jurors in The Dalles have ordered a Columbia Gorge hospital to pay $2.4 million in compensatory damages to three victims of an anesthesiologist now serving a 23-year sentence for sex abuse and rape. The Dalles Chronicle reports the jury returned its verdict last evening. The lawsuit alleged that Mid-Columbia Medical Center and two executives didn’t take action that could have prevented the sex abuse. Dr. Frederick Field who pleaded guilty last year to sedating and abusing patients and employees over four years.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – The Oregon Court of Appeals has denied a request to put the state’s new gillnet fishing rules on hold during a legal challenge. The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted this year to ban the use of gillnets to catch fish on the main stem of the Columbia River, relegating the commercial-fishing tool to side channels and tributaries. Two commercial fishermen asked for a motion to stay the new rules during the legal case but the appellate court ruled the fishermen failed to prove irreparable harm.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Clackamas County Commissioner Tootie Smith appears ready to challenge Congressman Kurt Schrader. Smith told The Oregonian yesterday she has started an exploratory campaign and expects to decide in about a month whether to formally run. The Republican was elected to the commission last November. The county website bills her as the “first conservative woman elected to the Clackamas County Commission.”