1st Oregon News Minute from the AP

Date: 07/15/2014 04:00 AM

AP-OR–1st NewsMinute/312
Here is the latest Oregon news from The Associated Press

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – Lightning struck Oregon more than 6,000 times Sunday and yesterday, touching off small fires by the dozens. Such a barrage can be expected to cause numerous “sleeper” or holdover fires in coming days. Northwest fire spokeswoman Robin DeMario says lightning spread from Oregon’s coast between Tillamook and Newport into a fan shape that broadened to the northeast and southeast corners of the state. Among the areas that got hammered were the Eugene region, which reported 30 fires.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) – An autopsy shows that a newborn girl found dead in a north Portland apartment died of methamphetamine intoxication and pneumonia. KATU-TV reports that a couple charged in the case pleaded not guilty yesterday to murder by abuse and manslaughter. Court documents say the little girl named Krystal lived just 12 hours before her April 12 death. The couple were indicted earlier this month and arrested last Friday.

ONTARIO, Ore. (AP) – Inmates at the Snake River Correctional Institution are growing sagebrush, 20,000 containers of it in the prison greenhouse. Their work is part of a project aimed at restoring habitat for the greater sage grouse and staving off a potential federal government decision to list it as endangered. That could mean ranchers will get less access to government grazing lands, a blow to local economies.

MANTECA, Calif. (AP) – Police in Central California are searching for three bright orange Tillamook cheese vans that were stolen over the weekend. Manteca police say the restored Volkswagen minibuses, worth $100,000 each, vanished early Saturday from a hotel parking lot. They were secured in a trailer pulled by a Ford F-350 pickup that also painted orange. Police say it appears that somebody drove off with the entire rig. The Manteca Bulletin reports that the truck and trailer were found torched 50 miles east in the foothill community of Jamestown.

 

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